Zenith Royal 2000 Repair Recap and Sound Upgrade

vintage transistor radio repair with cigarette clusters

[@shango066]

This video was completed a week ago, before all the USPS DeJoy news broke

[@kareno8634]

Truth will show up eventually.

[@5roundsrapid263]

Street corner mailboxes have been disappearing for over a decade. They’re about as useful as phone books now!

[@tstahlfsu]

Jay Man check yourself. Note the Cheeto in Chief is voting by mail too....

[@FlatBroke612]

tstahlfsu ^check out the bigot shaming someone based on their skin color here...

[@dwderp]

tstahlfsu voting by mail and absentee ballots are two very different things. But one side in this argument is clearly not bright enough to understand that concept.

[@JerryEricsson]

I just wanted to post a thanks to those who wished my wonderful wife well in her battle with cancer. The day before yesterday, cancer won the battle, and I am in the process of planning her funeral. We were together as man and wife for over 51 years. In fact it was 51 years and 4 days. My heart is broken in a billion pieces, but I come here for these wonderful videos to take my mind off the horror of this terrible fight with the evil that is cancer. I will bury the love of my life on Tuesday, I am going against her final wish to be cremated and planning a christian burrial in a fine casket, a well built vault and all that goes with that. Her only reason for wanting the cremation was cost, and granted it is costing over ten thousand dollars more for full funeral then for simple cremation but I think she was worth every cent I am spending.

[@tiporari]

God bless you with peace and comfort. Sorry for your loss.

[@emiliosanchez5621]

I have no words but to say My deepest condolences. For no words seemed to sooth my aching heart after losing my wife 2 years back. Wise choice to bury rather than cremation. Now you have a place to grieve. Be well.

[@frankpitochelli6786]

...my sincerest condolences...I'm 62 and dread the day when I lose my significant other, my girl and I have only been together for 6 yrs, I was married to another for 20 yrs and it will be heartbreaking to lose my girl and my x who is the mother of my two sons....I guess we'll all cross that bridge one day.😢

[@BeautifulAngelBlossom]

i so sorry for your loss cancer is so evil sending you lots of postive vibes and wave links

[@waltschannel7465]

Jerry, so sorry for your loss! Been married 29 years to the same great woman. I can only imagine the loss you are suffering. Peace to you...

[@MrHBSoftware]

7:09 that chssis is so clean that i dare to say it is "Mr carlson's lab worthy"...difference is that i think i will not fall asleep on this channel

[@thegodgen]

make a patreon id support your work. ive gotten years of entertainment out of your content.

[@tstahlfsu]

Good point!

[@StoneShards]

Zenith: The Quality Goes In Before the Name Goes On. I remember the commercials...

[@_Ramen-Vac_]

I moved to Sacramento like one month before 9/11 2001 (just incidentally) and yard sale shopped for most things, found a Zenith Circle of Sound and paid $1 for it, still have it and it just works great! while in Sac I'd tune in Davis KDVS and that was my entertainment... about 3 years later I found another Circle of Sound at the SPCA thrift store for $5 and it worked for a while, blew a wax cap up all over the board, and I threw it away. . . sure wish I'd have kept that to fix. What kept me going? Great Radio. Great Radio and bongloads.

[@JerryEricsson]

I quit smoking in 1993, my wife quit in 1973. Dad quit smoking in 1973 when he died. My eldest sister quit smoking in 2010, she died last year of cancer. My younger sister never quit smoking, she died last year, my doctor who reviewed my chest X-Ray says my lungs look as though I never smoked. My wife had strong lungs, but a hereditary cancer took her life last week. Guess you don't need to smoke to get cancer but it sure helps.

[@thenewBH]

Sorry to hear that Jerry. RIP

[@moshezaharia4666]

This Zenith rocks! sounds amazing! Many of us are waiting to watch any new video you upload, and if you read the comments i would like you to know that you are really loved around the world, and for me personally it will be a real honor to meet you one day.

[@Synthematix]

The thing is my mother died at the age of only 51 and she never smoked in her life, my grandad smoked since the age of 15 and lived to be 86, when your time is up it is up, no matter what you do, i know of athletes who were the pinnacle of fitness die in their mid 20's. i say do whatever makes you happy and let no one dictate to you how you should live your life, it no ones business what you do really. but ill chainsmoke and you drive a sportscar at stupid speeds around town with no seatbelt whilst talking on your mobile phone lets see who dies first. the goal in life is not to live forever, but create something that does.

[@steve732]

Problem is a Smoker and their habit affects other people who do not wish to smell or endure the effects of the smoke. Do what you want but if it affects others then you have no right. And the nicotine ruins everything around it. Smokers are air polluters. Its a stinking filthy habit no matter how you wanna word it.

[@Synthematix]

@@steve732 Well seeing as smoking is banned in every pub and workplace no non smoker needs to breathe it in. this isnt the 1960s and shangos "smokers specials in flavour country" videos are his best ones.

[@aerofart]

I remember When I was a teenager back in the 80’s, I would drive up to Chantry Flats/Santa Anita Canyon to one of the overlooks and listen to 91X. Amazing that the station is still on air as of the date of this show.

[@superhet7281]

Mrs. Miller did Green Tambourine? Oh, baby!

[@brianmcgowan7394]

Would love to hear that!

[@sugarbluedriftwood8643]

I worked with bass player Steve Walmsley at Old Hickory Furniture in Indiana for a couple years...still cool.

[@gerardcarriera7052]

Great video as always. I've been getting into collecting vintage transistor radios especially early American made ones and my rule of thumb is if I see an ITI or Nashville capacitor, I automatically change it. They are almost always bad and I can count the number of good ones I've come across on my fingers and still have fingers left over. For the Japanese radios, same rule applies if I come across the plastic blue or green caps made by Sanyo.

[@johnsampson1096]

Nice sounding, and yet another well explained repair. I had a small transonic 7 transistor I would feed the audio from the detector diode into a mono tube tape recorder. It was when WBZ Boston played top 40 radio. It sounded incredible.

[@dave809garcia]

Had that radio in the 70S love it wish i still have it

[@spu77]

Concerning the nausea thing, I started watching your videos a few months ago and couldn't stand the motion. It would make my stomach sick. But now I got used to it and it doesn't bother me anymore, nausea is a thing of the past! I am cured!

[@albinklein7680]

First comment. That's a first for me... I am really glad, parcel service-vise, to live in Europe. Shipping times rarely exceed one week "coast to coast". I live in Germany, and here a parcel up to 30 pounds takes less than 24 hours to deliver and costs under $10...

[@bobbyk6585]

I came here for the diagnostics, but I end up laughing like a madman at the running commentary. Just love that Shango.

[@932stretch]

I have several of these Zenith Royal 2000's. Beautifully made and a great performer. Interesting about changing the sound of the radio. You changed the sound of the radio to the way you like it to sound. I believe people purchased the radio for the way Zenith designed it and the way it sounded. I like the way it sounds as designed. Nice, simple, easy modification, though; if that is the way you like it to sound. Zenith, The Royalty of Radios.

[@hadireg]

'cigarette glaaaze, Activate!" 😂👍 Precious!

[@nonamex3052]

Zenith radio are beautiful inside out

[@JustMe-in5jn]

I axed a friend. LOL! Shango for President 2020.

[@fredflintstone8048]

Maybe it was a BLM friend.

[@jdmccorful]

Did they bleed?

[@uTube486]

I found one that was left out on trash day. Complete w/ batteries, it turned on right there. It's so cool you have a video about it.

[@moisesalexandrewielckensci3237]

The performance of this radio was very good!

[@jamesmann1243]

Shango, Excellent job as always. I have several of those Zenith, tube and transistor radios, and yes, like you, I repair them. Thanks for the video, It open up an avenue about a problem I'm having with an early 60's T-O 3000-1, that was performing beautifully, then just died, and went completely silent on all bands. Thanks again!!!

[@matthewbestdfghy]

42:35 I'm glad I never started smoking. At 38 it makes no sense to start.

[@jdmccorful]

Once again the "Transistor Guy" wins. Great find, learned alot from your work on this radio.

[@tomhoehler3284]

Prager is a pretty smart guy. I'm not a total fan, but he makes a lot of sense. Incidentally, this radio sounds great for its size. Good fix, Shango!

[@kevvywevvywoo]

We didn't have Zenith in the UK, this looks super quality, like a valve radio chassis in miniature. I suppose our british equivalent would be Dynatron or Hacker, serious money until the Hong Kong imports drove them all out of business

[@craignehring]

What a jam up & jelly tight radio ... Zeniths were so awesome Great diagnostics and repair Master shanho066

[@volvo09]

That radio sounds GOOD. I was shocked at the fullness from a portable unit.

[@fredfabris7187]

I’ve been saving O2 wires for a while now and have quite the collection. Shango May have now made their value on eBay sky rocket!

[@hql400]

very nice... Its so wonderful entertaining to see you working. It is a good motivation to go in the laboratory, too. The diode is in the can because a demodulator basicly can generate harmonics on higher frequencies that can cause noise and other problems, if this is coupled into the front end. To built the diode in the can, too, minimizes the risk of that... with the difficulties to service this. This problem ist to find in TV-Sets, too. In my experience, schottkys like BAT41 do very well up to 40MHz (video detector). Your decision to let the defective diode in the can is absolutely understandable, but keep in mind, that the defective diode has that faulty 1,4V in both directions, that means (for me), if the kathode-side of the detector was open (was it ?) the defective diode leaks in the blocking direction, in this position you have to measure "oo" resistance or overflow in the diode test-mode. If the defective diode is leaking, the demodulation will not do well, but it do well as your results show. ... In a lazy situation I (!) would try to open the can... But to let it be is the other decision, that is equally good in this situation. Very good work as always !!

[@tomj4506]

Silver mica caps are NOT limited to Zenith. GE especially had it also. IIRC Automatic Radio built most of these transformers. So after 55 years this radio will outperform almost anything else. Build quality is over the top even back then. When the Zenith engineers put this together nobody knew or cared that this problem would come up 30+ yrs later. Not ragging on you Shango, just setting the record straight. And yes I am a Zenith apologist. LFOD !

[@nickfrench7372]

It,s so awesome how u have this zenith radio working nicely,,,after replacing a few capacitors and diodes,,,very interesting how u had got the am band working,,,and receiving distant stations on fm,,,i love the classic music,,,Daryl hall and John oats,,,one of my favourites. And you still have channel 6,,,analog tv reception on fm? I miss the analog tv,,,we used to get that here in Australia. All digital stuff now.

[@franklincoello8606]

Hi Dave didnt know you are such an expert car driver😂 nice work as always cheers

[@matthewbestdfghy]

2 weeks to mail a package, and people think mail in voting is a good idea.

[@rock.doctor]

...there are three thoughts... 1. it will work great if a specific party wins or expect more riots. 2. they will "lose" ballots giving a specific party the push over the edge. 3. it will be such a glowing disaster we will not have any results and Jan 1 Pelosi takes over the presidency (speaker of the house takes control in the absence of a Pres and VP). We might be saying President Pelosi in 5 months...

[@gerardcarriera7052]

@@rock.doctor God forbid!

[@scharkalvin]

@@rock.doctor Maybe. Isn't Pelosi also up for re-election? Certainly many members of the house are, and the balance of power in that chamber might not be clear. It's a potential mess. BTW, in states that have early voting (and even those that don't), you might be able to drop your "mail in ballot" at the poll without having enter the place (at a ballot box outside the building). They ARE doing that in Broward county FL. That's another option, contactless voting, so long as you've correctly filled out your 'mail in ballot', it will be processed the same as if you filled it out in person, or dropped in the mail box.

[@andershammer9307]

Its the way I have to vote due to Covid19. Throw out dejoy and return the mail sorters and boxes.

[@johnchildress6717]

Hopefully your state will can NASTY P.

[@matthiasmartin1975]

Wow, it took me an eternity to realize that this is a transistor radio - it's build exactly like a typical tube radio, strange, and very cool.

[@hestheMaster]

Sort of. But a transistor radio really is a current dependent device and a tube radio depends more on voltages.If you draw a block diagram of either they then look the same!

[@matthiasmartin1975]

​@@hestheMaster You are correct of course. It is only the mechanical construction, with a sheet metal chassis with sockets (here for transistors instead of tubes) and point-to-point wiring on the underside that is identical to earlier tube designs. It is only a few circuitry traits that were carried over to tranistors for some time, like using output transformers instead of directly driving the loudspeaker like it is done today.

[@sincerelyyours7538]

You don't need a cameraman and a makeup artist. Just a tripod with a cellphone mount will do. Both radios deserve restoration. The variable induction tuning alone makes them rare and worth the effort.

[@bobs152]

I love your humor, great stuff

[@tomki6asp]

Inversion tunneling. That’s a beautiful radio. I need to repair my TO 3000.

[@MrBIG4D]

I bet this was in a house with a pipe (or cigar) smoker. My Grandfather was a pipe smoker. I can imagine what you are smelling. I got that same smell every time we would visit my grandparents house. Fond memories.

[@hallieboy]

Shout out to Shango066 for keeping me entertained during the lockdown and my subsequent job loss, and for giving us an alternative to watching the news with all it's negative political crap. It's just that the nicotine rants always make we want to go outside for a butt.

[@PaulaXism]

it's nice outside

[@MrUbiquitousTech]

That looks to be a good schematic as it has the values of the capacitors in the cans. Great video, great catch on an odd problem. Your fix does make the most logical sense really.

[@nickfrench7372]

I like the twin tuning dials both turning at the same time too.

[@SpeakerFreak95]

I added a small flat paper cone tweeter that floats in front of the main speaker, the original speaker is limited above 7khz. Just the nature of a paper cone with a felt dust cap. I can send you one of these tweeters to put in yours if you like. It’s a 6 ohm job, a small coupling cap is all that is needed for a gentle high pass filter.

[@hestheMaster]

Sniffers delight! Spicy tobacco smell. Very nice retro smelly cigarette radio. Good work getting to make it receive once again Shango. You're the best.Shalom.

[@Anti-Peaceforcepolice]

Is Shango066 a Dead Kennedy's fane... 👀

[@SeanDamonGreene]

Dennis Prager is great! Always a good , intellectually stimulating listen. (being serious here, I'm not being sarcastic).

[@franciscocpaim]

Impressive quality of this germanium transistor radio. Sounds like tube radio.

[@rexwulf805]

That's a very lovely and sniffable Zenith portable!

[@williamlegall2988]

shango066= EQUAL PARTS comedian & technician!! Great radio too. Overall IMPRESSIVE!

[@jetjazz05]

7:30 - Sounds like a nice Perique blend pipe tobacco... A MAN OF TASTE AND DISTINCTION. Gorgeous radio, damn good smoke. But like, that's just my opinion, man...

[@ricknelsonm]

Great video as usual. Hope your having a good and cool Saturday. Thank you

[@1L6E6VHF]

I bought one of these 20 years ago- fixed it by replacing three caps with porous ceramic cases branded "Nashville" that must have dried out. Us VHF-UHF DXers refer to your 91X reception as "Tropospheric refraction". It doesn't skip off the ionosphere, rather, 91X's signal follows the boundary between humid cool air (speed of radio waves less than c) and drier warm air (speed of radio wave almost equal to c).

[@Dazzwidd]

it's interesting how an abrupt change in the dielectric constant of the air versus altitude has such a profound effect on VHF and UHF radio propagation to the point where the signals can get so extremely strong even though they're coming from hundreds of miles away

[@1L6E6VHF]

@@Dazzwidd There have been 2 meter, FM Broadcast (3m), and 70cm amateur contacts between California and Hawaii.

[@Dazzwidd]

@@1L6E6VHF I don't doubt that, I've heard western Australian FM radio and UHF CB come through when I was still in South Australia. That's over 2,000km away

[@harryshector]

IIn 1986 I made a list of everyone in my family that I had known personally, who had died. Everyone who had used tobacco, in any form had died of causes that could be directly traced to the tobacco. I quit for that reason. At this point, I have outlived every one of them.

[@shango066]

seems to average 20 year shorter life

[@phononut]

My Grandmother used snuff most of Her life, She lived to 101. My Mother has used snuff most of Her life, She's 93 and going strong.

[@harryshector]

phononut My paternal grandfather used to chew on unlit cigars. He died of stomach cancer at the age of 41.

[@seancarroll146]

after watching your videos I am giving up cigarettes.

[@1959Berre]

I don't know where in California the wildfires are raging like crazy right now, but anyhow, stay safe. Greetings from Belgium, where the virus is raging like hell.

[@markmarkofkane8167]

I'm sorry. I sympathize. Take care! 👍

[@aakasoto]

w̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶v̶i̶r̶u̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶r̶a̶g̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶l̶l̶. where the media and government is raging like hell.

[@JerryEricsson]

Watching this much later, it is 44 outdoors, in doors 60 degrees, I am cold!

[@RingtailTheRaccoon]

Shangos style means his videos are never boring

[@marksimendinger3462]

Yes putting the detector diode in the IF can what were they thinking? Great repair you figuring that out and having a work around.

[@Denvermorgan2000]

I really like this radio.

[@johngross6735]

I can't believe KZbin hasn't inserted a commercial into this video every 3 to 4 minutes like most of the rest of shango066 videos. I guess they just haven't gotten to it yet.

[@Trainwreck144]

Removing the Demphasis capacitor, brightens the FM audios response, Demphasis/Premphasis was a technique to lower the FM Shot Noise in FM Receivers.

[@frankpitochelli6786]

Shango, I live in R.I. and except for social media, I never see any of these great antiques and retros TVs or radio's in the trash or recycle bin...maybe I'm not looking very hard, I've been following your channel here for almost a year and just subbed. Btw.....if you have anything you would want to sell " not repaired" I am a 40 yr vet of the TV and appliance bizz...I got out about 4 yrs ago, but, will be getting back into the restoration area when I retire in a couple yrs. Best wishes. Frank.

[@tony--james]

there is a FB Group called "Vintage CRT Television Sets Buy, Sell and Trade Worldwide" there may be other FB groups for Radios etc,

[@frankpitochelli6786]

@@tony--james ...thank you very much for your reply, it's nice when ppl will answer a question and forward information. Best wishes sir.😀

[@frankpitochelli6786]

@@tony--james ...btw, I have joined a couple of those vintage TV and radio clubs on FB just in the last few weeks, so we'll see how it goes. Thanks again buddy.!

[@barryg41]

Nice tribute to Retro Chad through out the video. 🙌👍🙌

[@grassulo]

That thing sounds amazing, shame about the IF cans though, they will eventually go bad and it's a REAL ZENITH radio "The quality goes in before the name goes on!", also "Crackle pony master play" it brings me great joy and you made my night!

[@grassulo]

Also just got my new test LCD monitor/TV for my test bench for free from the trash, plastic front bezel is cracked but it has RF and Composite and Component, S-Video, VGA and two HDMI ports (previous one didn't have HDMI this is nice!), and is small enough to wall mount, go figure one dies and A WEEK later I find it's replacement! :) It's a Philips which I am getting rid of the Phi in front in honor of Jan Beta!

[@brianfletcher9774]

Get your Joe Biden on....a real sniffers delight....LMFAO ! Good one Shango !

[@oldcarnocar]

funniest reply ever! "real sniffers delight" lmao

[@markmarkofkane8167]

One time recently, priority mail took a whole week. Today, the package was on time. Go figure. Another interesting video! I assume the detector diode was called a catwhisker in crystal sets?

[@joshuaaustin99]

I love watching your videos. This seems like a really nice radio. Really good reception.

[@jastervoid]

Nice fix Shango. I would have done the same thing, opting to leave the open diode alone inside the xformer can makes the most sense

[@BenHelweg]

There's a good website out there that has live maps of tropospheric ducting of 2 Metres, 70cm etc.. You just key in your location and it shows what the current and expected conditions are.

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

3:33 Ah, reminds me of the time I got horribly sick after opening a dish settop box filled with nicotine infused dust. Fun times!

[@LanceHall]

More circuit mods especially on the older radios might be something you could do more of. I wonder if it's feasible to take an old tube TV and double up the audio circuit with spare dupe parts and use the added circuit to amplify the stereo sub-carrier and convert an old mono TV to stereo. It would require designing or finding an analog demod circuit and putting on small board and interfacing with the old stuff.

[@petemiksich5760]

WOW. That radio sounds great! Excellent video!

[@knifeswitch5973]

Crackle...pony...master...play? You rock!

[@franklynpolster8949]

This exact radio sold for $141 on shopgoodwill this week.

[@teacfan1080]

Good performing radio, especially when you cut out that yellow cap on FM. In my town, during a period of shutdown, the newspaper lost a lot of revenue due to lack of advertising. So they went to publishing the paper 2 days a week, a physical newspaper. All subscribers could go online and access the digital daily version, whether it be text based or an actual PDF-type copy of the paper that would like the real thing. I get the two papers per week mailed to me as they no longer have any carriers. While I can access the online paper for free, you still can't beat sitting in your recliner with a real newspaper in your hands.

[@senilyDeluxe]

36:30 the question I was asking to myself is why for testing purposes / temporary fix did he create a solder joint of such high quality.

[@macgvrs]

Great troubleshooting, as usual. Nice sounding radio.

[@tech45]

the quality built in before the name goes on:)

[@Derrick6162]

I enjoy your comical half assed approach to troubleshooting. Let me grab a martini and I'll move to the next video... 🤔😆🤔😂

[@annierenard5954]

again a good therapeutic video .... thank you

[@mjg263]

Beautiful construction, man whatta radio!

[@blitzroehre1807]

7:40 " I hope that you got a good visual image and experience with that." And now we all stick our faces into an ashtray full of butts and get the rest experience too XD

[@bombasticbuster9340]

Same with my family on smoking. My mom is 73. Stopped smoking in 1983. Still here. Dad dead at 61, 2 aunts, 1 uncle. All dead from smoking.

[@ralphups7782]

I am guessing, that our radio engineers in great Britain. Would sit at the bench, smoking a cigarette with one eye closed, while using leaded solder and a 100 watt iron too boot. ;-)

[@PaulaXism]

yup.. that was the 80's.. doc says alzheimers will get worse with age.. but just enough lead poisoning to make it hilarious...

[@arongooch]

I love your video's Shango but im always on the look out for a spot of Mrs Miller. It's been a while since my last fix of Mrs Miller you know.

[@vancouverman4313]

I have a mid 1955 Zenith Royal portable transistor radio that I restored. The radio has first generation germanium transistors in sockets. I replaced the electrolytics and checked all the tranistors and did an IF alignment. The radio was listenable but still had a bit of distortion which still annoyed me. After checking all the voltages and connections, I just kind of gave up figuring that since it was the first transistor that Zenith came out with, perhaps this was considered acceptable at the time.

[@shango066]

I have a video of coming out that covers that in the future. Was not acceptable it should work well

[@connorm955]

My parents smoked for awhile and quit, they're still alive, they're about 56 and 52. No health problems yet.

[@M0XFXUK]

Wow that is a really punchy radio, sounds great with the cap disconected. Yep me too, Mrs Miller all the way...

[@mattsnook1723]

Quite an amusing guy. Nice work!

[@joelcabrera5257]

Postal employees defied postmaster order to keep mail sorting machines offline and reassembled these machines to resume the original First Class Standards you expect from the Post Office. Just thought you should know .

[@bones007able]

I think the original price on that set was 150- 200 bucks... just for a portable AM/FM...

[@tarstarkusz]

You get what you pay for. Granted, that's a LOT of money, especially for what it is.

[@soulrobotics]

I bought a ZTO 1000 D 9HT41Z2... All resistors more than 25% over its value. Several 0.05uF and 0.1 uF shorted and oscilator coil pin 6 must have 3 wires to that pin.. Arriving only 1!! I have to disassemble everything!

[@Wenlocktvdx]

Australian post office is suffering from virus woes too. Taking longer and longer for parcels to get anywhere. This video is brought to you in glorious shakycam, lol

[@steviebboy69]

I had a package go from Melbourne to Wangaratta and it sat at the melb PO for about 2 weeks before it finally moved, and I had something sent from Queensland to wang and it took 3 days but that was Fastway.

[@kareno8634]

There is NO Such thing as a 'Whiny Politician' when *Speaking TRUTH. That 'sound' is called a Warning.* Knowing the difference . . . Not Many pay attention, or will do anything about it. Being "Sophisticated" is a whole other story. Not smoking is Sophisticated.

[@mymessylab]

You are super 👍👍. I love your humor 😄😄 as well.

[@DaBenz69]

17:17 TOTO- hold the line. YES. . . .

[@Synthematix]

That sounds amazing mate

[@joeblow8593]

It took a week for a 1 day Priority to be delivered from 25 miles away