Found this today. Looks pretty good. It is not working. supposedly it just needs the 1L6 that is bad. I have one coming, so I shall see. I do notice that I'm missing the suction cups for the WaveMagnet, but that's it.

https://i.imgur.com/qtvr0zC.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/ZeEruRo.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/bC5ZVjp.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/MOo3gaT.jpg?1


My dad had one just like this when I was a youngster.

The suction cups are usually petrified and or rotted by now. Rubber typically never ages well 5+ decades into its life.

These will work on the AM band with a cheap 1R5 (the 1R5 won't oscillate into the SW bands). These should be serviced to prevent possible filament overvoltage on the 1L6...Those are rare expensive tubes; wasting them by gambling on the chassis state is not a wise move in my book.

Is a 1R5 the same as a IR5 One R5 or EYE R5?

I found some on Ebay. SOme are called IR5 and some are called 1R5.

It's 1 (one). It denotes the filament voltage which is actually about 1.4 V at 50 ma. There's a family of these 'one volt' miniature battery tubes like 1U4, 1U5, 1S5 etc. And there's 3V4, 3Q4 etc., which have a 3 V filament. And they're all 50 ma., intended for series-string service.

Series string? SO, that means when one tube goes out, nothing works in the radio at all? Pardon my tube illiteracy.

Found this today. Looks pretty good. It is not working. supposedly it just needs the 1L6 that is bad. I have one coming, so I shall see. I do notice that I'm missing the suction cups for the WaveMagnet, but that's it.



https://i.img]https://i.imgur.com/MOo3gaT.jpg?1


My dad had one just like this when I was a youngster.
Unplug the red ribbon cable from the chassis receptacle and plug in the red plug with the black leads, otherwise the wave magnet won't be in the circuit.

Yep, did that. that particular photo was from the for sale listing, and not my pic.

I would imagine that even if I had the original suction cups, they would probably be hard and worthless anyway. So, after I get it serviced, I should have a pretty good radio, I would think.

Series string? SO, that means when one tube goes out, nothing works in the radio at all? Pardon my tube illiteracy.

It means if one filament opens none of the tubes will operate. One tube could have a short or no emission but a good filament and the other tubes would function despite the 1 tube having a defect.

Also, these battery tubes have extremely dim filaments. They may be difficult to see even in a dark room.

I will probably plug in the 1R5 and see if it plays. I won't chance it with the 1L6.

It means if one filament opens none of the tubes will operate. One tube could have a short or no emission but a good filament and the other tubes would function despite the 1 tube having a defect.

Also, these battery tubes have extremely dim filaments. They may be difficult to see even in a dark room.


I would guess that the original battery packs would be pretty worthless by now. Is there something that would work instead? It would be nice to take this TO camping.

Don't assume that the 1L6 is blown just because it is the most famous part of a T/O. [I]any[/] filament open will shut down the radio - but the most common source of total silence from a T/O is the selenium rectifier under the chassis (a modern silicon diode that costs a dime will replace it, but you'll have to do underchassis surgery and add a dropping resistor).
I suggest you try operating it on batteries (ten cheap 9V batteries for the plates and five AA alkaline or six ni-cad for the filament string).
If you hear anything, you know there are no blown filaments.

I pulled the 1L6 and looked at it. It's dark frosted, and there are a couple cracks by the base of it.

Batteries may seem to be cumbersome and/or expensive, but if you want to hear anything clearly, you'll need batteries (in the twenty-first century, where there's an AC outlet, there's a ton of RF noise).
Don't expect to hear anything on 49m during the day, and don't expect anything on 19m or 16m at night (ionospheric physics).
If you listened to shortwave twenty years ago, you'll notice that Europe shut almost all international broadcasting down.

I pulled the 1L6 and looked at it. It's dark frosted, and there are a couple cracks by the base of it.

What do you mean by 'dark frosted'? The inside of the glass will have a coating (the getter) that normally is brown, black or shiny silver on a tube under vacuum, but turns powdery/chalky white if the vacuum has been compromised.

The original batteries are indeed toast. Series 9V batteries and AA or C/D cells are acceptable alternatives. Be careful not to mix up A and B battery terminals...I've blown multiple tube filaments at once more than once (luckily not on a TO) making that mistake.

Another option I've seen is putting ~6 D cells and a switch mode boost supply into a gutted original battery case. Antique radio classified had an article on building one back in ~1993 that I had some success building ~5 years ago...There may also be a pre-built option as I've seen more than a couple floating around at swapmeets.

Dark as in it looks like carbon. Like it is burned. The cracks at the base are pretty obvious, as well.


My tech guy will be going through everything, and making it like new.

Dark as in it looks like carbon. Like it is burned. The cracks at the base are pretty obvious, as well.


That sounds like the getter in the normal state it should be in. When a new tube is made a vacuum pump pumps out most of the air/gas in the tube but not all. So they take a strip of a highly reactive metal (like magnesium) vaporize it with high power RF which distributes it as a blotch on the inside of the glass (the RF also bakes the other tube elements to drive out gas/contaminants from them) to maximize its reactive surface area. That blotch then eats up any air/gas molecules that contact it preventing harmful gas buildup inside of the tube.

In short that carbon look is SUPPOSED to be there and is a GOOD thing/sign.

I don't think an obvious crack that goes from one side, then under the pins, and back up the other side, is a good thing. :)


I have a new one coming, as well as a 1R5.

I don't think an obvious crack that goes from one side, then under the pins, and back up the other side, is a good thing. :)


I have a new one coming, as well as a 1R5.

I wasn't talking about the crack...

If the getter is still black then the crack is not leaking or in the time the crack has existed has leaked too slowly to compromise the vacuum. A crack that does not leak is concerning, but not an issue.

The getter is an accurate indicator of the state of the vacuum. Back in the day techs would regularly look for white getter color on tubes as a fast way to find leaky dud tubes.

Ok. REGARDLESS, I have a new one on the way. IF this one is any good, it will be a spare. I do not have a tube tester, my radio tech guy does.


Cheers!

That is a super clean TO. You wont find another that good so a great
find. Back in the 70's the ones that came in were never this nice.
I would not want to mess with the old BP especially if its as bright
& clean as the radio. Save it for display. If you want battery ops
build it into a modern plastic box.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

I guess this particular model was only made for 18 months, in '49 and '50. I've seen a couple in the past few years, but they were pretty hagged.

<snip>

Also, these battery tubes have extremely dim filaments. They may be difficult to see even in a dark room.

True!

Furthermore, they stay cool to the touch, even after hours of operation.

(Electronic M, of course, knows this - this post is simply to let newcomers know that cold tubes are not necessarily dead tubes).

True!

Furthermore, they stay cool to the touch, even after hours of operation.

(Electronic M, of course, knows this - this post is simply to let newcomers know that cold tubes are not necessarily dead tubes).

Yup. At this point I believe I have examples of all tube TO generations except the first (same for the SS models don't have the first either). Also have RCA and Hallicrafters tube competitors to the TO.

How do your TO's stack up against the competition?

RCA: untested/unrestored. Halicrafters: comparable performance, better turret TV tuner based bandswitch mechanism...Granted I was running the Halicrafters unrestored about 14 years ago (hum developed and it was shelved), and I only got the TOs working in the last 2-3 years. Also, I lived in Fl in the Halicrafters years. Eventually, I'll bench the Halicrafters and RCA and see how they compare to TOs side by side.

I installed the 1R5 and it doesn't play. I suspect I won't know the true issue until my tech goes through it in a couple weeks.

But it looks good on the floor. :)

https://i.imgur.com/JjZQ974.jpg?1

Hey guys.....I read somewhere that to use an 1R5, a pin should be removed???


I plugged it in, as I received it. should I be removing a pin?


Pin 5?


Maybe that's why it didn't work?

I don't know about the pin removal , it very well may be needed but I don't have a TO that uses the mini tubes (the one I have uses the 8 pin Loctal types) so I've never run into that . I do know that I'd be darned careful in how I'd remove a pin from one of those 7 pin mini tubes , it seems all too easy to crack the base and let air in if the pin isn't cut straight & clean with a very sharp tool .

I know you told me you like your favorite repairman to do the work , but if you were curious you could take an ohm meter and check the filaments of all the tubes for continuity . You could have an open filament on any tube . I'd do the ohm meter check before I cut the pin off of the tube , unless of course if the source you read that at is 100% reliable

Yeah, I'm not cutting any pins. I'm convinced that there is another issue somewhere. One of the other tubes seems loose in it's base. I got some static when I wiggled it. I'm not even going to plug in the 1L6 that is arriving today. I'll wait until my radio guy can do the radio and let him do it. No sense of blowing up a brand new 1L6.

Since you have a great relationship with your radio guy , hell yea I totally understand you not wanting to risk a somewhat expensive tube to experimentation . You may want to ask him about batteries , when used as a true portable radio is where the TO really shows it's stuff :)

Hey guys.....I read somewhere that to use an 1R5, a pin should be removed???


I plugged it in, as I received it. should I be removing a pin?


Pin 5?


Maybe that's why it didn't work?

Should work ok without pin removal but will draw un-necessary current b+ to ground... apparently there is a resistor in the connection to pin 5 that will dissipate the current safely. Read more here:
http://www.zenithtrans-oceanic.portabletubes.co.uk/1l6.htm

jr

As that pin on the 1R5 has a 68K resistor in the line, it has no effect.

There were other radios using the 1L6 in which using a 1R5 could cause a catastrophic short, but not the T/O.

That T/O was a great find! I've been meaning to get my hands on one for a while now.

There's also SS replacements for the 1L6

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1L6-Solid-State-Replacement-Tube-in-Glass-Trans-Oceanic/123301686270?hash=item1cb55a6bfe:g:X3oAAOSwLg5bbNb c

Costs as much as the real thing :D

And how well do these T/Os perform shortwave wise? All my tube SW radios perform pretty poorly

Interesting. That solid state thing is the real deal? It functions like a tube?

I will have to let you know in a few weeks how it does on SW.

That T/O was a great find! I've been meaning to get my hands on one for a while now.

There's also SS replacements for the 1L6

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1L6-Solid-State-Replacement-Tube-in-Glass-Trans-Oceanic/123301686270?hash=item1cb55a6bfe:g:X3oAAOSwLg5bbNb c

Costs as much as the real thing :D

And how well do these T/Os perform shortwave wise? All my tube SW radios perform pretty poorly

I find that my 500 and 600 models are less prone to RF overload than the Royal 1000 (back in the day, I could pull the oscillator transistor out of its so socket anf still hear stations).

The tube models had less sensitivity on the 16m band.

Keep in mind, that these radios used the same IF/detector chain used for the AM broadcast band. They were made to sound good, even for music, so they do not have very good selectivity, and can't alone be used for CW or SSB reception. For weak signal reception, you'll want a communications receiver.

Communications receiver?

Communications receiver?

Yep! If you like high performance, vintage, heavy and lots of knobs and tubes a great choice is a R-390A:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-390A

One of my favorites, although I am presently using an Icom IC-R8500, which covers up 2000 mHz.

jr

What sort of antenna do you hook up to such a thing?

Yuge!!!

For frequencies up to 30 mhz, I usually use just a simple long wire... 100 to 200 feet of wire strung between a couple of trees makes a pretty fair antenna. For more serious AM band dxing, I use a remote tuned rotatable 5 foot loop, which provides less signal but much less noise than the long wire, and is directional.
For higher frequency listening, a disk-cone for omni directional general coverage up to 2 gHz, supplemented by Yagis and Log-periodic antennas on rotators for some specific frequencies, such as the FM band, UHF tv and some VHF ham bands.

jr