zenith: Consoltone 5D011

I ama beginner and I have acquired a Consoltone 5D011 in white bakelite.  I have it working, but the dial shows two different bands, an AM and a long wave.  I can't find a switch to try out the long wave band.  Is there a connection to the rotary variable capacitor or another way to switch to the other band? 

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Hi Jim,

welcome to RMorg and the forum!

Does the dial from your Zenith radio look like this one:

Picture from Ripley Auctions Indianapolis Lot 3222, sold in Dec. 2024

Then the receiver has only the BC (medium wave) band. The upper half shows the frequency range 535 to 1620 kc (kHz), the lower half the corresponding wave length 560 m to 185 m.

For example, the frequency 1000 kHz (100 on the dial) corresponds to a wavelength of 300 m.

The term "Long Distance" is only an indication for the sensitivity advertised by the manufacturer. A fairly large loop antenna on the back of the radio ensures good reception of weak stations.

Finally, I would like to invite you to upload good pictures (exterior and interior) of your model to the 5D011W model page. Thanks

Bernhard Nagel

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There are some USA radios with Longwave, mostly for export, or aeronautical beacons (the only North American use). AFAIK LW was never used for domestic radio in the USA, or if it was, likely before 1930. 

Domestic Broadcast LW is roughly 150 kHz to 300 kHz, or in metres about 1000m to 2000m. Historically in Europe, North Africa and parts of North Asia only. Most stations have closed.

There are time signals and submarine communications at frequencies less than 170 kHz.

North America has or had beacons 190–535 kHz

See Wikipedia Longwave.

I'm not expert on USA radio sets, but I'd be surprised if any Zenith for the USA domestic market had long wave.

UK Export models replaced Longwave with Shortwave. Many other European set makers also did this, not just for USA and Canada but Tropics, Far East (India, Singapore etc), Africa Sahara and more south, Central & South America etc.

I expect Bernhard Nagel has the correct explanation of your scale.

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Thank you very much for the answers.  Yes, that is the correct picture.  I am working on uploading pictures, but so far get error messages, so I have to spend more time on that to get teh correct file size and format.  

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