I started off with an old valve set, can't now remember which but it hooked me into listening to strange radio stations late at night. Then my mate next door bought a Sony Earth Orbiter and erected a huge aerial in the back garden and began to pick up stations from far and wide.
I couldn't compete with that and bought a Vega and attached it to a copper aerial I'd laid out in the loft
Often got Radio Peking on it and once got radio Chile. The thing was, if you wrote to the stations with a time and frequency, they sent you back lots of goodies. I got a diary off radio Peking, lots of stuff from Radio Moscow and quite a few no replies
I think we were both inspired by our down the road neighbour who had an old valve shortwave set he used to broadcast on illegally before eventually being caught and all his kit confiscated. They took pictures of his sets, so after they'd gone, he swopped all the valves out from another less powerful set.
So there you go, valve to Tranny, which is how I imagine 3bm to be at the wknd.