Fixing an old radio

I bought an old valve radio at a flea market in February for less than the price of a pizza. Wooden case, a cloth speaker grille, a dial with the names of cities printed on glass. It did not work, which was the point.

A few things I wish I had known before starting:

• Old radios can hold a dangerous charge for a long time after being unplugged. Read about this before opening anything. I did, thankfully.
• Never just plug in a radio that has not been used for decades and see what happens. Bring it up slowly, or not at all until the old capacitors are replaced.
• Take photos of everything before you disconnect anything. Then take more.

The work itself took three weekends. Most of it was cleaning: decades of dust, a dead spider, a very small and very old receipt tucked under the chassis. The actual fault turned out to be the obvious one, a dried-out filter capacitor, plus a dial cord that had snapped and needed restringing. The dial cord took longer than everything else combined.

The first time it came on, it hummed for a few seconds, then crackled, then a voice came out of the speaker mid-sentence, reading the weather forecast for somewhere I have never been. I sat on the floor and listened to the whole thing.

It lives on the bookshelf now. The sound is warm and slightly muffled, and it takes half a minute to warm up, which is exactly the right amount of time to put the kettle on.