Help Id'ing a Zenith T/O Royal 1000

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by tgunner

I have a Royal 7000 I bought at a yard sale when I was 11 for $6. It is in excellent condition and has the manual, handle pamphlet, suction cup AM antenna, and original battery tubes. The only issue with the 7000 that I think many owners would agree with me on is the door sliding mechanism. Mine is damn hard to use, and as such has scraped the aluminum with the compass thing on it. This radio is what got me into shortwave. I would spend hours tuning across all the bands; partly to watch the roller move them. It's such a satisfying click. I don't think I will ever sell it; nothing could replace the memories it has brought me.

I feel the same way about all seven of my Zenith radios, one of which is a Royal 1000. In its heyday Zenith was probably one of the best if not the best radio manufacturers on earth, which is why I began collecting their vintage sets almost six years ago.

The Royal 7000 must be built differently from the 1000, as far as the front door over the control panel goes. In my 1000 the door doesn't slide; it just drops straight down when released. From your description, it seems as if the door on the 7000 actually slides into a compartment at the very base of the radio.

The Zenith Royal series solid-state T/Os were excellent when it came to RF sensitivity. Mine will tune in WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado just about any time of the day or night on at least one band; many times I can also hear WWVH in Hawaii directly behind WWV on 10 or 15 MHz--using only the telescoping whip antenna in the handle. AM broadcast reception is great as well, but then again these older sets were built for distance reception. At a list price of $250 in 1958 (double that and then some to get the price in today's dollars), I would expect these sets to outperform just about any other small transistor portable; in fact, I would also expect the tube-powered T/Os to run rings around even small AA5s as were very popular in the 1950s and sixties. About 20 years ago, more or less, I had a 1951 Zenith T/O, chassis 5H40, that did in fact pull in stations like a magnet even with the built-in antennas; I got rid of it when I realized how difficult it might be to get replacements for those 1- and three-volt battery radio tubes--that was years before I knew about AK and maybe 10-15 years before I was online on the Internet. Today I would not dream of giving up any of my Zenith radios; with a fine resource such as AK as close as my computer, I won't have to.