Äbout 28 years ago I repaired a mantle radio for an elderly widow lady whom my mother was an aquaintence of. This lady took great pleasure in spending time listening to this radio. Before she passed away she gave my mother a portable radio that if I remember the detail correctly, he built himself from a kit. This portable valve radio is in immaculate condition and is only missing the batteries with which to run it on.

The radio is 205mm square by 105mm deap. The lid has the aerial in-built and the facia which is exposed when you open the lid has the name incription "The Petite" There are two large knobs either side of a smaller knob. The LH knob is for volume and the RH knob is for tuning. The smaller central knob is for MW & LW band selection. When the lid is opened the radio is switched on. There are no part numbers or brand names on the circuit board. There are two small valves and the speaker is of the Goodmans brand.

I would like to find out more about this radio, such as it age, uniqueness, what batteries it requires and is it valuable?

I have taken digital images of the radio that I can supply to anybody that may have some clues. I suspect that it might be quite old because it is wired point-point and I remember that the elderly lady saying something to the effect of it being built when her husband was a very young man, at the time when portable radio's were very rare in Australia.

Sounds like the kit radio that was made available in Britain. I think it was featured in the December 1957 issue of Radio Constructor. And I think it's loosely based on a Vidor Lady Margaret portable. If this is the one you have, it uses an AD35 battery for the filaments and a B126 for the B+ voltage.

Bill