Such DIY projects used to be very commonly featured in electronics magazine, even after the transistor came onto the scene by the 1950s. The fancier designs use a regenerative design, like this one by [Dick Whipple] which provides not only some background theory, but also the full schematic and how-to in case you feel like giving it a shake yourself.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://hackaday.com/2024/06/02/building-and-testing-a-1912-style-radio/