Zenith 6S152 from 1936
I found this radio on Ebay. It was within easy driving distance in Kingston, NY and the seller did not offer shipping which increased my chances of a winning bid. The model number starts with 6 meaning that this radio has six tubes. It was a lower end console for that model year. This radio has the "Big Black Dial" that Commander McDonald, President of Zenith had wanted developed so it could be seen across the room. The radio also had "Split Second Tuning" which made it easier to relocate a favorite radio station on the shortwave bands. The radio covered the AM broadcast band, plus shortwave to 18 megacycles in three bands. Here is a short synopsis of the restoration process.
The underside of the chassis before the capacitors were replaced. I had a surprise when I pulled it out of the cabinet. Mice had taken up residence under the chassis and had been using a section of the underside as a bathroom. Out came the mask and gloves.
The large candhom resistor on the bottom of the chassis had a bad section.
Title Text.
Her is the under chassis after recapping and some out of tolerance resistors changed. Dem mousies had chew off some insulation for dinner so I replaced it with some heat shrink tubing. I left the chassis outside during a couple of sunny days to rid it of the mouse pee smell.
Here is the recapped radio playing outside the cabinet. I have temporary knobs on it for servicing. I left the top mounted electrolytic capacitors installed but disconnected for looks. The modern replacements are much smaller and are mounted under the chassis.
Here is the completed radio playing nicely! Repro knobs were purchased from Renovated Radios on the web. New grille cloth from Jon at grillecloth.com. The repro grille cloth is getting harder to find.