New (to me) Zenith H503Y portable radio.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

Picked up this Zenith H503Y AC/DC/battery operated AM portable from '51 at a flea market for $20. I still need to clean and polish the case; but, it looks very well to be 58 years old. It still has all of the old paper caps, someone placed a silicon diode across the selenium rectifier, someone replaced the line cord by attaching a new cord with wire nuts to the old wire stubs under the chassis, and the dial cord slips. Despite all of this, the radio plays very well and is sensitive. I'd first thought about selling this; but, it picks up an oldies station about 100 miles away. That in itself is reason enough to keep it since everyting else is either talk, southern gospel, or African-American gospel on AM. Depending on what's on, I can sometimes listen to the southern gospel station; but, the oldies station is more suited to my taste in music. I'm sure it will work better after a proper restoration. BTW, this radio uses one of those expensive 1L6's and has a tuned RF stage. I might even build a battery pack so I can use the radio as a true portable.

I looked on RadioStationWorld.com a few minutes ago and found an oldies station in Thomasville, Alabama--WJDB, 630 kHz, 1kW day/0.049kW (49 watts) nighttime. Would this be the same station you can hear on your H503Y Zenith? According to RSW's listing, the station looks like it's in the Meridian, MS radio market. If you say the oldies station you're hearing is 100 miles from you, then it's DX. I'm not surprised you're hearing stations from that far away on your H503, as it seems to have been built for DX with the tuned RF stage. This was a hallmark of Zenith radios from the '40s through the '60s; high-performance signal circuits (many Zenith table radios of the '60s had two IF stages and some, like your H503, had an RF stage ahead of the antenna) and high-fidelity sound. These radios were not referred to as "The Royalty of Radio" for nothing. The original Zenith Radio Corporation of Chicago earned that reputation right from the beginning, from what I've read about the company's early years.

I'd hang on to that H503, as it is an example of quality (in build and in sound) we will never see again. I have several vintage Zenith radios here and have no intention of getting rid of any of them--they work too well and sound too good. In fact, I think the RF signal circuits in my C-845 may be working too well. This radio has a 6BJ6 RF amplifier that works on both AM and FM, and I swear, the radio is so sensitive because of that circuit it picks up TV horizontal oscillator harmonics all across the AM dial in the daytime (I live in a 12-unit apartment building). At night the reception is better, as I can hear stations up and down the East Coast and Great Lakes all night long. An example: I live in a part of northeastern Ohio that is geographically closer to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania than to Chicago, but my C-845 will get every major AM station from both cities equally well after dark--using just the built-in Wavemagnet antenna. I also hear WBZ newstalk radio 1030 in Boston, WRVA talk radio 1140 in Richmond, Virginia, et al. quite well at night. However, try as I might, I cannot hear stations from Wisconsin, Indiana (except Fort Wayne), or Michigan (except Detroit). I'm sure these states have 50kW stations that should cover most of the Great Lakes region (including Ohio) as well as their own metropolitan areas at night (as do Detroit's WJR-760 and Fort Wayne's WOWO-1190), unless they have strictly limited antenna signal patterns and/or run lower power after local sunset. Hmmm.

BTW, if the dial cord is slipping on your H503, you should be able to turn the dial pointer by hand if the cord should break. I have an H511Y on which the dial cord broke years ago; that's exactly how I tune it, by moving the red dial pointer with a finger. Your H503 looks as if the dial pointer is exposed as well, so manual tuning should be possible in an emergency.

BTW (2): You mentioned that the former owner of your H503 attached a new line cord to the radio by means of splicing the cord to a stub of the original, using wire nuts. Even if it works (as you say yours does), I'd take those wire nuts off and solder those connections, insulating the joints with electrical tape--or better yet, going under the chassis and soldering the new cord directly into the circuit, clipping off and disposing of the remains of the original cord. Wire nuts are fine for temporary splices, but I wouldn't use them for long-term fixes. The problem is that connections made with wire nuts are not soldered, so they can corrode and cause problems down the road.