[morzh]

Received my Bomber today. As we say in Russian, "An idiot's dream has come true!".

Nice condition, misses the front cover (which I knew) but the handle is intact and the case is not scuffed too much at all.
The guy packed it really well, double-boxed.

According to the seller it did not work although made some static noises. Which is a good sign to me.

I will be doing the report on it once I start.

   

[jerryhawthorne]

Nice find Morzh!
Jerry

[Ron Ramirez]

Congratulations on a nice find!

[Radioroslyn]

GL I'll mention that those 1.5v tube can be a little finicky about the filament voltage. Especially the mixer tube. Better to be a little high than low.
Terry
ps ru over by st vald's?? was in ur hood but was pressed for time.

[Eliot Ness]

I've always liked the looks of those, the style reminds me of something from an old Flash Gordon episode. Mine has the front cover but is missing the handle, and I haven't really found an easy way to replace it short of drilling out the old mounts.

[Doug Houston]

Normally, I bellyache about all you seem to see in Craigslist is Zenith. But, anyhoo, the Transoceanics are the best radios that Zenith made. I have one of each iteration, from first to last. The last (solid state) sets are absolute bombs...hotter than the blue blazes, and have superb audio. I include the Royal 2000 AM-FM set, too.

The best advice you might have is to at least re-do the filter condensers before you try to get the set going. Plugging it in as found is asking for trouble. All of the tubes in the set may be hard to find, especially the 117Z6. Don't tempt fate.

The other thing I'd strongly advise is, since the handle is still good, soak it with LEXOL leather conditioner. It will soften the leather, and help make it last longer.

[morzh]

I never plug in old radios without full re-capping.
A similar (hot chassis, Zenith 6G001Y) radio was fixed by me about last summer....first thing I did was taking out the triple electrolytic and restuff it with new ones. It is not the same of course but the power block is similar. Same 117Z6G rectifier tube - based block.

The rubber-clad wires....those are bad.

[Radioroslyn]

Bear in mind that a lot of the old battery sets the filament voltage is derived from from a voltage divider off of the HV in the AC mode. So beware that the HV is pretty close to the proper voltage.

Terry

[morzh]

There's another kicker there.
The divider works only when all the tubes are inserted. When one is missing, the cap charges to the full divider input voltage. So when you inserting that tube live, the rest sometimes go ... poof! This is why putting a zener in parallel to that cap is a good idea.
The zener should be a bit higher voltage than the one that powers the filaments so it does not conduct and does not load the divider. But if a tube goes it will limit the volts to somewhat higher but still safe for the filaments value.

[Mondial]

Does your radio still have the asbestos fiber sheet under the chassis? If so you might want to be careful removing the chassis from the cabinet. I would do it outdoors with some sort of dust mask on.

The 7G605 seems to be the only transoceanic with the heat insulating asbestos. I wonder what they were thinking?

[Radioroslyn]

Yeah filament string is usually 4.5 to 7v or there abouts. So should be a easy fix to add a zener.
Terry