Reddit mentions: The best radio & television books

The electrolytic capacitors aren't as critical in this radio.

It actually has a power transformer and a 5Y3G rectifier tube. Most old radios don't have a transformer and count on the electrolytic caps to rectify the AC. Now, it surely has capacitors that need replacing, but the power transformer indicates that this is a higher-end radio. The three-gang tuning capacitor is a nice touch, too. This is a good radio.

As for restoration, you might want to pick up a book like this one and get a soldering iron.

You can order parts from the usual suspects (Newark, Digikey, Mouser), but they have monstrous catalogs and you'll spend a lot of time sifting through the thousands of options. They cost a little more, but I've had good luck with Antique Electronic Supply.

Do not buy the super expensive audiophile caps. They're not worth it and I don't even use them for my audiophile builds. You want to use Sprague's Orange Drop capacitors. They're more than the absolute cheapest, but I've been using Orange Drops for 15 years and they work great.

Electrolytic capacitors are not hard to find. Looks like there are two of them on the chassis (the one silver cylinder and the cardboard cylinder) and you will be able to find the correct values to replace them. Antique Electronic Supply carries a few can type ones if you want to be completely accurate.

I don't bother with complete accuracy - no one can see the innards and I mostly care about having it work correctly, safely and reliably. It's easy to put new electrolytics onto a terminal strip and secure that onto the chassis with a screw.

You will want to get all of the old resistors out of there, too. Carbon comp resistors suck. They change value as they heat up and eventually stay at the new values. I've never found one that was in spec. Guitarists like carbon comp resistors in their amps because they fuzz out and give an interesting tone. There's no place for that in a radio or in hi-fi. Yank them and go with metal film or wirewound. Those are much, much better.

Do not worry about the tubes. Often, all of them are good. These are pretty common ones, too, and you can find replacements if you need them. Antique Electronic Supply carries all of these.

Then you're going to need to align the radio. That means tuning the circuit with a signal generator and a DMM. You can use an oscilloscope instead of the DMM, too. This is a little tricky, so you might want to find a local ham with the tools to do it.

Finally, you need a good antenna. Can you put one up outside? They're cheap and easy. You can make a nice one for $10-$20 in materials, less if you already have wire. Antennas are half the deal with radios. A modest radio will work well with a great antenna, while a very expensive radio will be lousy with a bad one. This radio has shortwave bands, so you'll be able to pull in all sorts of interesting stuff (check /r/shortwave) if you have a good antenna.

I also agree that Microwave Transistor Amplifiers by Gonzalez is a great book. It's very much a microwave/RF theory book and my brother just aqcuired it. I'll be able to refer to it for a while but may one day add it to my collection as well. I just bought Cornell Drentea's Modern Communication Receiver Design and Technology. Drentea's book was aimed to be a textbook but is not quite what one would consider a textbook so it never really took off. However, It's a great book for the practical application of transceiver design techniques and is a great reference to anyone interested in RF circuits design, not just RF theory (lets use what we know!).

If you're a big fan of this radio line I recommend this great book about them;
http://www.amazon.com/Zenith-Trans-Oceanic-John-H-Bryant/dp/0764328387/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453160820&sr=8-1&keywords=zenith+transoceanic+radio
I have a H500 model and it works great, awesome sound quality. Would love to grab one the 70s/80s era models too.

That's a neat looking radio. I like it. What does the tag on the chassis look like?

It looks like someone replaced the grill cloth but aside from that it seems pretty original. I wouldn't plug it in again. There are capacitors used to filter out the 60Hz hum from the AC that dry out (electrolytic) and leak (wax) which can cause them to blow open or start on fire. Until those are replaced, applying power to it is a risky proposition. If you ever feel like taking on a project, Antique Radio Repair and Restoration is a good book if you can find it. I can't really tell from the pictures whether it still has the original shellac finish, but if it does the refinish job can be fairly easy. You can find out if it's shellac by applying a small amount of alcohol - preferably denatured alcohol from the hardware store - to an inconspicuous spot. It will dissolve the shellac and get sticky. Polyurethane won't and is also a pain to get off.

It is a shortwave and AM receiver, not a ham radio. The ham radios transmit as well as and receive.

I'd be careful of plugging it in and trying it if you don't know that it works already. Old tube radios can do a good job of killing you if they have a major problem.

Value? Yes, this radio is popular. One that works well and is in good condition can go for $200 or so. Super great condition is $300 or so. It is hard to tell from the photo since we can only see a tiny part, though I can see the faceplate isn't cracked around the screws. That happened a lot with this model. That's a good sign.

Untested and unworking, but complete? Maybe $80-$100.

The bottom line is, someone will definitely want it. It is a very cool radio with a long history. Somebody even wrote a book about them: http://www.amazon.com/Zenith-Trans-Oceanic-John-H-Bryant/dp/0764328387/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451588096&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=trans+osceanic