Seventy-five years ago this month, the British Practical Wireless carried the plans for this handsome three-tube shortwave receiver. It used homemade coils. It would drive a speaker, but for pulling in weak stations, or for amateur radio use, headphones could be used.
The coils are mounted under the chassis, and were switchable from the front panel.
Would they have expected readers to know which valves to use or is that an omission from ‘ol F.G.R? But they do expect the reader / builder to know how to wire the batteries, with two HT+ connections and the like, so maybe things were done in a specific way always and it’s unexpected to me.