My dad called tonight and told me they found another box
in the endless cavern that is their basement. It is my first
SW radio. A old Zenith AM/SW. I can't wait to pick it up
Thursday and start the rebuilding project. I suspect that all
the caps have eiother dried out and open, or are leaky.
Dad said that I packed it real good wraped in newspapers with
a photcopy of the Rider (Ryder) service data. I had forgoten
that I had scrounged up several spare tubes so this baby should
last a while. The original plastic (bakelight?) case was cracked
so I made a case for it in 7th grade shop class. Every since
they found my GR64 several years ago I had wondered what had
happened to the old gall. If I remember correctly the radio
covered from about 5 through or just beyond 15MHz.
Dad says that it has some of my early attempts at antenna design.
These I can't wait to see. I do remember planning (dreaming)
to put a wire from the hill behind my grandmother's house to the
hill top on the other side of the valley. Only about 1500'. Dad
tried to explain wire sag but heck, what does a 7th grade know
about that!
I got that radio while cleaning out a widows attic. Got paid $5 whole
dollars. That was the early summer of 1963. I knew enough not to plug
it in until my dad got home. He called a friend who brought over a
magic capacitor checker and they checked and replaced all the caps.
The friend was a TV/Repair man and even aligned it for me. We laid
about 50' of wire out and sure enough it worked. It was late so
dad said we would put up a "real" antenna the next morning. I was
flabergasted. My dad NEVER took off work unless someone was sick or
dead. True to his word we went to the local radio store, Radio
Electronics is still in business but a ghost of their past, and
bought 125' of antenna wire with two ceramic insulators and a 8'
ground rod. Must have cost all of $5. His treat. We spent the rest
of that morning putting up a 98' "long wire" that I used until I
married and left my parents home. His friend insisted that I use
an "isolation" transfomer that he gave me. I still use the ceramic
insultors, but the antenna wire got tangled in fallen trees in the
ice storm of 1991 and I couldn't salvage much of it, or at least
not in one piece. But at least the radio will have a nice home, out
of a cramped box.
I will post a review of this radio after I "restore" her.
I am much more excited about this radio then the "new" PCR1000
that I just got in a complicated trade. I am blessed with a wife
who shares my love of radios and loves "old things". Might be
why she keeps me. The old things part.
Terry

wrote:

My dad called tonight and told me they found another box
in the endless cavern that is their basement. It is my first
SW radio. A old Zenith AM/SW. I can't wait to pick it up
Thursday and start the rebuilding project. I suspect that all
the caps have eiother dried out and open, or are leaky.
Dad said that I packed it real good wraped in newspapers with
a photcopy of the Rider (Ryder) service data. I had forgoten
that I had scrounged up several spare tubes so this baby should
last a while. The original plastic (bakelight?) case was cracked
so I made a case for it in 7th grade shop class. Every since
they found my GR64 several years ago I had wondered what had
happened to the old gall. If I remember correctly the radio
covered from about 5 through or just beyond 15MHz.
Dad says that it has some of my early attempts at antenna design.
These I can't wait to see. I do remember planning (dreaming)
to put a wire from the hill behind my grandmother's house to the
hill top on the other side of the valley. Only about 1500'. Dad
tried to explain wire sag but heck, what does a 7th grade know
about that!
I got that radio while cleaning out a widows attic. Got paid $5 whole
dollars. That was the early summer of 1963. I knew enough not to plug
it in until my dad got home. He called a friend who brought over a
magic capacitor checker and they checked and replaced all the caps.
The friend was a TV/Repair man and even aligned it for me. We laid
about 50' of wire out and sure enough it worked. It was late so
dad said we would put up a "real" antenna the next morning. I was
flabergasted. My dad NEVER took off work unless someone was sick or
dead. True to his word we went to the local radio store, Radio
Electronics is still in business but a ghost of their past, and
bought 125' of antenna wire with two ceramic insulators and a 8'
ground rod. Must have cost all of $5. His treat. We spent the rest
of that morning putting up a 98' "long wire" that I used until I
married and left my parents home. His friend insisted that I use
an "isolation" transfomer that he gave me. I still use the ceramic
insultors, but the antenna wire got tangled in fallen trees in the
ice storm of 1991 and I couldn't salvage much of it, or at least
not in one piece. But at least the radio will have a nice home, out
of a cramped box.
I will post a review of this radio after I "restore" her.
I am much more excited about this radio then the "new" PCR1000
that I just got in a complicated trade. I am blessed with a wife
who shares my love of radios and loves "old things". Might be
why she keeps me. The old things part.
Terry


Go to rec.antiques.radio+phono with the model number and the guys there
should be able to tell you how old it is. I always loved old tube
radios. My first SW receiver was a Hallicrafters S-40, made in 1946-48.
I loved the eerie glow of the tubes and the green glow of the plastic
dial and the smell of cooking dust while listening to "Radio Moscow
World Service" (an attempt to compete with the BBC World Service) and
the various stations I could pick up, mostly in the 31m band. That radio
died a slow death until I sold it to a retired TV tech for $20, and he
promised to restore it. I now have a Yaesu FRG-8800 as my main rig, but
I'll never forget that Hallicrafters. I bet it would go for a pretty
penny on ebay-it was in pretty good shape.


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wrote:
My dad called tonight and told me they found another box
in the endless cavern that is their basement. It is my first
SW radio. A old Zenith AM/SW. I can't wait to pick it up
Thursday and start the rebuilding project. I suspect that all
the caps have eiother dried out and open, or are leaky.
Dad said that I packed it real good wraped in newspapers with
a photcopy of the Rider (Ryder) service data. I had forgoten
that I had scrounged up several spare tubes so this baby should
last a while. The original plastic (bakelight?) case was cracked
so I made a case for it in 7th grade shop class. Every since
they found my GR64 several years ago I had wondered what had
happened to the old gall. If I remember correctly the radio
covered from about 5 through or just beyond 15MHz.
Dad says that it has some of my early attempts at antenna design.
These I can't wait to see. I do remember planning (dreaming)
to put a wire from the hill behind my grandmother's house to the
hill top on the other side of the valley. Only about 1500'. Dad
tried to explain wire sag but heck, what does a 7th grade know
about that!
I got that radio while cleaning out a widows attic. Got paid $5 whole
dollars. That was the early summer of 1963. I knew enough not to plug
it in until my dad got home. He called a friend who brought over a
magic capacitor checker and they checked and replaced all the caps.
The friend was a TV/Repair man and even aligned it for me. We laid
about 50' of wire out and sure enough it worked. It was late so
dad said we would put up a "real" antenna the next morning. I was
flabergasted. My dad NEVER took off work unless someone was sick or
dead. True to his word we went to the local radio store, Radio
Electronics is still in business but a ghost of their past, and
bought 125' of antenna wire with two ceramic insulators and a 8'
ground rod. Must have cost all of $5. His treat. We spent the rest
of that morning putting up a 98' "long wire" that I used until I
married and left my parents home. His friend insisted that I use
an "isolation" transfomer that he gave me. I still use the ceramic
insultors, but the antenna wire got tangled in fallen trees in the
ice storm of 1991 and I couldn't salvage much of it, or at least
not in one piece. But at least the radio will have a nice home, out
of a cramped box.
I will post a review of this radio after I "restore" her.
I am much more excited about this radio then the "new" PCR1000
that I just got in a complicated trade. I am blessed with a wife
who shares my love of radios and loves "old things". Might be
why she keeps me. The old things part.
Terry



Great post! And I hope it works out as well as you're hoping, Terry.

Tony

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What a fun post to read. I love old radios, too. I have an old Philco model
84 that was built sometime in the 1930's... the caps, tubes and the power
cord were replaced, as well as the speaker cloth... so it looks like old,
but works like new. No SW band though, just AM, and I'm less than 3 miles
away from a flamethrower AM station, so I can't pick up much more than that
one station... but it looks cool and is a great conversation piece.

It's funny how old radios, more than any other piece of electronic
equipment, seem to conjure up folks' memories of their
dad's/grandad's/great-grandad's radio from way back in the early part of the
last century. Whenever people see mine, they usually say something like,
"Hey, I remember my granddad had one of those old tube radios, too", then
they will try and describe what it looked like. Great fun!

Jackie

My Zenith clearly doesn't look all that old. While my wooden case
was a good effort, I was only in the 7th grade, I wish I had
saved the original case. I suspect it could have been repaired.
But it will be nice to have her, I always think of radios and
cars as "shes", back in operation again. The Zenith had a much
better sound then the Heath GR64, but the GR64 was much more
sensitive and had much better selectivity.
Terry

"running dogg" wrote in message
...
wrote:

My dad called tonight and told me they found another box
in the endless cavern that is their basement. It is my first
SW radio. A old Zenith AM/SW. I can't wait to pick it up
Thursday and start the rebuilding project. I suspect that all
the caps have eiother dried out and open, or are leaky.
Dad said that I packed it real good wraped in newspapers with
a photcopy of the Rider (Ryder) service data. I had forgoten
that I had scrounged up several spare tubes so this baby should
last a while. The original plastic (bakelight?) case was cracked
so I made a case for it in 7th grade shop class. Every since
they found my GR64 several years ago I had wondered what had
happened to the old gall. If I remember correctly the radio
covered from about 5 through or just beyond 15MHz.
Dad says that it has some of my early attempts at antenna design.
These I can't wait to see. I do remember planning (dreaming)
to put a wire from the hill behind my grandmother's house to the
hill top on the other side of the valley. Only about 1500'. Dad
tried to explain wire sag but heck, what does a 7th grade know
about that!
I got that radio while cleaning out a widows attic. Got paid $5
whole
dollars. That was the early summer of 1963. I knew enough not to
plug
it in until my dad got home. He called a friend who brought over a
magic capacitor checker and they checked and replaced all the
caps.
The friend was a TV/Repair man and even aligned it for me. We laid
about 50' of wire out and sure enough it worked. It was late so
dad said we would put up a "real" antenna the next morning. I was
flabergasted. My dad NEVER took off work unless someone was sick
or
dead. True to his word we went to the local radio store, Radio
Electronics is still in business but a ghost of their past, and
bought 125' of antenna wire with two ceramic insulators and a 8'
ground rod. Must have cost all of $5. His treat. We spent the rest
of that morning putting up a 98' "long wire" that I used until I
married and left my parents home. His friend insisted that I use
an "isolation" transfomer that he gave me. I still use the ceramic
insultors, but the antenna wire got tangled in fallen trees in the
ice storm of 1991 and I couldn't salvage much of it, or at least
not in one piece. But at least the radio will have a nice home,
out
of a cramped box.
I will post a review of this radio after I "restore" her.
I am much more excited about this radio then the "new" PCR1000
that I just got in a complicated trade. I am blessed with a wife
who shares my love of radios and loves "old things". Might be
why she keeps me. The old things part.
Terry


Go to rec.antiques.radio+phono with the model number and the guys
there
should be able to tell you how old it is. I always loved old tube
radios. My first SW receiver was a Hallicrafters S-40, made in
1946-48.
I loved the eerie glow of the tubes and the green glow of the
plastic
dial and the smell of cooking dust while listening to "Radio Moscow
World Service" (an attempt to compete with the BBC World Service)
and
the various stations I could pick up, mostly in the 31m band. That
radio
died a slow death until I sold it to a retired TV tech for $20, and
he
promised to restore it. I now have a Yaesu FRG-8800 as my main rig,
but
I'll never forget that Hallicrafters. I bet it would go for a pretty
penny on ebay-it was in pretty good shape.

I think it depends on a lot of factors; I was surpised
seeing an S20R over $100 right now on eBay, so the
S-40 could have brought in a few bucks.

--Mike L.

Whoever's got my "first radio" can keep it.
Hallicrafters S-120. Ick.

Thanks for the links. Inever pass p a chance to read
about radios. We ar leaving to go pick up the Zenith
ini about 10 minutes. I hope to post a report early
Friday evening about the condition of the radio.
One advantage of working in a shop is access
to good test equipment. I may even have her within
a few days.
Terry