Thanks, guys, for last months suggestions on my Zenith 5-tube Trans-Oceanic with loud hum. I had already discovered that grounding the 2nd detector didn't really eliminate it, but nevertheless, I was proceeding to a second round of more meticulous capacitor checking through the whole radio by removal and substitution - until I finally noted the chassis was "hot". I had already checked for this early on, but failed to see it for some reason, but recently discovered a hard short from the end of the power cord that goes to the 220V ballast resistor accessory (the black tower accessory that plugs into the chassis) and the chassis itself! I was a little surprised to find that the short had been caused by sloppy soldering on one of the lugs to that accessory socket - evidently resulting in a solder pool between the wafers of that socket which must have reached a ground point and hard-shorted that side of line to chassis! When I heated it and played around with it a while - the short finally cleared, and now the radio is about as hum free as I can imagine. I can't believe it's supposed to sound that clean after coming across so many stories of hum problems in these later Trans-Oceanics.
Eddie

:Thanks, guys, for last months suggestions on my Zenith 5-tube Trans-Oceanic with loud hum. I had already discovered that grounding the 2nd detector didn't really eliminate it, but nevertheless, I was proceeding to a second round of more meticulous capacitor checking through the whole radio by removal and substitution - until I finally noted the chassis was "hot". I had already checked for this early on, but failed to see it for some reason, but recently discovered a hard short from the end of the power cord that goes to the 220V ballast resistor accessory (the black tower accessory that plugs into the chassis) and the chassis itself! I was a little surprised to find that the short had been caused by sloppy soldering on one of the lugs to that accessory socket - evidently resulting in a solder pool between the wafers of that socket which must have reached a ground point and hard-shorted that side of line to chassis! When I heated it and played around with it a while - the short finally cleared, and now the radio is about as hum free as I can imagine. I can't believe it's supposed to sound that clean after coming across so many stories of hum problems in these later Trans-Oceanics.
:Eddie

Eddie, all I can say is ENJOY!!! You will get another some day that will make you remember how lucky you got with this one. Seriously, congratulations, I hope all the rest are interesting but not holy terrors.

Lewis L.

zenith portables are typically rather nice sounding. i own several, some with all original components, and some which required restoration, and all are hum free.