a-c: A C Dayton XL-5 Radio need information on Arial, Power, Spkr

Just bought this XL-5 Radio.  Don't see the difference in Balanced and the other A C Dayton XL-5 model.

I need to get a speaker for it, any suggestions?  Also it says short ariel and long ariel.  Live in restricted area so no tall antennas. Any suggestions?  The radion has all the tubes and doesn't look like anything obvious wrong with it. I've been reading about power requirements and have seen how to build a 90v battery using 10 9v batteries.  Looks like 22.5v and 6v readily available.  I'm a novice and have bought about 20 radios now.  This is the first piece like this for me.  Is this radio worth trying to get to work or should I just clean it up and set it on the shelf for the looks?  I gave $99 US.

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Dear Tim,

I'm not sure if you are aware of the 6V battery. This is for the heater of the tubes. You cannot use the same as the 22.5 and 90V battery. For the 6V you need a separate motor cycle battery. The current consumption is about 1.25 amp and you 9V batteries will not do this.

For the speaker you need   a speaker with 1 to 2 KOhm impedance. If you find an old speaker from the 1920s or 1930s they will do. If you use a newer speaker you'll need an output transformer with it.

Regarding the antenna: the more wire you have the better is the chance to receive anything.

Regards,

Rolf

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A 10 to 20 turn loop about 20 cm to 40 cm frame (back of a photo/picture frame) is good for Broadcast / MW / LW and picks up less interference than a wire. About 3m of wire on windowsill or curtain rail works for SW /HF, especially 8MHz and up.

I'd use a 6V Lead Acid Motorcycle battery for LT and AA cells for HT. Still available and similar to what was originally used. The 6V Gel cells for emergency lamps and UPS are a bad buy  as they are more easily destroyed by discharge. The small 9V packs are only economic and suitable for the  1940 to 1959 "All Dry sets" using 1.4V filament tubes, Even with them I use AAA or AA cells, much cheaper, if it's a larger set. Only 9V packs for the Personal and smaller portables that used small packs (I use a different approach for the very small packs where the 9V batteries will not fit). You can get high capacity 2V Lead Acid for industrial use, but they are BIG!

You can make up an LT pack using real C or D size NiMH cells (do not charge while connected!) in a replica Lead Acid pack (glass jar or plastic). The 6V is easy compared to the 2V, which is tricky!

See my 1929 set with three replica batteries.

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Perhaps the 22.5V is a C pack, Grid Bias. Tapped at every 1.5V. Later sets used 9V tapped.
The tap is selected depending on exact characteristic of output tube and speaker load. A small mains transformer can drive an 8 Ohm speaker for test. Primary between HT and final anode. It's the same as the 9V pack I made, except with 15 cells instead of 6 cells, It's just longer!

Often the detector or driver tube uses a different tap. I'd use Alkaline AA cells, they can last 5 years in this application. You can still get 4.5V flat torch packs in Europe which amazingly have the original type cells (B size) used in both the Grid packs and HT packs. Later HT packs used layer cells, though even in the 1950s some portable sets still used packs similar to those first released in the1920s, using the B size cells.

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