Jon:
I'd completely forgotten about the Lafayette line of radios, but can identify with the attachment to your first decent performing receiver.
Looking at the underside of the chassis, it looks like 80% of the space is taken up by the band switching and coils and not too much in the way of RF section....LOL
My first one was a converted WW2 aircraft rx, the Bendix RA-DB which my dad had converted from 28 vdc to AC house voltage, but the xformer was undersized for the job and would run very hot to the touch. That meant if I ran it on hot day in the summer, the smell of hot shellac from the windings made my room smell funny. I could decrease but eliminate that problem by setting the behemoth on my bedroom window sill and have the transformer outside in the cooling breezes. That was OK as long as the mosquitoes weren't too active. During the winter, everything was just fine. I spent countless hours listening to WABC, CKLW, WLS, WBZ, WGR, WOHO, etc.
http://www.vk2bv.org/museum/ra1b.htmThe first receiver I bought and paid for myself from my paper route money and a few dollars begged from my grandmother, was a Marconi R-1155 which came from an RCAF Lancaster, and had been converted by the same guy who removed it from the aircraft and saved it from being crushed at the time of aircraft disposal.
http://goto.glocalnet.net/bosradio/marc ... erview.htm Since those days, I've gone through dozens of other radios, always looking for a steup up in performance .. sometimes my trades worked out, sometimes they didn't.
Now my prized SWL and BCB receiver is the Racal RA-17 which came from a Govt of Canada Radio Intercept Monitoring Site in Wetaskiwin AB and is a genuine spy catcher radio that was used to track Soviet "trawlers" working off the west coast in the early to mid-60's. This is the first receiver I have owned which can actually "channelize" the AM broadcast band at night, in the presence of strong skywave signals. The selectivity can be narrowed down so that the dead guard bands between frequencies can be heard as you tune from one station to the other no matter how strong the adjacent channel signal is ... and I think that's pretty slick.
http://www.recelectronics.demon.co.uk/ra17.htmWhile I have new stuff like the Icom Pro 3, my favourite ham stuff is my Collins S Line and 75A-4.
All the best Jon.
Regards from,
Anotherwpgguy
VE4ANC & VE4WLS