[Ron Ramirez]

...the push buttons have nothing to do with the SW bands...

Actually, they do. This radio uses pushbuttons to not only select your five preset AM stations, but also to select the band you want to listen to (AM, low SW or "police", high SW).

Remove each tube, one at a time, and carefully scrape each pin until they are shiny and bright. Then, take a can of contact cleaner and spray into each tiny hole of the tube socket. Then reinsert the tube. It is best if you can remove and reinsert the tube a few times. Repeat this for every loctal tube in the set. Just be careful when wiggling each tube; the design of 1942 Philco sockets are poor, as the thin wafer insulator on the top of the loctal tube socket is easily broken.

Now as to the pushbuttons. Liberally spray contact cleaner on every contact of the band switch/pushbutton assembly, going over the contacts carefully with a stiff toothbrush as you spray (before the cleaner evaporates). Then push every button, up and down the line. Repeat this once or twice.

Pushbutton assemblies can go bad. I restored a 42-380 for a client a couple years ago. It was returned to me a month later with a complaint of no reception on one or two of the bands. Cleaning did not help. I ended up having to lift an entire pushbutton assembly from a parts chassis and install it in the customer's set. That was major surgery, and a real headache. But the thing worked afterward, so it was worth it.

I hope yours responds to a good cleaning, and does not require a replacement of its pushbutton assembly.

It is crappy design like this that makes me prefer the older Philcos; chiefly those made in the 1936 model year and before.