AM on its way out? How else could I get Radio Scotland or Radio Eireann here in northern England (apart from on the Internet)? My wife asked me if I wanted a digital (DAB) radio, and I said no! If I want to hear Ceilidh House, or Take the Floor, or Travelling Folk I need AM.

If you use 1N4000 series rectifiers or something similar instead of a double diode vacuum tube for your power rectifier, you will get more voltage than the transformer maker quotes, so this should be borne in mind if you put silicon rectifiers into a circuit designed for tubes. The smoothing capacitor will be charged to (root 2) x the r.m.s. voltage from the transformer. Normally much of the excess voltage would be dropped across the rectifier tube.