Zenith Transistorized Trans-Oceanic Royal 7000 Series

The Zenith Royal 7000 series was the next to the last American made Trans-Oceanic in that the later R-7000 series (2nd & 3d year production) was built by Zenith in Taiwan.  This radio corrected many deficiencies that existed in the Royal 1000 and Royal 3000 series of radios.  One major upgrade was that the public service band for the National Weather Service is available as well as a BFO so that single-sideband can be received.  This was particularly eventful for Maritime users as the weather service had switched many of their prime broadcasts from AM to Sideband reception because of the longer distance capability of this transmission mode.  Another important feature was the split dial tuning, where the outer ring is for coarse tuning and the inner ring is for pin-point or vernier tuning accuracy.  Also Zenith changed the oscillators in this radio to basically provide continuous tuning from the broadcast band to 30MHz.  Further enhancement was made with wide and narrow selectable bandwidths that made tuning easier in the crowded short-wave bands.

The Royal 7000 had several versions, the Royal 7000Y-1 and the D7000Y series.  We have tried to find out how many of these radios were manufactured but have yet to get a good number.  Other than the R-7000  units, this is the grand-daddy that most Trans-Oceanic collectors want to add to their collection.  Although the Trans-Oceanic book says that all versions of this receiver were physically the same, there were brushed aluminum panels where the compass is seen above.  The later production of this model were normally produced with a baked enamel finish on the aluminum panel.