that keeps fading out and not working. Will turn it on a couple of days later and it will work for awhile then fade out again. Any ideas what is wrong with it? Tubes?

is it fading out once it warms up? if so, tubes would be my first step.

I'd try the tubes.  Take them to the local drug store and get them tested.  Oops, this is 2006 not 1966.  I see you are in MI any where near Ann Arbor?  I have a low end B&K tester that should find most problems, though it will not test at actual operating condidtions.

Kent

You can get tube testers on ebay for a reasonable price...

Or if you can find an olde-tyme TV shop, where the proprietor is like 98 years old, you can usually find a tester buried someplace in his mountainous piles of old equipment. Often, they also have caches of old stock brand new tubes.

We used to have a shop just like that here, till about 2-3 years ago. I guess ol' Jasin must have finally passed on. He was an extremely cool old guy.

If you do find a tv-repair shop like that, take your radio with you. You'll probably have the privledge of a few hours worth of stories as he tunes the rig up for ya.

Tubes and electrolytic capacitors are the most likely culprits.  Take it to a qualified technician and it should run trouble free for another 50 years.

I am in Howell, mi. Is there a store in A2 that sells tubes?

I didn't realize there was a collector's market for these things.  I have a huge Magnavox shortwave in a cabinet with a record player on top. Is it worth selling for gun money?

(I have no idea if it works, I haven't  it plugged in since the early 70's. I believe it's a 1950 model)