I just won one of these on eBay, and its been shipped and scheduled to
arrive at my door on the 18th.
Can anyone tell me what to expect out of this old radio as far as SWL
broadcast listening - any of its quirks or shortcomings, or maybe some
things I'll really like about it?
Also, the guy says it could use some cleaning up. I know that
commercial solvents are not recommended, but what is the best way to go
about cleaning it?
I'll appreciate any helpful advice.

Doug

"Pops" wrote in message
oups.com...
I just won one of these on eBay, and its been shipped and scheduled to
arrive at my door on the 18th.
Can anyone tell me what to expect out of this old radio as far as SWL
broadcast listening - any of its quirks or shortcomings, or maybe some
things I'll really like about it?
Also, the guy says it could use some cleaning up. I know that
commercial solvents are not recommended, but what is the best way to go
about cleaning it?
I'll appreciate any helpful advice.

Doug


Theres allot of Zenith TO aficionado's over at rec.antiques.radio+phono


--

Regards
B.H.

Brian's Basement
http://webpages.charter.net/brianhill/6.htm

Brian's Radio Universe
http://webpages.charter.net/brianhill/500.htm

a bowl of soap and water and a rag squeezed out real good for the
outside.Any decals/numbers/letters on the dial,do not use any solvents
such as Windex or anything of that nature.Solvents will strip them
numbers off.Go very lightly with soap and water on any numbers/letters
on the dial and other areas.In fact,if they look ok,best to leave them
alone.
cuhulin

Pops wrote:
I just won one of these on eBay, and its been shipped and scheduled to
arrive at my door on the 18th.
Can anyone tell me what to expect out of this old radio as far as SWL
broadcast listening - any of its quirks or shortcomings, or maybe some
things I'll really like about it?
Also, the guy says it could use some cleaning up. I know that
commercial solvents are not recommended, but what is the best way to go
about cleaning it?
I'll appreciate any helpful advice.

Doug


The H500, like all the TOs are good performing SW sets. It doesn't have
continuous coverage of the SW bands, when built it covered the most
popular SW bands of the time plus the broadcast band. (sw#1 4-8 Mhz, #2
2-4 Mhz, #3 17.4-18.2 Mhz, #4 14.8-15.6 Mhz, #5 11.5-12.1 Mhz, #6 9.4-8
Mhz)

Clean the case with a mild soap and water, then if you like you can use
black shoe polish to spiff it up. Black liquid shoe polish will cover
any scratches in the Tolex covering.

The set is AC/DC/Battery and uses a selenium rectifier, get rid of it
(if a selenium goes 'thump' when it hits the bottom of the trash can,
it's bad, meaning all old and even NOS seleniums are bad or shortly will
be) and replace it with a diode (1N4005 or equivalent). Since the diode
will have less voltage drop than the selenium you need to replace the
130 ohm resistor in series with the diode with a 5 watt 180 ohm resistor.

This set has one tube that, due to scarcity, is rather expense, the 1L6,
so do not remove or insert any tubes with power on as that is a sure way
to blow the filament of one or more tubes. Don't be suprised when you
turn it on you don't see any tubes light up, the 2 volt filaments can
only be seen in low light.

Even when the set is turned off, there is still power to the rectifier
circuit, so it is a good idea to unplug the set when not in use.

Replacing all the capacitors is a good idea as well, but these chassis
are not easy to work on, and a good alignment might also be in order.