I bought this little portable a few months back and will be starting on it soon. One thing I noticed is that the the on/off switch only turns clockwise. It's a fairly healthy click everytime and turning it anti clock wise just doesnt happen, Would this be normal. I havent put a meter on it yet and dont want to make any annoyingly distructive mistakes as its a nice little set.

Never seen that in a radio but ancient porcelain light switches were once like that - hence the term "turn on, turn off". St George and Metters used the same switches on their early electric stoves.

It does sound odd! I would be very tempted to check the switch for function & make sure that it is actually working & not grounding, before applying power to it. Perhaps a photo with "brand" if it has one. There is the risk that someone has broken the stop.

Marc

Is it this one?

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/kingsley_walkie_talkie.html

That photo shows a separate on off switch? So it still is a case of "lets have a good look at that pot & switch before we do anything rash".

Yes that's the one. I love working on these little battery sets.

I really don't care what it runs on, the entertainment lies in the challenge & the last big really big challenge ran on diesel: Neighbours tractor with a blown head gasket. That keeps one amused for a few hours, with the promise of more to come. The head will need re-tightening around Christmas & that's probably half a days work. This is not the first cylinder head I have worked on.

I have actually done an overhaul of a Roberts R66 (UK) recently; It is battery mains. It was so clean & original, I photographed it and wrote a spiel on it. That will appear in Silicon Chip in due course.

Oh kaaaaay