My Zenith Console

I'm getting a real charge from these old radios. I acquired one the other day I actually didn't need to do a thing to but plug in and enjoy. I only had a few like that. Most require a little or extensive work. I hooked my transmitter into my CD player, put in some Tommy Dorsey and listened to it via this radio-a 1937 Zenith 12-S-266. It has twelve tubes, hence the prefix "12".

Check out the acoustical 12" adjustable speaker.

There's the famous Zenith "green eye" at the top of the dial that will let you know when you've honed in on the station. The cabinet has beautiful wood and the pic doesn't do it justice. i didn't think I was gong to be able to get it upstairs and the FedEx guy wouldn't help. I had to slide it up six stair steps and when I got to the top slid it across the floor and then tipped it up to open the box which took about an hour! Really, they really had it packed.

Both-nothing was changed except the old grill cloth was replaced and new electronics(capacitors and resistors) were replaced since the old ones dry up and leak.

This is what the chassis looks like. It came separate from the console due to weight. Zenith made some fantastic radios. Wish you could hear it...it sounds superb and comparable to my Klipsch speakers!

This is my temporary workplace until I can get better organized. You can see the old VTVM(vacuum tube volt meter) at the far left, current radio I'm working on standing on end with the new orange and blue capacitors, right behind it is my signal generator.

This is the transmitter I built so I can hook up an audio source such as a CE player or ipod so I can listen to any music I want through any radio in the house. It took several days to add all these tiny components.


One of my fancy signal generators.

fnord-The only shortwave set I worked on many moons ago was a Crosley American. It was Shortwave/Standard Broadcast and a beautiful example of the era.
I've always liked the Grundig but felt they may be a bit more complicated to work on if in part no other reason were the push buttons and maybe different tubes. German engineering is second to none, IMHO, however and I may get one some day. I see the on ebay quite often.

I work with electronics in the Army every day and its so cool to see this old circuitry, so simple (relatively, I work on digital X-ray units and the like) yet effective.

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Simple indeed in comparison. It doesn't get any simpler than the old AA5(All American Five) radios. These had five tubes and no transformer. the power came from a selenium rectifier rather than a transformer with the power tube usually a 35Z5.