Some tubes are obsolete

The vacuum tubes are not used in receivers anymore, except for the picture tubes in TV sets. This is because, at the low signal levels, solid-state components can do everything which tubes ever could, with larger efficiency and by using lower voltages and currents.Some of the electronics hobbyists work with the antique radios. There is some charm in a broadcast receiver which takes up as much space as, and which weighs as, a small refrigerator.  It brings back memories of the time when drama was broadcast on local AM stations, complete with the whining heterodynes and static from summer thunder showers. The action was not rendered on high resolution, color video, but rather was envisioned in listeners’ minds as they sat around the radio on bare, varnished hardwood floor.

Tube type, antique broadcast/shortwave receivers were twice as bulky as necessary, as compactness was not the major concern. Such radios were 10 to 100 times bigger and heavier than their modern semiconductor counterparts. The high voltages made dust to accumulate by electrostatic precipitation from the air, providing the radio’s innards a greasy, gritty film.

If above scenarios, possibilities, and hazards becomes a concern, perhaps you would like to collect and operate radio antiques, as some people collect and drive vintage cars. But be aware of replacement receiving tubes are difficult to find. When your relic breaks, you will be required to become a spare parts sleuth.