[Coco] OT- Old Radio Help Request

[Aaron Banerjee]

That sounds very similar to a radio I just bought at an antique store in
Warrenton, VA.  Mine is a Zenith with the same type of dial, similar
tubes, same 6 buttons, etc.  Mine is a cabinet with a phonograph in a
drawer which slides out (electronically independent of the radio).  The
shopkeeper had a tag on it saying it was from around 1938-1940, but wasn't
100% sure.  I suspect yours is from a similar era (it's probably the same
radio as mine in a slightly different case).

In my particular case, I'm getting a hum.  The shopkeeper said they could
pick up a radio station with it, but I sure can't.  I haven't taken it
apart yet, but I suspect that they've used wax capacitors, which decayed
over time and became conductive (I've had this problem in some of my other
radios).  The tubes seem to be fine.

Good luck with your radio.  They're a lot of fun.
                 - Aaron

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 smostrom at mn.rr.com wrote:

> Sorry for the off-topic question, but I was able to get back out to the family cabin over the weekend (lake still frozen solid, but most of the snow is gone now), and got some more information about our cabinet radio.  Hopefully some of you who volunteered help can add more information.
> 
> The radio is a Zenith, but I could find no date or model number.  A tag inside reads, "Made in USA by Zenith Radio Corp.  S693466"  Another sticker reads, "Zenith Radio, Chasis Model 1005, Watts 95, Volts 117, Cycles 50-60".  The face of the radio has a central dial divided into 3 frequency rings, one arc in the upper half of the dial and two arcs in the lower half.  The upper arc is labeled "Foreign Broadcast" with a range of 6 to 18 MC.  There are many countries listed around this arc.  One of the two lower arcs are labeled "Medium Wave" with a range of 1.6 to 5.0 MC.  The other is labeled "Standard Broadcast" with a range of 55 to 60 KC.  To both sides of this central dial are a bank of 6 switches.  The left set are labeled "Voice, Normal, Treble, Alto, Bass and Lo Bass".  The right set of switches are labeled with what looks like radio station call letters, but most of these are worn off.  Below the central dial is a round knob (volume and on-off ?) with a 4-position lev!
>  er switch
> 
> Inside the cabinet is a vacuum tube chasis with 6 glass tubes and a collection of metal cylinders and other components.  I could only read the glass on 4 of the tubes.  There are two that read "6X5 GT/G", one that reads "6V6 G", and one that reads "6V6 GT/G".  The other two tubes are located behind these and I could not pull them out easily.  On this tube chasis is a selector switch that reads "Television / Radio", but there isn't any indication that a TV is an option, but this might help date the radio.
> 
> In the cabinet base is a board on swivels with a wire harness leading to it from the tube chasis above that is labeled "Sensitivity Control for Operator".  It looks like there is an antenna wire attached here on a screw head labeled "A", another screw head labeled "G" (ground, maybe?) and a slide switch labeled "local / distant".
> 
> Unfortunately the power cord is extremely brittle and cracked so I didn't want to plug it in to turn it on.  I'll have to replace this cord before I do any testing.
> 
> If Dennis or any other old radio experts can help date this radio and give me any pointers on how to test and fix it up, it would be great.  Also, I would love to buy spare tubes from any of you that might have replacements.  Maybe you know from the tubes described what the other two tubes are without me needing to pull them out.
> 
> Thanks much for the help, and sorry again for the off-topic post, although the radio is being used as my Coco3 monitor stand, if that helps!  :-)
> 
> -- Steve --
> 
> 
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