[RichG]

Well, the Sky Rover is up and running!!  The alignment process was pretty straightforward.  Though I have to say, all adjustments had to be made from the bottom of the chassis, including the IF transformers which are not slug tuned but capacitor tuned.  The IF only required very minor tweaking.  The broadcast dial was fairly accurate to begin with, now it's spot on.  WWV comes in on 5, 10, and 15Mhz on the dial.  Of the 21 AM stations within 20 miles of me, I am able to reliably receive 14.  My issue is the static, probably generated by all the 'electronic goop' in my house, does start to become an issue above about 1250 AM.  Strong stations will overcome the static with no problems, but weaker stations just can't compete.  I thought nighttime might be better reception, but when I investigated the stations, many of them either reduce their output or switch to highly directional antennas.  Some stations are as low as 220 watts at night.  Of course, the radio is designed for a long wire antenna which I do not have.  I've been using a 4' long whip connected to the antenna lead.  I'm going to try using my amplified antenna to see if that makes a difference.  I have a feeling all it will do is amplify the static, but may allow reception of the weaker stations.  It is a fairly small kit from Pacific Antenna that uses a 9v battery for power.  One thing I did change were the antenna and ground leads which were just hanging out the back of the radio.  I drilled a few holes in the chassis and mounted an antenna terminal strip from a parts chassis. Now the antenna and ground connections are available as screw terminals, much easier to deal with.  I also replaced the speaker grill cloth which was in bad shape.  I found a pattern that was a reasonable match to the original.