[Keith]

The BFO level has been weak on both 19 sets that I have owned - I assumed it was a design "feature". The solution (as with many receivers of this era) is to turn down the RF gain control. This will allow CW/SSB signals to be resolved.

Also the meter on the AGC setting normally sits at about one third full scale with no signal (RF gain at max), only dropping to about one quarter for a strong signal.

The receiver should be very sensitive, with a 1uV signal easily giving 10dB s/n. Don't forget that that the PA Tuning capacitor needs to be peaked as it is part of the receiver input tuned circuit. The peak will probably not correspond to the dial calibration.