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By the early 1970s,
Zenith was not able to compete successfully with manufacturers from the Far
East, and began importing radios from Japan. These radios were
Zenith-designed and Zenith-labeled. During this time, Ray managed the
Electrical Engineering for Radio Products group, with complete
responsibility for product from conception to start of production. The
Zenith Royal 16, as shown on this page, provides an interesting example of
a radio from this period. Above left is a photo of the front of the R16.
The radio came in several colors, and was housed in a closeable billfold
flap (not shown). Shown above is the inside view of the radio – of note is the
very high quality of the manufacture and the design. Only six transistors
were used in the circuit, but the performance excelled that of most other
imported radios of the time. Zenith had established a reputation for high
quality since the introduction of the Royal 500 radio in 1955, and
maintained that approach to product development into the 1970s, even with
foreign manufactured products. Also of note with this radio is the use of
Japanese transistors, with no Zenith part numbers. Shown at left is a
closeup of the R16 circuit, showing a black plastic NEC silicon RF
transistor (2SC839) and a Toshiba germanium audio transistor (2SB56).
Forty years after this radio was manufactured, it still has exceptional
performance, pulling in multiple distant stations with excellent audio
quality!
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