Wall of Zeniths

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by captainmoody

I have the "poor mans" setup as I am on a very limited budget (as well as short of space). All are either restored or were working already when purchased. My favorites are the Zeniths first, then the high end Magnavox and GE radios.
I have done a similar thing with my console tv's, that way two 6 foot entertainment centers can take the space of one!

Thanks for pointing that out. When I posted here last night, I had forgotten just whom it was here at AK that had the large rack storage units for his radios and TVs.

I'm also on an extremely tight budget and don't have a lot of space, so most of my radios (six antique/vintage Zeniths and a bunch of vintage transistor radios of various makes) are in my bedroom, with the exception of my K731 Zenith which is on top of the refrigerator in the main part of my apartment (one bedroom, so the apartment unit itself is just one large room, as I mentioned in a previous post).

I don't let the lack of space bother me when I have to work on my equipment, either--anymore. An old-time ham radio operator in Colorado called me out several years ago (in an email responding to a post of mine to a Google message board--I think it was rec.antiques.radio+phono) on a complaint I had made that, since I live in a small apartment, I could no longer work on old sets. I had signed my own ham radio call sign after my name, which is probably why this fellow even made the comments he did (among them, why was I complaining about not being able to work on my own equipment, when I had a General class ham license; he mentioned that I must know or have known a few things about electronics when I passed the tests, now almost 34 years ago). Ham radio people are supposed to know their way around electronics (all amateurs must pass a written examination on electronic theory, among other things related to the hobby, in order to get a license) and to be able to work around obstacles such as small work spaces, etc. (My own ham radio installation is on an old computer desk in my bedroom.) About 25 years ago, one young amateur in the New York City area even turned the closet in his bedroom into a radio room, what we hams call a "ham shack"; the story was in an amateur radio magazine of that period. The suggestion was made that I could spread newspapers over my kitchen table and use it as a makeshift workbench; I have since done just that to repair minor problems with my ham gear, and will continue to do so with my radios as necessary. There is no reason why I cannot continue to work on my own equipment when it breaks down, just because I live in a small apartment; there are solutions to almost every problem. Ham radio operators are supposed to be resourceful people; it is because of this quality and the nature of amateurs to be experimenters and innovators that we now have such things as radio (the first radio station in this country, KDKA in Pittsburgh, began as amateur station 8XK in 1920), television, satellites (hams have communicated via satellites for some years), and other technological marvels most people outside our hobby take for granted today.

My point is, just because you may have limited space in which to work, don't give up trying to repair your radios, etc., even if it means working at your kitchen table and using an extension cord for your soldering iron (as in my case).