[NJARC] Atwater Kent 45 questions

[edotte at optonline.net]

To all,

First let me say the auction was once again fun and  interesting and of course growing my stock of projects beyond my time to work on. (A good thing...I guess.) 

One of the items I picked up was that Atwater Kent 45. It is a strange radio for me because it is a TRF. I have been trying to do some research on TRF's and I took note this unit does not have manual regenerative feedback. I am not entirely clear on this kind of feedback or if it was typical in TRF's but I was wondering what it not being there means. Is it a good thing in a design and what might be the downsides of it, if any. 

Also the unit uses an external speaker. Of this I have no Atwater Kent speakers just lying around the house so the question begs to be asked, what do I do? Can I use a modern one with some transformer matching? What would the matching be? The Rider's drawings are rather vague. It doesn't even list the tube numbers on the schematic! But I have been able to pin down it is five 26's, one 27, and one 71A., and an 80. And is there anything else I am missing to bring this unit online other than the obvious recapping if necessary? As always, thanks.

Edward