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Old 04-29-2005, 03:09 PM
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Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
<----Zenith C845
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Fairport Harbor, Ohio (near Lake Erie)
Posts: 4,035
My latest ebay score: Zenith Royal 1000-1

Quote:
Originally Posted by drh4683
I enjoy the zenith transoceanics as much as I do their televisions. The great thing about zenith is that their TVs and radios show the same care and pride in craftsmanship and performance. Here is a Royal 1000-1, 1958. This radio was made from 1957-1962. You could also get a royal 1000-D which is the same radio with LW band, available in 1959 (I think?).
Doug, I like Zenith radios and TVs too (have for years), as I've mentioned before in this forum. I just received via UPS this morning a Zenith Royal 1000-1, which I scored on ebay a couple weeks ago (the seller said he didn't ship the radio immediately after the end of the auction because he was busy around his home; I still gave him positive feedback [the benefit of the doubt, and considering that he explained the reason for the delay] and a B+ rating in the "Comments" section of the feedback form). The radio works very well, picking up stations many of my other sets won't touch (such as CFRB 1010 in Toronto, WBEN 930 in Buffalo, New York, et al.); however, when it arrived I noticed 1) the battery case was missing, and 2) the bandswitch knob was very loose on its shaft; so loose, in fact, that it fell off twice before I went in and tightened the setscrew on it. The third thing, which I don't consider a problem as it can be readily corrected (I'll work on it tonight), is that the radio's case was extremely dirty and the dial drum was very dusty. The chassis was and still is filthy. This radio must have been sitting in its former owner's garage, basement, attic, etc., unused, for years if not decades. The AC adapter socket was also loose. I taped it in against the inside of the cabinet for the time being, but I really should find the proper fastener for it.

The radio had a very low opening bid on it when I came across it on ebay, but another potential buyer outbid me by $1 at first. However, I placed another bid, only to be outbid again and again and again . . . a total of five times. My sixth bid was the high one (unchallenged, as it turns out--in fact, I think I must have been bidding against myself seeing as how I kept getting outbid five times in a row, and within a minute or so of placing each bid), and I won the auction a day and a half or so later. I sent the seller an email earlier this afternoon explaining the missing battery box, loose bandswitch knob and loose AC adapter socket; I don't know how much good that will do, but I'm giving it a shot on the chance that the seller might find the missing battery case, or possibly tell me where I can find a replacement. (There is a three-prong male plug on the radio's chassis which I think the cable from the battery box plugged into, but no matching case.)

I did not include a picture of my new (to me) Royal 1000-1 in this post, as the picture Doug posted of a 1000-1 earlier is the exact model I have. My set sounds great, and as I stated earlier it pulls in AM stations here which many of my other Zeniths (including my R-70) won't touch.

BTW, I decided to fire up my Zenith H511 the other evening, just to see if it still works. It does, in spades. I plugged it into a ground-fault-interrupter outlet in my apartment just in case there was a problem, but I need not have worried or even been concerned, as the radio powered up and played flawlessly as soon as the tubes warmed up. I left it on, tuned to a big-band/standards station in Toronto (CHWO 740), much of the rest of the evening. The set sounds wonderful, even with the speaker cone rather torn up--I can't even notice anything that would even suggest a torn cone, such as garbled or distorted sound.

The TO Royal 1000-1 brings to five the number of Zenith radios in my collection. Except for the H511 and the TO, the other three Zeniths are somewhat less than antique (although my K-731, manufactured in 1963, is getting close at 42 years).
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Jeff, WB8NHV

Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002

Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten.
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