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Old 12-19-2011, 11:48 PM
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radiotvnut radiotvnut is offline
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Zenith Royal 7000 Trans-Oceanic

I picked up this Zenith Royal 7000 (chassis # 18ZT40Z3) Trans-Oceanic at the flea market for $48. This is a USA made radio and appears to be an earlier production Royal 7000. The radio has reception; but, is not as robust as it should be. I'm sure the old electrolytic caps are worn out. It's missing the log book and a good cleaning should be all that's needed to make the cabinet look nice. The battery compartment and antenna are also in good condition. I don't think I did too bad for $48.





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Old 12-20-2011, 01:17 AM
jwharris jwharris is offline
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I posted one of these a few days ago that I bought for $5 at an estate sale. http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=252851 I sold it to a regular customer of mine that collects and restores radios for $72. The chassis # in mine is 18ZT40Z and the log book says copyright 1970.

$48 is a good price if you plan on keeping it. These go for hundreds on the auction site.

I haven't delivered the radio yet. I could scan the log book and send it to you if you'd like? Its assembled using the plastic ring binding and shouldn't be hard to duplicate at a place like Fedex Office or a local print shop except for maybe the faux leather cover with the metallic logo.

Last edited by jwharris; 12-20-2011 at 01:24 AM. Reason: add
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Old 12-21-2011, 08:29 PM
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I got one at a garage sale a couple years ago for $15. Not perfect, but well well worth it. With the logbook.
Very good performer yet-just needs lights.
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Old 05-21-2012, 03:00 PM
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You have a nice Trans-Oceanic. If you can't recap it, Terry DeWick does repair TO sets. You have the best model they made. Beautiful set.
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Old 05-22-2012, 11:36 AM
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I have a Zenith Royal 1000-1 AM/SW radio (no FM) from 1958; won it in an eBay auction several years ago. Still works well and even has its original metal-cased wall-wart that also works well -- even after 54 years. However, I can't believe the Royal 7000, which was introduced, IIRC, in the '60s or '70s, was built even better than any of its predecessors, except possibly the Royal 3000 series of the early 1970s. The '7000 has one advantage over most of the earlier models in that it has FM (a band not included in any other versions of the T/O except the Royal 3000 of the '70s), but other than that I don't see how the '70s models of the T/O could actually have been buillt better than the '50s-'60s ones; for example, the older T/Os had all-metal chassis and socketed transistors. Just before the 7000 went out of production, a version of it (model R7000-Y, once again IIRC), was in fact made in Taiwan -- but the 7000 (no suffix) was made here and was probably the last American-made T/O before Zenith sold out to GoldStar. The 7000-Y was probably loaded with plastic and had the transistors soldered in. Please correct me if I am wrong about any of this, but I seem to remember reading somewhere (likely here) that Zenith's radio plant moved from Chicago to the Orient about thirty years ago, which was the beginning of the end as far as the company's radios (and very shortly thereafter televisions) were concerned. The Zenith name and famous lightning-bolt logo now exist only as marketing symbols on flat-screen televisions not even built by Zenith.
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Old 05-22-2012, 01:15 PM
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I think the 3000 came along somewhere around '61 and was discontinued in '68, in favor of the 7000 models.

In '89, I bought a mint 3000 from a ham who was giving up the hobby and moving into an assisted living home. The $35 I gave him seemed like a lot to a 12 year old at the time; but, I now realize that was a bargain. For some stupid reason, I ended up selling that radio and I've kicked myself several times for doing that.

Concerning Zenith foreign made radios, I know they were being made as early as '72 because I have a '72 AM/FM clock radio that was made in Korea. It's an OK radio; but, it is no where near as good as the USA built Zenith's of just a few years before.
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Old 05-22-2012, 01:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by radiotvnut View Post
I think the 3000 came along somewhere around '61 and was discontinued in '68, in favor of the 7000 models.

In '89, I bought a mint 3000 from a ham who was giving up the hobby and moving into an assisted living home. The $35 I gave him seemed like a lot to a 12 year old at the time; but, I now realize that was a bargain. For some stupid reason, I ended up selling that radio and I've kicked myself several times for doing that.

Concerning Zenith foreign made radios, I know they were being made as early as '72 because I have a '72 AM/FM clock radio that was made in Korea. It's an OK radio; but, it is no where near as good as the USA built Zenith's of just a few years before.
Is that Zenith clock radio one of the "Circle of Sound" models, with Target Tuning? I had one in the '80s that worked well, but the former owner (one of my great-aunts who was moving to an apartment) said the main control switch lever on the clock broke off. When I got the radio I removed the clock, rewired the power circuit using a pushbutton switch, and used it until I moved in 1999. The radio got lost in that move; too bad, as I liked its design, sound and sensitivity. The Target Tuning feature was one I had never seen before in a Zenith (or any other brand) radio, and it was fascinating to watch it flicker on and off when a local radio station signed off, leaving only a mishmash of weak signals. On FM the TT indicator stayed off for the most part, as by this time, late 1990s, almost all FM and AM radio stations ran 24/7, although there was one station about 50 miles from where I lived at the time that would sign off at midnight every night. I lived near an airport at the time, and the radio would often pick up aircraft radio signals when it was tuned to 97.1 MHz -- the frequency of the station (one of the last remaining easy-listening stations in my area) I mentioned earlier that would sign off at midnight. Every time a plane would fly over my home, its radio communications would blast in -- right over top of the radio station.

BTW, that ham radio operator from whom you bought the Zenith Transoceanic radio need not have given up the hobby entirely unless he had health issues or other problems that forced him to do so. (Worst case, he could have operated a 2-meter handheld transceiver through a local repeater, thereby remaining active in a hobby he must have enjoyed immensely, as I do.) If he had access to or owned a computer, he could have continued in ham radio by using a program called EchoLink. This software, developed by a ham (Jonathan Taylor, K1RFD) in New England, allows licensed amateurs to communicate by voice with other hams in much of the world and all 50 states here in the US. I have EchoLink on my computer but have yet to use it for anything but testing; I myself had to give up my 100-watt ham station when I moved (not by choice) to an apartment 12 years ago. Was off the air for about a decade, then discovered EL, downloaded the software, and was back "on the air", digital style. I did make one contact via EL about a year ago (IIRC), through a Cleveland FM amateur repeater station, but for some reason I haven't used the Echolink system since. (One of these days . . .) The microphone sits on my desk between my calculator and telephone.
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Old 05-22-2012, 03:02 PM
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It's a cheap white plastic basic clock radio with a non-digital clock.
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Old 05-22-2012, 06:29 PM
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The Royal 3000 was introduced in 1963 and discontinued in 1971.
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