This is my first radio/electronics restoration project, a Zenith Transoceanic H500 short wave receiver, circa 1951. As I have read, the radio is based on an AA5, a 5 tube superheterodyne using 2 1U4s, a 1U5, a 3V4 and a 1L6. I am fortunate that this particular rig has an almost religious following on the Internet, so troubleshooting an restoration tips are very easy to find. The radio was in a barn for the better part of a few decades and had several generations of insects and rodents making a home in it. The speaker cone was completely destroyed, and a nice layer of corrosion covered the chassis. The tubes are still in good condition though, although one of the 1L6's (there was a spare set of tubes) is shot. The selenium rectifier and main power supply filter cap still test good, so those will stay for now until I need to replace them. The bumblebee caps should eventually be replaced, but all in good time. The current status is that after about 10 hours of work, it fires up an receives audio on some of the bands, others are quiet, but lacking a frequency generator, I can't easily verify alignment. Guess I'll be looking for one of those at the upcoming hamfests.
Zenith Transoceanic H-500 Restore
By crszczub - Posted on January 21st, 2012