The PHILCO Phorum
Zenith 3000-1 - Printable Version

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RE: Zenith 3000-1 - Paul Philco322 - 08-31-2025

I have to give credit, Fred Smith in Texas did that case for me it was a mess. He is tops. Yeah when I use a link to Flickr you get to look around a lot of my stuff. Thanks. Paul

RE: Zenith 3000-1 - MrFixr55 - 08-31-2025

Paul, how bad was the chrome over aluminum on your TO 3000?? Mine looks like it has a case of acne. Funny, these things are just as heavy as the vacuum tube TOs

RE: Zenith 3000-1 - Paul Philco322 - 08-31-2025

I do not have a 3000, I do have a Tube TO. I also have this beast....it sounds great and can be benchpressedIcon_smile. It is a heavy radio but is a good AM DXer and FM pretty good too. 

[Image: https://radioattic.com/images/horace/Horace_Zenith_Royal_2000_(1962)_nr2.jpg]

This is not the one I own but is same model and mine looks just as good. Maybe the solution for your friend is to look at Ebay and see what can be had as a "new in box" brand name like you mentioned? 

I have an earlier version of this C Crane radio and is has turned out to be a good player. 

https://ccrane.com/orphan-ccradio-ep-pro-am-fm-portable-analog-dsp-twin-coil-antenna-inside/

Paul

RE: Zenith 3000-1 - MrFixr55 - 09-01-2025

I did find a decent (not great but decent) AC / Battery AM FM Stereo Bluetooth radio that works for her. A little tinny for me but she likes it.

That Zenith looks nice, I bet it sounds nice and I have to think it was made around the time of one of the transistor TOs. Looks like it is made with a lot of cast metal parts. Does it have PC construction or a metal hardwired chassis? The US built 1000 and 3000 were hand wired metal chassis units. the Taiwan built 7000 was PC constructed.

Zenith staked their reputation on being hand wired, but this started to go away in the 80s. They did semi-automate things in the 60s by having the socket connections and terminal strips protruding through the top side of the chassis. The connections were pushed in, and the unit was then wave soldered. I went crazy fixing a Zenith color TV that had video ghosts that made me think that there was a delay line problem until somehow, I pressed on the chassis and the issue cleared. Issue was the failure of the solder joint between one of these terminal strip pins to a metal chassis tab as this connection was supposed to be to chassis ground. Issue very similar to problems with RCA and similar sets where the PC board was soldered to the chassis pins on which the board was mounted. Often the ground wiring on the PC board was not contiguous and ground continuity for the board's circuit was the chassis via these mounting pins.