My '40s Zenith radio working

[Young fogey]

Recently one night on America's East Coast it picked up WGN in Chicago, a super-powerful AM station most of the country can pick up at night.

[video=youtube;_kXY5iSKqVk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kXY5iSKqVk[/video]

 

[vitanola]

What model Zenith have you?

On a good, cold winter night, a properly "perking" Zenith console of 1940's vintage connected to a good aerial should be able to pick up KFI, the Don Lee station in Los Angeles.

Now, WGN on an Aeiola Junior or a Radiola I would be a remarkable (though not unheard of) achievement.

The good consoles and better table sets of the 1930's and 1940's are much better radio receivers than are the AM sections of most modern tuners, even in some of the most expensive modern sets, for while there was cosiderale interest in DX (distance) reception among radio buyers in the Golden. Era, modern AM tuners are included almost as afterthoughts, and so they tend to be very poorly engineered.

A quality vintage set also generally sounds better than a modern AM tuner, for fidelity was prized seventy years ago, as FM was not commercially important, and so there was actual MUSIC on the Broadcast Band, and not just the incessant bloviation of our modern versions of the Vicar of the Little Flower.

 

[Deco Jill]

that's a wonderful zenith.... so pretty.

 

[Young fogey]

I don't know the model.

Thanks.

 

[Mrs Chaddsley_Corbett]

A Lovely Wireless indeed!

 

[dhermann1]

I haven't flogged the good old SSTran AMT-3000 lately. Time to do it again. Get yourself an SSTran AMT-3000, and you can broadcast your own music to that little radio any time you want. It's a 250 watt AM transmitter, doesn't need an FCC license. You can connect it to a live stream from your PC, or to a CD player, or whatever. Great little gadget.

 

[1930artdeco]

What channel is it on? I have not listend to AM radio in so long I would not know stations to tune into. Although I would probably need to make a larg outdoor antenna.

Mike

 

[Young fogey]

I tried to get that transmitter two years ago but the shop people didn't know what I was talking about. Thanks for the name. I can try to find one online.

The station is at 720 AM.

 

[Stanley Doble]

There is a pretty good nostalgia station AM 740 out of Toronto. You can pick it up all over the midwest and east at night.

 

[Young fogey]

Thanks. I'll try to hear it. Mostly I'm getting local talk radio.

 

[1930artdeco]

O.k. now for the technical aspect...What length do I need for and antenna?

Mike

 

[MissMittens]

O.k. now for the technical aspect...What length do I need for and antenna?

Mike

Minimum 1/4 wavelength for best reception......I use an antenna tuned to the middle of the AM broadcast band.......7.5 metres at 1000khz

 

[Angus Forbes]

^^ Should be 75 rather than 7.5 for a quarter wavelength?

 

[Giftmacher]

Very nice indeed! What about 6095 kHz? It's (currently) a Dutch weekend radio station broadcasting true oldies from 50's to 80's