[Arran]

Alright, here's the results after powering it up with about 50' of 22 gauge insulated hookup wire that I ran out the front door and up the nearest tree about 15':
All the lamps work now after using the washer inserted into socket trick located on this forum somewhere. That's great.
AM band works, but can only pick 3 stations and all but one is really noisey. Not too great.
International shortwave band picks up quite a few signals, but all are spanish. Well, it works so okay.
Police shortwave band cannot pick up any broadcast signal..... range may be obsolete?
Only one of the push buttons picks something up. That was expected.
I'm wondering if a better antenna (loop or ferrite core based) would get better AM reception?
Also noticed the grommets/washers attaching the push buttons/wheel controls assembly have crumbled badly.... does that assembly need to be absolutely isolated from main chassis to work the best?
When I compared the AM band of a new portable radio with whip antenna, the new radio could pick up a few more stations the console couldn't, but the reception was about the same on the ones they could both receive.
One last note: The power transformer started to make a buzzing sound after a few minutes... did not get hot just a little warm. The buzzing stopped when I pressed down on the top bell cover.
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I appreciate any thoughts anyone might have on the above.

My guess would be that the set probably needs an alignment, assuming that all of the drifted resitors and paper caps have been replaced. Other then that it could be a weak tube or a wiring error, but it probably needs an alignment. On the note about mica replacements I have used ceramic ones in some radios with no ill effects, I am pretty sure that they are precision rated ones, I wasn't aware that they made regular ceramic ones as small as 370 mmf or pf. Either way the ceramics are much cheaper then the silver mica ones, probably one tenth the price, not sure if they will work in all circuits, some TV circuits like vertical oscillators don't like the regular kind so you may have no choice.
In spite of the bad mouthing I like the 1939-42 Philco sets, they were decent perfomers and I like many of the cabinet styles. The fact that people don't like the rubber wiring and loctal tubes makes them all the more appealing to me.
Regards
Arran