I have been enjoying a beautifully maintained/fine condition R7000-2 for some time now, and I felt it needed its own little place here in the reviews.
I've been a Zenith TO fan for many, many years, collecting (and mostly restoring) every tube model, as well as the transistorized models (1000, 3000, Royal 7000/D7000Y).
But this radio is a much rarer find than any of the other transistor TOs -- each of those were made in the hundreds of thousands, but the R7000 (both -1 and -2 versions) had a combined run of only about 75,000 -- and an **affordable** example of this radio had eluded me for a long time. Not long ago a surprise offer came along and I couldn't resist the price and its condition.
The R7000-2 is simply a great analog multiband, superior in performance to any of the transistorized TOs before it (though they are all excellent).
FM is loud and clean and sensitive, with an AFC switch to help lock onto an iffy signal, and is as good as FM gets in models of that era and style.
AM/MW is a bit less sensitive on its internal ferrite antenna than I'd expected, but with the help of a good loop (in my case the Quantum Loop V.2) it really shines, and is very selective. The FM AFC switch doubles as the ANL switch in AM and SW and it is fairly effective, I must admit. Often they are barely noticeable when you switch them in, but this one does work quite nicely.
The Fine Tune control works in AM and SW, and of course is a real help on the SW bands for ham SSB signals. Switch in the BFO, coarse tune the band, hone in with the Fine Tune, and there y'are. It is a bit drifty for a while, but I have experienced it being a lot more stable after about 35-40 minutes of use. Unlike a lot of other analog multibands of the type and era -- e.g. Panasonic's Command RF Series (2200, 2600, 2900 etc) -- the R7000-2's SSB is NOT an exercise in fatiguing frustration but is genuinely pleasant to use after it warms up.
Having an RF Gain switch/knob is a nice addition to any multiband radio, and is just as helpful here. You can keep it switched off and have full gain, or switch it on and vary the amount as you need it... and it affects all bands except the two VHF bands.
I haven't had much need to use the Squelch switch/knob but it certainly works just fine.
Audio is loud and clear, warmer to my ears than any other transistor TO, and the Tone knob is very effective.
It has a Wide/Narrow bandwidth switch -- I don't know the actual numbers on those two but they seem well chosen -- as well as a Dial Light/Battery meter switch, and two meters -- S meter/Battery level and FM Tuning, each very easy to read, especially when lit; the dial light stays illuminated when running the radio from AC power, but not when running it on batteries. When illuminated, this radio is truly beautiful, its orange and ivory/white design is vivid and easy on the eyes.
The whip antenna is a long, robust antenna typical of the Zenith TO line, flipping up from the top of the radio.
Unlike other TOs, the R7000-2 only has a bandspread for the 26 - 29 MHz band. When this radio was produced, CB was smack in the middle of its peak popularity in the U.S., and Zenith must have figured having the easier ability to hone in on CB signals would be a selling point. I've used it listening to SSB talk on 10 meters.
This is a heavy portable, by the way. Even without the 8 D batteries, it weighs quite a bit more than it looks like it should, and more than any of the other transistor TOs, in my opinion anyway. It is definitely a solid, well-made radio.
I'd certainly wanted one for a long time, and expected it should at least perform competently, in keeping with the the ZTO tradition (at least as far as the transistorized models go), and yet, other than pretty looks, I don't really know what I was expecting before I finally acquired one... but I sure didn't expect it to be as fine a radio as it has turned out to be. A very nice surprise, and a really great multiband receiver. This last-of-a-great-line beauty, even with all its quirky differences from the previous offerings in the series, is well worth acquiring.
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