I recently purchased an old radio and have been trying the find out when it was made, and any other details about it.

It is an AWA Radiola called "The Fisk" in a wooden cabinet measuring roughly 37" / 940mm H, 21" / 530mm W, 13" / 320mm D.
Inside label says Volts: 220-260 AC, Watts 50, Frequency 50-60 Hz
Speaker is of course an AWA one entitled Dynamic Speaker circa 7" in diameter, details on speaker are faded.

Tried having a good look around https://www.radiomuseum.org/, but could not find anything similar, and search engines focused on giving me information about a TV series called Fisk, or only showed references to the table models of a similar name.

Going by the details on the back, the latest patent listed was "21/3/32 11689/33" which according to https://ipsearch.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/1933011689 was filed in March 1934. So it may have come out sometime in the mid 30s?

Hopefully I can give it a tweak and elbow grease to give a new lease of life, and evict the 8 legged squatters from it.
Still works ok and runs on "elec-trickity" - according to Catweazle.

Is anybody familiar with this radio that could offer any more insight - thanks.

I've put some mug shots of the radio at this location:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/bglmuz9bt4rna/Vintage

File names begin with The_Fisk

Welcome to the forum!

Your radio was made in 1934, going by the ARTS&P label.

I'll have a look on Kevin Chant's site and see if I can find it.

"The Fisk" moniker was used on all AWA radios of the period, named after the founder of the company.

I have not seen that chassis before, but I'm more into vintage TVs. It's in extraordinarily good condition!

It seems to be a Model 140. Closest I can find is this:

https://www.kevinchant.com/uploads/7/1/0/8/7108231/awa_model_160.pdf

"The Fisk" moniker was used on all AWA radios of the period, named after the founder of the company.

As a former long term AWA employee once said to me: Ernest Fisk wasn't short of an ego, that's for sure.

The valve line-up can be useful in tracking down models. In case you're unfamiliar: Be careful removing valves; do so by the base and be very very careful with top caps -- never force them off lest you break the glass. Also, the printing on the glass envelope is very easily wiped off so don't attempt to clean them. If you can determine the valve types using a mirror and torch then that is preferred to removing them for this purpose.

Powering-up old radios that have not been in frequent and recent use without a prior check over for expected problems is never recommended. Irreversible and otherwise avoidable damage can be done otherwise.

Looks like a 1934 model 141.

There is a small inked model number on the right hand side of the chassis. It should show “R141”

Kevin Chant doesn’t have a schematic (unless there is one hidden). Radiomuseum has a couple, but you have to jump through hoops to obtain them from there.

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/amalgamate_radiola_141.html

I’ll check to see if I have one when I’m back home. Otherwise other Forum members here may be able to help.

There is a small inked model number on the right hand side of the chassis. It should show “R141”

Well spotted.

Wahski: I have a copy of the 141 schematic. If you 'unhide' your email address via Control Panel in the menu at the top of the page, I'll send it to you.

Fisk Radiola Model 141 is electrically identical to GE (General Electric/Hotpoint-Bandmaster) Pandora Model 954E.

https://www.kevinchant.com/uploads/7/1/0/8/7108231/954e.pdf

https://www.kevinchant.com/uploads/7/1/0/8/7108231/awa_radiola_141_pamphlet.pdf

Wow - did not expect a response so quickly and by so many - you certainly know your stuff.
As Mr Grace would say "You've all done very well"

Duh - did not notice model number on the back - good pickup.

Cost £27 18s 6d eh?
According to https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html
that would be $3,270.58 now.

Looking at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17143201
the average wage at the time (30 Jun 1934) was £4 1s 7d for males and £2 3s 10d for females.
That equates roughly to over 6-7 weeks wages for a bloke.

This seems expensive especially during the depression (which was nothing like Keating's 'recession that we had to have'). Not sure what the demand would have been for this model radio at the time, and during depression era.
Would this have been an average radio at the time? -sold by the ever humble Mr Fisk.

Radio seems to work fine as previous owner had someone go over it not so long ago.
-hope I am still working as good after 90 years... we have installed a different type of valve (heart) .
It is alot like my Amberola 30, both of which will continue to work well after my warranty runs out.

Will try and determine how to make cabinet look better with what I think is walnut, hope can minimise the scratch.
Not sure if there is a valve setup which prevents it automatically from receiving transmissions of rap music, it might be buried somewhere in the schematic or within the Rotovision tuning?

This seems expensive especially during the depression

Yes, radios -- especially consoles with large speakers -- were expensive items.

My grandmother had a console style radiogram with a bespoke cabinet to match her lounge room furniture. IIRC it was a gift from her husband. Wish I could recall the brand of chassis in it. It had coke-bottle or shoulder type valves and a propeller style tuning dial. I have vague memories of it having blue bits so possibly AWA. I can only imagine how much grandfather paid for it.

(141 schematic sent to you)

The average wage back then depended on who one asks but between 4 and 6 quid is correct regardless of what may have been the exact amount.

Here's the real clincher - when manufactured radios were first offered to the public in 1922/3 all you got was the radio. You then had to purchase the valves, the loud speaker and the battery packs - all these were optional extras. Most people simply could not afford the purchase price of a radio (with all necessary accessories) so they did what we do today when making a major acquisition - use hire purchase. Hobbyists would save their pennies and purchase the necessary parts and build their own radio - not just spurred on by the cost of having one made for them but also to evade radio licences and having the set sealed - for the first while you had the radio sealed so only one station could be heard. Later, variable tuning capacitors were operable by the user and they could hear any station they wanted.