Quote:
Originally Posted by Snade
Found this guy at a garage sale this morning. It was very dirty, sitting on a table with total junk. Asked the owner and he said $5.
When I got it home I opened it up and the inside was near perfect. Zenith made a great protective case for this puppy.
I am listening to the Cubs game on AM right now. Installed the 9 "D" batteries. Lucky for me the battery case was empty and not full of 40 year old batteries.
I just cleaned it with a brush, damp cloth and some canned air. There is some rust and pitting, but it is very nice.
See the before and after photos.
Cheers, Snade
|
I have a Royal 1000 also, an eBay score about five years ago. It works well and looks/sounds great; the only thing wrong with it is the dial cord is broken, so I have to open the back cover and turn the tuning pulley manually to change stations. (I have the service manual with the dial stringing instructions, but I'm not looking forward to actually going ahead and doing it -- it looks like a big job.) Mine was originally without the battery box, so I had to look around online to find a used one, but eventually I did and now the set is complete -- well, almost. The external SW Wavemagnet antenna was missing when I got the radio, so I'll have to look around for a replacement -- hopefully I'll find one eventually on eBay. (The radio has the original Waverod antenna for shortwave and the original AM broadcast antenna, so I'm in no hurry to find the external Wavemagnet.) The set came with the original Zenith AC wall wart power adapter (metal case) as well, but the AC adapter jack was flopping around loose inside the cabinet; I temporarily taped it in. One of these days I'll find the correct small nut to fasten it properly to the cabinet.
I am amazed at the sound quality these portables have, though I probably shouldn't be, as all the early Zeniths were built for high-fidelity sound and excellent RF sensitivity, with an RF stage ahead of the antenna, push-pull audio output, and all on a metal chassis inside a metal case. (I have several other Zenith radios, including a model R-70 11-transistor AM-FM portable from 1980, that sound every bit as good as my T/O.) They don't make them like that anymore. Some day I'd like to get the Royal 3000, which had FM in addition to AM and SW. Oh well, one of these days . . .