I made my first QSO as WN6GZS in October or November 1970 using this receiver, with W6MJO and WN6ICQ about a mile away.
Many of the parts were scrounged from WW2 surplus in the junk room at Marin Radio Supply in San Rafael, CA, and the rest were painstakingly acquired over about a year's time, using the few dollars I was able to earn doing yardwork and as a substitute paperboy. The transistors were not in the junk room, of course, and the owner, Dan Olivet, did not stock them, but he special ordered RCA "SK series" replacements for me. The transmitter was an Ameco AC-1 (6V6 crystal oscillator, 8 watt output) into a 40 meter dipole, the dummy load was a ~ 10 watt light bulb, and the antenna TR switch was a double-throw knife switch. I remember using the output of the transmitter as a "calibration marker" for the receiver.
Making that first radio contact was probably the high point of my childhood.
Thank you for posting this homebrew project, and your extraordinary photo documentation.
-- Paul AA6AJ