12 3/4"W x 10 1/8"H x 5"D

Let's start this gallery right here with the indisputable classic transistor shortwave radio, the Zenith Royal 1000. Unlike the rest of the radios shown on these pages, the Zenith pictured above isn't mine. That's because I traded away or sold my two Zenith Royal 1000's more than five years ago...

Now here's where I'm supposed to say something like, and ya know what? -- I don't miss 'em one bit!

...But I do miss them, or one of them, the one that was in better condition, of course... The Zenith Royal 1000 is a GREAT radio!

It was produced in 1957 -- a transistorized version of a long, long family of big-assed Zenith "Trans-Oceanic" shortwave tube portables extending back into the early '40s. Like those sets, it came with a time zone chart / reception log and a telescopic antenna which I remember as being at least four feet long...

The Zenith Royal 1000 was a nine-transistor radio that had seven shortwave bands as well as the standard AM broadcast band. In 1957 it sold for $250: in 1999 dollars, that would be about $1300!



One of the many small-suitcase-sized tube Trans-Oceanics made in the '40s & '50s, this one the 1942 "Clipper" 7G605.

Royal 1000 photo courtesy The Collector's Guide to Transistor Radios © 1994
by Marty and Sue Bunis