Scratchy pots and controls? Roaches!

[fdesalvo]

My mom inherited this old Zenith Transatlantic radio from her great aunt. I've been fascinated by it since I was a kid. It was my first encounter with vacuum tubes. 

I just came upon a little down time at my parents' house in Louisiana and happened upon it. I decided to give it a once over and attempt powering it up.

The tubes were in random sockets, so I had to download a schematic and sort them out.  There's a heap of 7 and 8 pin goodies that I've never seen in use. 

The obvious issue is going to be the main filter cap, which looks like it's been baked. Everything else was in order and I was willing to take a risk firing it up. Sadly nothing happened.  None of the heaters would even light up. I don't have time to even figure out how to remove the chassis from the cabinet.

I decided to take off the front panel to see if I could gain access to some chassis screws or bolts, but instead of that, the horror of 70 years' worth of dead and disintegrated roaches and casings met my gaze.  Sweet mercy the horror!

I'll order some new tubes and a filter cap for when I return. It's got a selenium rectifier that I can replace with some n1007s. Never got into radios, but this would be something great for my mom's spirit.

 

[fdesalvo]

Looks like I won't see any glowing tubes. The filaments run at less then 2 bolts. I'll replace all the caps, the rectifier tube and the diodes when I return. Too bad I don't have a battery to bypass all that.

 

[fdesalvo]

Longest self-perpetuating thread. She's so roached out. Looking past all that, there are some really cool vintage domino resistors and Cornell Dub caps here. Love that old selenium rectifier. 

It's comical - every time I dig through these old chassis the wiring seems so haphazard, with no obvious care for minimizing ground noise. Yet, they got it done. The thing I love about looking at schematics is the window you get into the designer's mind.

Edit. Looks like this was serviced previously. Some one bypassed the selenium rectifier with another diode.

 

[BigSteve22]

Holy Jesus! Looks like a drunken monkey wired that thing! But, as you point out, they still worked. I had some of those domino resistors from my Dad, I'll look around for them, but they might have gotten tossed, I haven't seen them in quite a while.
:icon_scratch:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Put the ADA MP1 3 Tube mod in it!!! :guitarplayer2:

 

[Axkoa]

That last picture is absolutely DISGUSTING. Good luck Frank...

 

[fdesalvo]

I'm getting nauseated looking at these pics lol.  There's a roach casing on one of the caps in the pics.  Urrghhhh

I might make a guitar amp of it or see if I can use the OT for a small project.  I have been tearing up the net looking for a spare tube holder and this one has one. I'll prob go home with it.

Lol @ the ADA comment. I miss my MP-1. That thing was bad@$$!

 

[mayfly]

Please don't butcher it.  Clean it up and let it run as it was intended - I'll bet it's still the best radio you've ever heard.

 

[fdesalvo]

Mayfly, love u for that brotha. 

I'm not even sure what to use to clean the nests out. Will have to do some research. May have to do a complete component-by-component teardown and rebuild.  It truly seems to need "everything".

A cursory search revealed quite a few h500 forums and some very detailed resto docs online, so I'd be in good hands. 

As an aside - and to your point - I've never heard anything played from a tube radio. The idea of getting Page's guitar a little more overdriven by goosing the radio's volume is appealing.  :icon_tongue:

Edit: what may be the best course of action and the funniest mighy be to find a local radio repair guy and hang out. There are still some old shops around town.  They are little spare parts heavens - some of them don't have online presences. I live 20 min from Santa Ana and Fullerton. Wonder if some of those old shops Leo would get parts from are still around. Could be an adventure.

 

[mayfly]

Back in the day my dad and I restored a 1950 Mercury.  It was a great car, but it had an even better radio:  A tube Motorola that ran on 6Volts, and had a single ended 6V6 output stage.  I used to drive that car and when David Lindley's "Mercury Blues" came on we used to crank it with all the windows down.  It was Heaven.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/URm7Ze9a56o[/youtube]

 

[fdesalvo]

El Rayo Live has some of the best guitar tones I've ever heard. I was just turned on to Lindley a couple weeks ago. Better late than never!

 

[rgand]

I like the thing. Even with the haphazard wiring layout, it's cool. Those antique radios really sound good.

Hard to find old radios still with the original roaches. :icon_biggrin:

 

[fdesalvo]

These baby-boomer roaches def have better tone than generation-x or millenial roaches!

Hey I know I'm getting older - I rarely listen to FM.  The Trans-Oceanic gives you shortwave + a couple broadcast bands (iirc).

 

[rgand]

When I was a kid, my dad had an old tombstone-shaped multi-band Zenith with a double face (double ended needle pointing both ways). It commanded a makeshift corner shelf in the shop between the lathe and workbench. The antenna was a wire that ran up the wall and across the shop. I used to cruise the shortwave bands for hours just to hear what was out there. I really liked that thing. A tube went out one day and he tossed it. I was saddened when I came home and found the empty shelf.

 

[fdesalvo]

RGand that made me a little sad, man!

Rediscovering this makes me want to dig in deeper. Wonder how many guys out there transmit and listen on these things?  I'm a complete newb. 

 

[rgand]

Rediscovering this makes me want to dig in deeper. Wonder how many guys out there transmit and listen on these things?  I'm a complete newb.

It would me, too. After all, there are only so many of them out there and you have one. :icon_thumright:

It would also be fun to get one of those cool old stand-up Philcos with one big 'ol speaker in it.

 

[arealken]

I have  small vintage Short wave portable collection, and a couple opf those old tune Transoceanics. Love them. Mine are in great  condition, but i haven't fired them up in well over 10 years. i am pretty sure by now they need electronic restoration as I bought them about  30 years ago!
Sure wish I had some of my old tube ham receivers..I had a few of the best and they are fetching crazy prices now.,but i had some of the w2orlds best tube audio come and go throuigh my hands- could not afford to keep them at the time, and now the prices are flat out insane.