Zenith Royal 810 AM FM Radio Repair Pocket Transistor Royal 51

[@proudsnowtiger]

"Always take a few minutes and just sit down and look at the thing through a good magnifying glass and familiarise yourself with what's going on" - which is not only good advice for troubleshooting, it's immensely pleasurable to read the set's engineering, the choice of components, the layout, the artifacts of aging. Fault-finding has its own aesthetics, and one of the reasons I love this channel is how well that's communicated with such dry passion.

[@zx8401ztv]

I agree, i love his sharp sarcasm as well as his vast knowledge.

[@ver64]

Couldn’t agree more with both...excellent channel, I ALWAYS learn something. Thank you.

[@Discretesignals]

I tell you one thing. If, I was ever shipped wrecked on a deserted island, I'd want Shango there to make a coconut radio.

[@hestheMaster]

Without Gilligan and in place of the Professor. Of course we would need the movie star! Hubba Hubba.

[@senilyDeluxe]

And when he completes it and turns it on, all that comes out of the speaker is Blebe blebe blep! :-D

[@paulseymour]

Yes but can shango066 construct a battery charger using coconut shells, salt water, pennies and hairpins to recharge the batteries in the radio like the Professor did? And I bet if the radio on Gilligan's Island lost a transistor, the Professor would have been able to whip up a replacement using part of a sea shell, germanium harvested from a cave and some hairpins.

[@TheEPROM9]

I still love how you going to detail on the trobleshooting proccess, no one elce does it like this which makes your video super valuable.

[@mellewallen4832]

I love how you diagnose the radios,and the dry wit comments too !!!

[@jrocco36]

The dot above the 100 on the FM dial denotes the FM radio station 99.5 WEFM Zenith owned in Chicago . The call letters stood for E.F. McDonald president of Zenith Radio

[@TheRadiogeek]

Very interesting.

[@waltschannel7465]

That is a neat artifact!

[@vcv6560]

@jrocco36 Nice trivia to put in the back of my pocket. It made me run over to check my Royal 3000 and 7000 it was present on BOTH, however my R7000-2 (the final TO) didn't have the marker.

[@johnvaldez8830]

You just can't beat having that factory Zenith manual on hand. What a life saver. Sometimes you just can't believe a transistor test unit; then again, these old radios get multiple issues over time and finally just choke. Superb video and fun repair. You should try those other transistors, I think they would be better.

[@mikemcmanus7665]

Great job on this zenith Royal 810 AM/FM. I enjoy watching you figure out what is going on with these good old radios. Thank you.

[@JSF0864]

Yay, a new Shango video! I've been watching your older videos between these new ones, thank you for your efforts!

[@JerryEricsson]

Very cool, I always learn something from watching your videos. I began to watch them for entertainment, and the learning experience. Now I watch them to get my mind off my wife, who is dying from cancer. My daughter and I are caring for her at home rather then putting her in a nursing home, where we would be separated from her for the rest of her life because of the China Virus crap. Being disabled myself, I am usually in a quite a lot of pain but she has cared for me for so long, the very least I can do is help her all that I can. Again thanks for the break I do love your sense of humor and the way you teach.

[@deanthompson3741]

It's alive,it's alive....Sir I sure enjoy watching your videos. I love radio but know nothing about fixing them. But to see a radio resurrected to life is all good. Thank You for your time and skill.

[@jeromegrzelak8236]

Worked at Zenith in 1962 i got this radio still works the service manul is sweet fb om

[@moisesalexandrewielckensci3237]

Your videos are always a great learning experience. I always try to watch.

[@keithbrandaw7229]

Very good video Shangoo , as always ! My all time favorite was the dump find Zenith 1000 . I like the old stuff too tube sets and alike.

[@ChristiRich]

I find these videos so relaxing and satisfying. It's ASMR for nerds.

[@hestheMaster]

Love the two for a week repair videos Shango. Hope you don't run out of stuff to fix during this extended pandemic lockdown!

[@snogcel1]

I must be brain damaged at this point, but I greatly enjoy watching Shango repair all this ancient stuff! I was a TV repair guy in the 70's, so it's a walk down memory lane to relive digging around in the innards of this old stuff in Shango's videos. On this old Zenith radio, ya might try tweaking the FM trimmers on the tuning capacitor to get the high end of the dial to track more closely - just a thought!

[@mjg263]

What a great little radio, back when Zenith was still Zenith. Love that detailed factory manual, that’s like what you would expect with a build-it-yourself Heathkit or something. Nice fix, thanks for taking us along!

[@JerryEricsson]

Years ago, back when Christ was a Corporal, I was a patrolman on a small police department in North Dakota. Now up on the high plains, we experience some of the most wicked thunderstorms on the planet and late at night the only thing to break the monotony of the town where everyone has gone to sleep except the cop and the crooks, is the AM Radio. Those Radio's served a couple of purposes in the summer months, one to keep us awake with either some great Classic Rock and Roll, or some talk jock who tells us his outlook on the happenings of the day, that and the sound of an approaching thunderstorm. Funny, when those storms get close, you could hear the wind up of a lightning strike on some stations, a sort of whinnnnnne CRACKLE and THUNDER would follow usually with a cloud to ground bolt that, should you happen to be looking in the right direction would cause a bit of light blindness sometimes lasting up to a minute. Got so I began closing my eyes when I heard that wind up because I knew the strike would be too near for the good of my night vision. To quote an old British comedy cop, "the life of a police man is not a happy lot.

[@andyjackson9990]

This is a Shango first. Radio repair in a thunderstorm! Loving the new release schedule. Thanks for all the informative and entertaining videos, Shango.

[@zx8401ztv]

Transistor stray capacitance, critical at high frequency resonant circuits. Zenith made some really nice looking radios.

[@jeromegrzelak8236]

note the spkr and the case made it sound gooood

[@markmarkofkane8167]

You removed a thorn from the lion's paw. Lol. Great diagnosis and fix!

[@brianmoore5498]

i like that little zenith. very cool little radio. super sixties style i know these videos are a pain to make but, especially these days they are truly very very much appreciated. thank you kindly.

[@maynardcat]

Your videos are always so interesting, I just bought a radio exactly like this at the flea market a few days ago, I didn't expect it to work, but it somewhat did for a short time. The volume control was hit and miss, I sprayed it with DeOxit, that helped a little, since the knob was lose I thought the intermittent volume was due to a bad connection. After taking it apart and tightening a bolt around the volume control it made no difference, and I saw no lose connections and the intermittent got worse. If I pressed in an area around the volume control it came on for a short time, but kept getting worse now nothing will play AM or FM, but I do hear a hiss in the speaker. I've not attempted to heat up connection points thinking there is possibly a crack or bad solder connection,. I put it back on the shelf for know, I can repair some things, but I'm not a good savvy tech guy like you, wish I was ,I'm afraid I might make it worse.

[@scottbrady7499]

holy twerkulation, Batman! ..as a shango066 viewer, and very familiar with the apparently mythical ease this dude seems to make shit from back in the day actually function, as it was originally intended to- i became a strong believer in his abilities. good stuff. really amazing. naw, that's all BS, i watch religiously to hear the voice of an individual, who can speak their own mind, on a variety subjects.

[@michaelrobertson575]

A very good fault diagnosis and repair of the discrete component electronics there Sir!I wonder if we might get back to that old Sony Telly soon?

[@tiporari]

You should build a basic radio from scratch. Maybe not starting with a rusty razorblade AM, but whack a few off the shelf parts together on a breadboard and build one up without using a receiver IC. I think that would be fun to watch, and you have the skills.

[@teacfan1080]

Nice stash of transistors you have on hand, always ready for a repair. Heard a little thunder in the background and heard the lightning as well, broadcasted over the radio of course!

[@SarahRWilson]

I see lightning flashes and hear static crashes!

[@feedle]

My dad had one of those radios when I was growing up in the 70s in West Anaheim. KFI would always blow the shit out of the selectivity at the lower end of the band when we were within 5 miles of their transmitter...

[@goyadressunofficial]

Unmatched pairs of audio output transistors don't bring me flowers...

[@craignehring]

A chrome plated die cast radio. We will never see anything like that again, not that we need to. Nice resurrection shango066. My parents has a Royal 500. That was a nice radio. Zenith did usually sweat the details and didn't cheap out on anything.

[@hql400]

wonderful ! If a whisker from emitter to case, the base voltage would be low, too, the B-E-Diode was bad... The GT313 is the best choice, I have very good experience with this in VHF-stages.

[@WC0125]

Another great video segment. Zenith must have had some relationship with Hiatachi. The station seeking Royal B-77 from 1971 is made in Japan and loaded with Hitachi factory parts.

[@jeromegrzelak8236]

say what

[@connorm955]

I really don't know. At the end of the day it's just a capacitor.

[@WC0125]

@@jeromegrzelak8236 Yes. The radio seems to have been made by Hitachi given the components.

[@robinsattahip2376]

That's interesting, the RF transistor tested good but was bad. Learned something useful today.

[@vcv6560]

My guess is those little testers are DC based, so they check Beta rather than hfe. Being used in RF its easy to imagine the GBW (gain-bandwidth) is likely 1MHz on those old germanium growing tin-whiskers or whatever age induced failure modes they follow.

[@JerryEricsson]

Cool man, you bring good things back to life!

[@emmagarner2519]

Glad to see your still alright shango.

[@jrs0007]

I remember reading once about why Zenith (and others) had different factory part numbers when the generic number was the same. Early high frequency germaniums (made to be the same) actually had different characteristics when operated at high frequencies. The factories chose the ones best suited for various circuits and assigned a unique part number. It's not much different from choosing the best TV tuner tubes (of the same number) back in the day when rural folks needed an outdoor antenna to get 2 or 3 channels.

[@MrBillmcminn]

FM amplifier and converter both dead or committed suicide because of the mumble rap on FM radio in LA

[@jeromegrzelak8236]

that cracked me up

[@mlpreinbowfluttersrycutebo6818]

Awesome. Reapir. Radio. I. Love. Your. Chanel. I. Am. Very. Big. Fan. Of. Your. Chanel. I. Love. Vintange. Stuff. To

[@renejansen5939]

I Really like the look of those American radio's!

[@шлямбур-владимир]

Helloy Shango!!!...Very good- ГТ313А (Russian)!!...100%!!!

[@tarstarkusz]

200 hours on 4 AA cells (assuming 3000mah cells), not bad at all. Good alkaline AA cells were .39 a piece in the 1965 radio shack catalog, which were a bit overpriced. Still, that is only $1.56. Their regular carbon-zinc cells were $0,10 (when bought in 20 pack). But back then CZ cells were better and would run a lot longer than the cz cells made today sold at the Dollar Tree. 10 years before this you could still buy tube based farm radios that ran for like 5 hours on an expensive ($5 in 1950s) battery. The 1965 Radio Shack catalog lists a 90v B battery at 3.95 (23k188) and an A battery for between a dollar and a dollar 60.

[@Phantom-darkness]

Came for the radio repair stayed for the “boys of summer”

[@koyomineko8655]

Good job from Japan. 😺📻

[@guitarpro248]

Thanks for all these posts during the chinUNEASE virus If you could, can you work on a vacuum tube tv soon?!? I enjoy watching the tube stuff over transistor stuff, as whenever I watch your videos I always learn something new even though I don't have the same models! Take care Shane! Stay safe.

[@weerobot]

Service Manual that Rare..lol...Ground is Positive Wow...that Circuit Board spaghetti..lol...Great Work...!!!

[@damoviecreator4673]

That's such a cool radio. Looks solid

[@Elfnetdesigns]

@8:04 - That manual has a typo: 88 - 108 KC; should be 88 - 108 MC

[@dedmazai9212]

29:00 An interesting technical solution .. !! If my eyes don't fail, I can see the aluminum cores in the coils ... Not high frequency ferrite or brass ..?! The last time I saw this in the drums of the channel switch of a tube TV .. I see it for the first time in a radio receiver ..)) As a matter of fact, I did not have such a receiver to see this before ..))

[@Hunter-xy6qq]

SHANGO66 IS THE COOLEST TV REPAIR GUY 😎

[@jdmccorful]

No no, he's the Tranistor Radio guy during Wuhan Party days.

[@garp32]

Yay! Almost as good as Saturday matinee =) Thanks Shango

[@bob7872]

That was an interesting one. Love your videos.

[@russredfern167]

Almost made it to the end without propaganda. That's pretty good.

[@garymckee8857]

My radio history lesson for today. Thanks

[@robinsattahip6269]

So the RF Amp tested good even though it was really bad? I have never seen that before in almost 50 years of messing with electronics. THAT REALLY DESERVES MORE ATTENTION!

[@jdmccorful]

Expect the un expected and you will be a survivor.

[@waltschannel7465]

Look at the "diagram" that the tester presents. It looked like a diode, IIRC, even though it showed gain. That's a tester SW fault as far as I'm concerned.

[@Denvermorgan2000]

Thats a really nice design.

[@danishnative9555]

Looks a lot like the Radio Shack Patrolman 12-629A. See if you can find one of those.

[@DanafoxyVixen]

shango066 doesn't always listen to the radio.. but when he does its always distorted at maximum volume

[@MrJohndoakes]

Got to drown out the light airplanes buzzing his neighborhood.

[@vcv6560]

Considering how long Zenith resisted going to PCB, this radio from 1965 they should have followed this approach when they did the Royal 7000 just a few years later. Sometimes the best decision gets missed - for no obvious reason.

[@johnnydxer]

5:20 - Corrodeedoodle

[@cjmarsh504]

Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac!😊😊

[@mzflighter6905]

What do you do with all af those repaired radios?

[@tebbi67]

You can rejuvenate germanium Transistors with whiskers in it when you put it at 50-80 degrees celsius in a oven for 40 minutes.

[@tomcarlson3913]

I thought the punchline of 'Boys of Summer' being played during the Kung Flu quarry'n'teen is that there really is "nobody on the road, nobody on the beach"...

[@scharkalvin]

You probably tested that rf transistor with the case lead floating. Bet you had a case wisker short, and if you'd have cut the case lead in the radio it might have worked. The Ruskie's work FB though.

[@jp040759]

Thanx. I really enjoy watching you work trouble on this stuff. Did you get invited to Pelosi's house for ice-cream???

[@ІштванДодої]

Respect !

[@orange70383]

That looked like one of them robota hawks keeping an eye from the sky on unauthorized free-range humans.

[@call5sam]

Where did you get your translated Russian spec sheets?

[@Martin-io4wc]

Hey, the air plains are flying again. :-)

[@guitarpro248]

Also, I've been thinking about making a similar channel about working on strictly tube stuff, would you have any tips for someone starting a new channel??

[@shango066]

lots of work, lots of established channels doing tube stuff. what do you want out of it...follow your heart

[@jquest43]

@@shango066 can you fix my o3 ozone machine from 15 years ago..mint condition..I live in La and can pay [e-mail]

[@zzquantum8446]

Прикольная шкала! СССР спас Америку транзисторами! )))

[@God-CDXX]

if you use a diode to jump that switch you can manetane the full function of the DC jack

[@SarahRWilson]

He'd need a schottky diode, something like a 1N5820. A regular silicon diode will cost about 0.7V from the battery voltage.

[@God-CDXX]

@@SarahRWilson 1N5820 is $0.20 that is no prob

[@azariayehezkel9064]

What about sony kv? Found the schematic? Part 2?

[@jamienoel]

You're up bright and early.

[@raymondcourtois67]

Hmm, that's not the first time music that came out while I was in high school or college was on the oldies station.. And my reaction was hey, why is that on the oldies station?!?!?

[@jonathaneastwood2927]

Just getting old mate!

[@mrjason9382]

Thanks for shareing

[@danvanvoorst7329]

Thank you! Enjoyed!

[@LakeNipissing]

Totally amusing how cold war era American made radios can now be brought back to life with Russian transistors!

[@dktr2]

Amaizing sensitivity

[@pcno2832]

10:15 Though it might say "made in USA" and feel heavy with a nice dial, this is, for all intents and purposes, a nasty little Japanese radio. I wonder if the PC board was made here or just shipped over with all those far-eastern pocket radio parts on it. That tiny 2 1/4" (though American looking, going by the bare finish and box magnate) speaker can't ever sound good, but the amplifier is more interesting. At first glance, the totem-pole output would almost preclude the possibility of passable sound, but that 3300 ohm resistor appears to be carrying at least a little negative feedback. Maybe, with everything in spec, this thing could sound good on headphones or an external speaker.

[@williammitchem8274]

Well.....when are you going to build a Interocitor ???? With Bead condenser model #AB-619.

[@55benchguy]

So , Where can I get one of those transistor testers. Mine failed years ago , and I like the one that you are using. Please advise ? ( By the way -- ALWAYS Great Videos ! Thank you for them. It is making life sitting at home , much better. )

[@quantumleap359]

There's a ton of them on Ebay. Cheap, most all of them are the same, mine runs on a 9 volt.

[@55benchguy]

@@quantumleap359 Cool , I look. Do you have a brand name or model ?

[@waltschannel7465]

@@55benchguy There are no brand names on those tester units. Probably cloned from a single unit.

[@geoepi321975]

You should make an alignment in rf stages

[@bones007able]

Got one just like it!

[@iainoggy]

Does it not pop crackle masterpony

[@larry8253]

Am I the only one who thought the lightning noise was cool? 😎 LOL

[@lsudan2670]

plot twist : u didnt search for this ! THIS FOUND U 😅😉3:53 thas a government wet dream right there !! 😏

[@ugurylmaz7666]

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

27:34 Mrs. Miller on the radio airwaves?! Well alright....

[@rickjohnson1632]

👍👍✌️😎

[@_Ramen-Vac_]

My brother had a bust-me-sticker on a Monte Carlo lol

[@briang.7206]

"Dead Head" for a long time I didn't know what that meant.

[@nicolaheyesheyes4632]

Shango is it for sale

[@frankwhelan1715]

''Mains power socket will never be used''what if someone else gets the radio ?

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

Could be the driver transistor.

[@X-OR_]

FM (No Static At All)

[@joeblow8593]

Shango, have you ever seen or worked on an old TV that had Channel 1 ?

[@moshezaharia4666]

Joe Blow Hi, I just looked up an old TV and radio service book from 1967, and it looks like the old European, French and British standards did had channel 1. I live in Israel, and before PAL we had CCIR-B B&W standard, and I never encountered a TV that channel 1.

[@joeblow8593]

@@moshezaharia4666 I was referring to North American TV. There was once a channel 1 in North America and after 1948, channel 1 was reassigned for other uses and the government never renumbered the TV channels. So if an North American TV did have channel 1, it would have to have been 1948 or before...making it kinda of rare. The following from Wiki...."Channel 1 was reassigned to fixed and mobile services (44-50 MHz) in order to end their former shared use of other VHF TV frequencies. Rather than renumber the TV channel table, it was decided to merely remove Channel 1 from the table." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_1_(North_American_TV)

[@moshezaharia4666]

Joe Blow In this book I have, all the standards of the time (1967) are showing, and there is no mention of channel 1 in the North American standard. So it make sense that channel 1 was abandoned before this book was printed. Best Regards, Moshe.

[@Wenlocktvdx]

Most likely it would be pre WWII although there just might be a very small number of very early post war sets that had Ch 1

[@jpolar394]

Watching this whole video was great except for the very last part when you were tuning the stations and you hit a commercial that had the phrase DOT COM in it. Man, I just hate that. I'm sick and tired of hearing that phrase every few seconds either over the radio or on the tv.

[@ModMokkaMatti]

The late Jimmy Smith, legendary Jazzman and Master of the Mighty B-3 Hammond, cut both an album and a track titled "Dot Com Blues," at about the time of the Dot Com bubble bust. He was ahead of the game when it comes to disillusionment with that nonsense.

[@jdmccorful]

Don't forget the shoutout for Gordon Goodwin's band ,I guess KJAZZ.

[@jrs0007]

What I hate is "coming up"

[@WPM_in_ATL]

I am SOOO disappointed . When the radio first started working, I wanted to hear KNX. (This is an attempt at humor.)

[@a.k.qelectronic6282]

How much is this radio To whom is the price