I too had an old valve radio it was an ex rental 5 valve upright made by a company called Derwent, they would rent these sets out prior to getting into the TV market They then changed their name to D E R a well known TV rental service. When the real and proud Radio Caroline was towed away never to return as yet by the Dutch tugboat company Wijsmuller I discovered Veronica tuning around on my trusty old Viscount 6 transistor radio that my parents bought one Xmas in fact 1962 I totally refused to listen to Radio 1 and tuning around one afternoon I found a weak but audible signal on 192 fell in love with it! And pretty soon had all my mates tuning in as well once they knew it was a pirate ship and station! Found all sorts of ways to improve the signal ie tweaking every ones radios for them and once done she would come through loud proud and clear. Veronica gave me a reason to still listen to the radio taken away by Harold and co.
That old Derwent radio is still with me today I totally refurbished her around 8 years ago both electronically and cosmetically to the exact image of when she was built by Derwent back around 1939 / 40 I changed all of the Caps, many resistors and of course a brand new set of unused valves then set about the cabinet, finally realigning all of the coils etc there is a before and after pair of pics on the main R.N.I website http://rni.vze.com/

Garry Stevens