[Jeffhs]

For Electronic M: I am glad to hear you are preserving those Zenith Trans-Oceanic radios, as they represent a level of general quality in portable radios (those old solid-state TOs, including mine, also weighed the proverbial ton) we will never see again in this age of Japanese and Korean electronics. (I had a Zenith stereo system in the early 1980s which had been built (to Zenith Chicago's standards) in Korea, as stated by a notice on the back cover). I have two solid-state TransOceanics, one of which works but the other is in need of more repairs than I can do on it at this time (I gave up my workshop when I moved to an apartment in 1999; long story and OT for this thread). The TO which still works is still operating every bit as well as it probably did when new (I got it used some years ago, probably on eBay). The only thing wrong with it that I can see right now is the AM broadcast band is dead silent, while all other bands, including FM, work very well. Someone here told me, some time ago, that the silence of the AM band is probably due to a poor or open connection on the AM oscillator coil; I will look into that some time in the future.

As long as my other TO is working, however, I am in no hurry to do anything with the first one. The one with FM is a better one, anyway, so the first one will stay on my to-do list, probably indefinitely. I consider myself very fortunate to have found the matching AC adapter (on eBay, IIRC) several years ago for the working TO, as I am sure these are very difficult to find, unless a generic adapter is used; even then one must be absolutely certain the voltages the adapter provides are exactly correct. As old as the TOs are, finding replacement parts for them could be very difficult. This is basically why I am keeping my first TO, to use as a donor set in case the working one develops trouble.

BTW, I also had a tube-type Zenith TO some years ago. I was able to get it working very well, until I started fiddling around with the chassis (I had a habit of doing things like that years ago; thank goodness I don't any longer). If I had left that older TO alone, it would have been an excellent performer, especially on AM. . . .

Oh, well. Live and learn, I guess. I have since learned to leave things alone in a radio (or anything else) if the device is working well, if not 100 percent. I am a firm believer in the adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", the very poor grammar notwithstanding, given the messes I managed to get myself into by trying to modify a radio, or anything else, which was up to that point working perfectly well.