When I returned to the States to attend college, I brought a Hallicrafters S-38 with me, and passed away many lonely nights listening to familiar stations from overseas. In the early 1970's I picked up a military surplus Collins communications receiver. It was a real boat anchor. With a family now, I drifted away from SWL as an interest and ended up foolishly selling both the Hallicrafters and Collins receivers, along with a very nice Philips B5X43A/74 at a yard sale for a few dollars each.

Recently, I began restoring old tube radios, and one of my daughters said she wished I had given her that Philips instead of selling it. It was a radio she grew up with, but it never occurred to me one of my kids would want it. I began watching for that model on Ebay and found one it just a few miles from Richmond, and I was able to get it for about what I had paid for my original radio in the PX in Germany in 1964. In fact, I think this could even be the same radio I sold twenty five years ago, but I'll never know for sure.

I also began running across Trans-Oceanics on Ebay, but never thought about acquiring one as those that went cheap were in need of more restoration that I wanted to do at the time, and the ones in good condition were too expensive, and I was really looking to pick up a S-38, anway. Then just a few weeks ago, I was asked by a fellow vintage radio enthusiast if I would pick up a Philco Tropic 41-788 for him in Richmond that he wanted to buy on Ebay, but was pickup only. I agreed; he bought the radio; and I went to pick it up. As the seller and I were chatting about radios, he asked me if I would be interested in a Zenith Trans-Oceanic. I said, sure, but pictured in my mind a ratty, dead radio. He brought out the radio that you see in these photographs. He plugged it in and it instantly jumped to life loud and clear on a local AM station. He said I could take it and if I wanted to keep it, I could have it for what I recognized was a very reasonable price for a radio in the condition that this one was in. I took it and said I would mail him a check if I decided to keep it, but I already knew there was no way I was bringing this radio back. So I finally acquired my first Zenith Trans-Oceanic.

As found, this radio was missing the knob brights, and the tuning dial would only cover about a quarter of the bandspread. There is a small crack in the dial background, another common fault found in these radios. The suction cups for the Wavemagnet are present as are the nuts for the Wavemagnet cord holder. Electronically, this radio sounds like it just came out of the box. AM and shortwave stations come in strong and clear as a bell, with no hum. It's possible the radio has been recapped; I haven't pulled the chassis, and won't until there's a reason to. I could see that the dial cord was intact, so I just gently worked the dial knob until the tuning freed up and now it tunes all bands just fine. I purchased a set of knob brights from Antique Electronic Supply, and bought a reproduction owners manual on Ebay. I converted a pair of stereo earphones to mono and installed an old phone jack that is probably older than the radio. Finally I designed and built a working Eveready 752 battery replica which I use to power the radio. I gutted an old Z-1 battery and installed a C-cell inside to power the dial light circuit.

I pulled the front of the radio to clean and lube the band switches and dust off the dial face. I decided to leave the crack alone for now. I gave this radio to my Dad to enjoy. He turned 86 this year.