In a Nutshell
1961 Ad: "The gift for the man who has everything" (pict.24)

Introduction:
My third Trans-Oceanic is a Royal 1000. The Royal 1000 was the first solid-state (all-transistor) Trans-Oceanic, introduced in 1957 and very expensive ($275 compared with $140 for the B600 tube version) at the time which allowed the B600 a last respite of a few years. Two variants were produced: the Royal 1000-1, and the Royal 1000D. The Royal 1000 runs from batteries only, while the Royal 1000-1 could run from AC as well as batteries (using a "wall-wart" transformer). The Royal 1000D added a longwave band (200-400kc, useful for weather beacons, although I've never heard anything on LW using any of my LW-equipped radios). Compared to the last 600's a 13m band was added but then dropped on the 3000 and reintroduced for the Royal 7000. As for the other Trans-Oceanics the cabinet has been designed by late Robert Davol Budlong [1902-1955], an American designer, who for 25 years worked for Eugene F. McDonald jr., the founder of Zenith Radio Corporation. The case is an elegant black leather and chrome combination , easily identified by the two horizontal knobs for volume and tone, making this simple panel design the most elegant of the transistor units. The radio has two wavemagnets, a fixed one under the carrying handle and a detachable one housed behind the latched rear cover door. A third 48" telescope antenna is hidden in the handle, and a radio-phono switch and a RCA jack for a phono input is provided. The "H" in the chassis number 9HT40Z2 identifies the radio as being built in 1961/62. Royal 1000's serial numbers start at 6250523 in Oct. 1957, running up to 6965134 in Dec. 1959, then start at 8154574 in early 1960 and go up to 8955863 in Aug. 1961, then jump back to 2007523 in Oct. 1961 and run up to 2952529 by Feb. 1965 (ref.2). Mine is 2031102. Finally the date codes of both, the tuning capacitor and the speaker is 46th week (Nov.13-17) of 1961. So, the radio can be well dated as being made in very late 1961. Despite the high price (the radio is hand-soldered and the transistors are plugged into sockets) about 90'000! (ref.s 1,2) R-1000 (not 170'000, indicated by Bryant and Cones) have been sold in its 10 year lifespan.

Additional information:
ref.1: http://www.antiqueradio.com/Nov08_MacArthur_Zenith.html
ref.2: http://mysite.verizon.net/vzerfrvi/
ref.3: http://padgett.performanceresearch.us/radio/index__1.htm

About my Radio:
The radio is in excellent condition, cosmetically and technically. The infamous leather shrinkage and chrome pitting/blistering mentioned in literature for this model (and the 3000) are essentially absent for mine. The telescope antenna is complete, straight, with the standard red tip, and hides in an unbroken handle, which snaps firmly into the handle position. The original battery pack case (ex batteries) is included. It takes 9 "D" batteries, 1 for the dial light and 8 for supplying 12 VDC to the radio.
The radio plays fine on all bands and plays my cellphone over the phono input. You may ask yourself the perpetual question, which one of the 3 Zenith Trans-Oceanics up for sale (G-500, Y-600L and R-1000) is the best. The best way to answer this question for yourself: buy them all three (and three more?, pict.26) and save on shipping! Please e-mail me (Kris) for any questions, ich spreche Deutsch, je parle Français.

For the techies only:
I was considering to build a battery eliminator for this radio, but then realized, that this can be done easily by the buyer him-(her-)self by connecting a standard off-the-shelf 12 Volt adapter and keeping the dial light battery, since the light cannot be switched permanently on.

Here are the specifications:

Please have a look at prices and more radios, phonographs and gramophones  here