[ODPILOT]

    Problem is SOLVED and I may be a complete idiot !   MORZH -  I went away over the weekend with my family and kept thinking about this freakin radio the entire time.   Amongst other things -  you mentioned:  "The resistor in the middle is an NTC thermistor, it starts at about 1K and drops to 100 Ohm as it heats up".     I retraced all the caps I installed and checked all the wiring.  In my first restoration of this same radio, I noticed that  I left the thermistor (see picture) in place because, at the time,  I didn't know what it was and didn't want to mess with it.  In this most recent restoration, due to me misreading the "chassis - bottom view", I wrongly thought it was a capacitor and replaced it with a .1uf CAP. I thought the thermistor was just a weird looking capacitor.   When I got back from my trip,  I re lookeded at the chassis diagram and realized what I had done.  I soldered out the cap and put back in the thermistor -  and  VOILA -  it popped to life -  the tubes, the bulb.    So in the end, there was nothing wrong with the on/off switch.   I hooked up the speaker and the antenna and already it can pick up some am stations but I will still have to align it.     You really nailed the problem - so THANK YOU for your help.    Also, thanks to BrendaAnnD for jumping in with your help as well.