Hi,

I've recently inherited an old Zenith radio and it would be great if you could give me any help correctly identifying it and also give me a rough idea of its value?

1) Having done some research I believe it to be an early 'Zenith TransOceanic Royal D7000-1' (or 'D7000Y-1' - What's the difference?). I say early as it has the brushed aluminium panel and not the baked enamel one.
Am I right?

2) When I was given it I was told it was in working order although I don't think it had been used for quite a while. Having put some batteries in it I can get the back-lit dial and chart light to work but no matter what I do with the knobs and settings I cannot get the radio to make a sound at all. I have followed the instructions and yet nothing. I have also tried using the headphones port to see if headphones work and still got nothing. When I press the button to put the lights on, the brightness of the chart light bulb varies in intensity - not flickering exactly but as if the amount of power going to it is not constantly the same.
Being a complete radio and electronics novice is there anything I can do to deduce what is wrong?


Thanks in advance for any help you can give,
Tristan

...that is a Royal 7000-1 (no 'D'; see purple label in next-to-last picture). One major difference between the '7000-' and 'D7000-' shows up clearly in the pictures: yours has the single-frequency crystal-controlled VHF weather band and thus is the earlier (late 1960s) '7000-'. The later 'D7000-' has a tunable VHF weather band to accommodate the additional NOAA weather frequencies that had been allocated in the early 1970s. They also have completely different chassis numbers: the '7000-' is chassis 18ZT40Z (possibly another number following the last Z in some versions, again, see purple label); the 'D7000-' is chassis 500MDR70...
...that battery box shows signs of corrosion from battery leakage and possibly some damaged contacts. That probably will need some attention before you try running the radio on batteries. The dial lights on that run on a separate battery (the one in the lower right corner), and the behavior you're observing with the lights may be due to contact problems as well...Was there an AC cord with that? Have you tried running the radio on AC if there is?...
...also, if it hasn't been used in quite a while, there is a good possibility that the controls and switches in that are going to need a good cleaning (the 7000 and D7000 alike are notorious for dirty contact problems with those slide switches, as well as the band selector, which needs to be cleaned carefully)...
...these are well worth putting a little time and effort into, if you know what you're doing...I've got a D7000Y myself...if you scout around on eBay a bit, you'll see some pretty insane prices on some of these (although, in all honesty and fairness, that isn't an accurate indicator of actual value, since those particular listings don't get much action)...I paid $120 for my D7000Y in 2008, with the bandswitch issues I mentioned above, as well as a bad FM transistor (quickly fixed), and a missing log book...in good working condition, yours should be worth at least that much if not more...the original MSRP on those in the late 1960s was $279.95...

...by the way, the Transistor Radios forum may actually be a more appropriate place for this discussion (moderators please take note)...

If your having problems finding an AC cord, try finding a cord off an old electric razor. Some of their cords will match right up.

I picked up my Royal D7000Y back in the mid 1990s for $80 and I was ecstatic to get it for that price! Prior to that, I had a chance to buy one for $100 at the 1989 AWA Conference in Canandaigua and felt silly for letting it go...

I think its the best transistor TO Zenith made.

Some say the last model was the best. The R7000 as Zenith dropped the "Royal". but it doesn't have the solid handcrafted chassis the Royal 7000 has. Opinions vary, but that's mine

-Steve

As mentioned above, it's a Zenith Royal R7000 or 7000-1, from around 69-70 or so. I would guess you could sell it for around $125-175 on eBay, depending on whether you get it working and what the brushed aluminum on the top looks like.

Could be MANY things causing it not to work. I suggest you get batteries for testing, One of the fairly likely failures is the AC power supply. As mentioned above, clean all the battery contacts - then tape the batteries to each other tightly to ensure contact. The radio originally had "battery tubes" that kept the batteries in line with each other, without that they tend to pop out of line and lose contact.

The dial light is mostly separate from the rest of the radio circuitry. It's uneven because of a dirty or corroded dial light switch, battery contacts, and/or dial lamp sockets.

Be sure that the manual RF gain knob is turned all the way CCW until it clicks.If you turn it CCW but not past the click, it will certainly be silent on AM or SW. Also, same thing with the BFO knob. Set the AFC switch to OFF, the bandwidth switch to "normal" (all the way to the left).

Raise the antenna, turn it on, and then click through the bands with the volume about halfway. If nothing, then take the battery cover off, and then roll or otherwise fiddle with the batteries to make sure they are making contact. Also manipulate the AC/DC switch a few times.

If all that fails, turn the Manual RF gain all the way CW (off the click, and then all the way to the right), and try again.

Still no joy, hook up one channel of a line source (like a iPod) to the "tuner" jack and then turn it all the way up, and play it. If you have sound, then at least the audio section works. If not, hook the tuner jack to a set of powered speakers, then tune around on the radio on various bands. If you hear something, the RF/IF part of the radio works but not the audio section.

Failing all that, remove and reseat all the transistors you can see from the back. Do it one at a time, just take it out, and put it back in the socket exactly as it came out. They are in sockets and held by the leads. DO NOT mix them up. The retry the tests.

If nothing works at all, then you probably have some sort of power supply problem, maybe some capacitors that are across the power input (both battery and AC), or a failed power switch. Unfortunately this is a pretty difficult radio to diagnose and service, maybe one of the most complex vintage radios and not a good radio to learn on. About the only additional novice fix is to remove the chassis of the radio and spray the switches and contacts with DeOxit D5 and manipulate, then try again. Even doing that entails some risk of breaking something.

Beyond that, I would hesitate to suggest taking a soldering iron to it unless you really know what you are doing. Not impossible with a lot of help, basically you would be first taking a bunch of voltage measurements to try to figure out where to look, and then most likely partially disassembling the radio and replacing know failure-prone components, in this case first the electrolytic capacitors, and then maybe some disc capacitors. This entails some delicate mechanical work and some pretty tricky soldering in places with poor access. Some parts are almost impossible to get to. I don't want to overstate the problem but I have worked on maybe 10 of these radios and even after having done stuff like this for 40+ years, it's daunting.

i would suggest seeking out someone with experience with this type of radio. If you tell us what area you are from I am sure you can find someone here who would help. If you can't find anyone locally, PM me and we can work something out.

Brett

Brett's response was excellent. I know this post may be outdated by now, but the following link may be helpful for others as well:

http://www.transoceanic.nostalgiaair.org

I strongly suggest that anyone about to attempt a repair - even an apparent simple one - should read the service manual and have schematics in hand. I made a mistake that fortunately only cost me a chart light bulb. I did not do a thorough enough investigation and tried to fix something that wasn't broken. You see, the chart light is supposed to work only when a battery is installed. It does not matter that you have the set plugged into AC. So, when I first tried to test the lamp and supplied more than 1.5VDC, it blew it out. Amateurish mistake on my part due to rushing and not giving a thorough enough read of the docs.

You have a really exceptional piece in your hands. All the best.

One little note: the knob with the red dot goes on the BFO control. I know its a nitpick thing, lol.

That aside, I have the exact same model you do the Royal 7000-1 and I use it every day. Excellent performer and a well built machine. This was back when things were hand assembled in the USA and workers took pride in their craft unlike the modern Chinese stamped out garbage. This is one heavy radio especially when the nine D cell batteries are installed.

Your tuning meter appears to be a little off-kilter.


~ Mitch ~