Here's my newest set

[Nolan Woodbury]

....and a long awaited one as well.

I lost one of these Zenith MJ 1035s to shipping last year, and looked long and hard to find another. My patience was rewarded! I lucked out on eBay with this set, as the bidding ended at a really strange time; like 3:00 am on a Sunday morning. Shipping took forever, but the seller did a great job of packing.

The radio itself is a gem; not only is it cosmetically 98% but it functions beyond my expectations. The tone and clarity on FM is remarkable, and, thanks to the built in Wavemagnet AM is loud and pop/static free. With 10 tubes reception is really impressive; one can really hunt down some long distance signals during the evening, and they separate nicely. A great tuner!

Most impressive, other than the big Zenith's condition and performance, is the goodies I got with it. 1) A Users Guide (perfect shape) 2) a Zenith handbook on frequency modulation and....3) the original bill of sale/payment book with the owners name and address! The radio was sold new in Buffalo, NY in July of 1956, at a cost of $243.00. This seems to go against others that have posted info on this set, saying it was released in the early 60s and coinciding with the FCC's ruling/regulations on FM. True stereo seperation!

All said, I'm thrilled. I've only fired it up three or four times, and although I need to re-cap and perhaps change the rectifier (the back it kind of a mother to remove) it'll wait until I get the time. The only thing I'm really missing to have a stand out MJ 1035 is the Zenith-supplied radio stand. Wonder how long I'll have to look to find one of those? Still, it looks pretty good where it’s sitting now: right in the middle of my living room!