Zenith Royal 20: An AM radio House Find

 Over this past weekend, I headed east to help clean out my grandpa's childhood home. It will be demolished in the next few weeks but it still had some things in it. One of those things was a Zenith AM radio - cool! I'm a huge stickler for AM radios. I love listening to stations over 200 miles away at night and I love the warm tone of AM. This is fueled even more by my amateur radio passion.

It was in pretty rough shape. There was dust all over it, the paint was chipped, and I had no idea if it would work. Yesterday, I disassembled it, cleaned the case with some vinegar, and removed the old, chipped paint. It took a bit but I was able to clean it up. To ensure that the circuit still had electrical continuity, I used some WD-40 contact cleaner - worked like a charm! The old volume and I/O pots are prone to corrosion and buildup. My old Sony AM radio had this issue.

Unfortunately, this toy relies on rare batteries, but with a 3V Lithium battery and a paper clip, I could tune in KFEQ in St. Joseph, KMA in Iowa, and WIBW in Topeka! It worked the first time.

According to online forums that I'm a part of, this radio was made in the mid-1950s. Surprisingly, CONELRAD frequencies are not marked, which I was somewhat surprised at. I assume that it has germanium transistors and it has about 7 or 8 of them. It had a 2.5mm earpiece but I was unable to locate this. Luckily, I had an old earpiece from a Nokia phone that mates perfectly with this. The earpiece plugs into the back of the radio.

These are a few of the photos I took. I decided to leave the paint off but I may go back and paint this later. After sitting for 60 or 70 years, this radio still works! It works great and it's a good thing to have. 

If you've heard lately, automakers are starting to scrap AM radios from their vehicles, especially EVs, citing that AM reception is quite terrible due to the many electrical circuits found in such vehicles. However, a few of our government officials are fighting back, stating that AM radio is an invaluable resource in the case of an emergency, just like the CONELRAD system back in the 50s and 60s. Say what you'd like, but I couldn't agree more. I listen to AM radio on a daily basis, and in case of severe weather, I have my VHF/UHF and AM radio handy. 

I have many things left to do around the ham shack, including setting up an outdoor antenna. I recently made my first PSK31 QSO and joined an evening Feld Hell Net hosted by the Feld Hell Club I'm a part of. All of this was done on my 891, which is holding up better than my laptop. It may be time to retire my old friend, but I may have a backup handy.

Stay tuned for more ham and electronics stuff!!!