My dad called tonight and told me they found another box
in the endless cavern that is their basement. It is my first
SW radio. A old Zenith AM/SW. I can't wait to pick it up
Thursday and start the rebuilding project. I suspect that all
the caps have eiother dried out and open, or are leaky.
Dad said that I packed it real good wraped in newspapers with
a photcopy of the Rider (Ryder) service data. I had forgoten
that I had scrounged up several spare tubes so this baby should
last a while. The original plastic (bakelight?) case was cracked
so I made a case for it in 7th grade shop class. Every since
they found my GR64 several years ago I had wondered what had
happened to the old gall. If I remember correctly the radio
covered from about 5 through or just beyond 15MHz.
Dad says that it has some of my early attempts at antenna design.
These I can't wait to see. I do remember planning (dreaming)
to put a wire from the hill behind my grandmother's house to the
hill top on the other side of the valley. Only about 1500'. Dad
tried to explain wire sag but heck, what does a 7th grade know
about that!
I got that radio while cleaning out a widows attic. Got paid $5 whole
dollars. That was the early summer of 1963. I knew enough not to plug
it in until my dad got home. He called a friend who brought over a
magic capacitor checker and they checked and replaced all the caps.
The friend was a TV/Repair man and even aligned it for me. We laid
about 50' of wire out and sure enough it worked. It was late so
dad said we would put up a "real" antenna the next morning. I was
flabergasted. My dad NEVER took off work unless someone was sick or
dead. True to his word we went to the local radio store, Radio
Electronics is still in business but a ghost of their past, and
bought 125' of antenna wire with two ceramic insulators and a 8'
ground rod. Must have cost all of $5. His treat. We spent the rest
of that morning putting up a 98' "long wire" that I used until I
married and left my parents home. His friend insisted that I use
an "isolation" transfomer that he gave me. I still use the ceramic
insultors, but the antenna wire got tangled in fallen trees in the
ice storm of 1991 and I couldn't salvage much of it, or at least
not in one piece. But at least the radio will have a nice home, out
of a cramped box.
I will post a review of this radio after I "restore" her.
I am much more excited about this radio then the "new" PCR1000
that I just got in a complicated trade. I am blessed with a wife
who shares my love of radios and loves "old things". Might be
why she keeps me. The old things part.
Terry