From the speaker cloth and valve lineup, it looks like a 516M? I'm not sure about the dial glass, I've come across at least four variations on 500's and 516's although this one looks like it could be off a 500. I'd love to see examples with part numbers to figure out what's correct. I've never seen that colour before.

It was a 516M in a beautiful handcrafted wooden case from my Great Aunt's house at Ashfield that got me addicted to restoring AWA mantle radios.

I have the service manuals for the Radiolettes below:

500M. 4 valve AC BC- Ivory, Jade Green & Walnut. There is also a 500MY on page 87 Vol. 6 AORSM, 500MZ & 506M, page 71 Vol. 5 AORSM, but no cabinet details.

507M, 507MY & 508M. 4 Valve Vibrator BC- Ivory, Jade Green & Walnut. The 508M is a wooden mantle cabinet with a walnut finish.

514M & 514MZ. 4 Valve Vibrator BC- Ivory, Jade & Walnut.
There is also a console bookcase version - 718C.

516M. 4 Valve AC BC- Ivory, Jade & Walnut.

I'm not sure if there are others. Perhaps someone out there may have more information.

Cheers.

A wooden mantle and a console version? I'd love to see those! So many variations, no wonder there's so many different dials. I wonder if AWA knew which glass went with which model. I'm sure my 516 glass isn't original as the part number doesn't match the service manual.

Brad - is it a trick of the eye or have you used two different radios/dial glasses? The larger image shows a blue circle, the smaller a yellow.

I've just been looking a Brads Radiolette collection.

There is a Jade, Ivory, Cream, Green & Walnut. Is the Cream one really a Ivory that has endured 50 years nicotine? There is no mention of a cream Radiolette in my circuits.

What Brad needs now to make his collection complete is the the wooden 508M! The only wooden Radiolette I found so far is the vibrator type. Does an AC version exist? (maybe a 506M?)

There appears to to be two major types and their variants of the Radiolette. The differences being in the chassis layout. The earlier Vibrator models used octal valves and the later ones using 7 pin miniature types. The earlier 500M uses a 6X5GT rectifier instead of a 5Y3GT.

The console version I mentioned has no resemblance whatsoever to the Radiolettes except for the circuit.

Brad being a collector of the Radiolette may just know the full history of these radios.

From the speaker cloth and valve lineup, it looks like a 516M?

It's definitely a 500MY; lock, stock and barrel.

A wooden mantle and a console version? I'd love to see those!

I've never seen a 500-series console but yes, there was a timber version of the cabinet and a few have been put up for action on Ebay over the years. These have walnut dial roundels and control knobs.

Brad - is it a trick of the eye or have you used two different radios/dial glasses? The larger image shows a blue circle, the smaller a yellow.

The blue circle is correct. In the photo with the yellow circle I removed some blue from the image to try and improve brightness and contrast without ending up with colour bleeding - bottom line is, the photo is a badd'un and it needs redoing.

There is a Jade, Ivory, Cream, Green & Walnut.

Correct colour order is: turquoise, jade, cream, white, burgundy and walnut.

The missing known colour is white with a cappuccino fleck and this is probably the rarest colour.

Is the Cream one really a Ivory that has endured 50 years nicotine? There is no mention of a cream Radiolette in my circuits.

It's a fairdinkum cream colour with the original sheen still in place. Again, the photos don't do it much justice. I don't know anyone else that owns a cream one and its not even represented in Radio Days. It could be a one-off but it's not a reproduction. It is definitely Bakelite and made by AWA.

It'd be great to try and find out how popular all these colours were and if there were any other one-offs or super-rare colours. Of course, the Kiwi Astors that used the same cabinet don't count! - despite being available in some great colours that AWA didn't seem to bother with.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

It's definitely a 500MY; lock, stock and barrel.

Suggest adding the model number to the data accompanying the front page photo.

I'm gunna do better than that soon. Radio of the Week is due for an overhaul and will get more accurate information plus larger and clearer photos.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

All made clear except for the 5Y3GT, that's what made me think it was a 516M. Typo, wrong valve or a new variant?

That's a long-standing problem with ROTW - some of the information is based on what is in the featured radio, or what was in the radio before restoration. When I bought the turquoise one featured this week it was a bit of a wreck and required full restoration. It turned out pretty well in the end and does work well. To be honest I am not sure what rectifier valve is in it at the moment though curiosity may force me to look later.

UPDATE: Valve line-up for the 500MY is 6X5GT, 6A6G, 6G6G and 6V6GT.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

After doing some more study on the Radiolette 500 variations, I've come up with this:-

500M uses a 6X5GT rectifier.

500MZ, a 5Y3GT rectifier. My 500M manual says some models use a 5Y3GT instead of a 6X5GT. I think the 5Y3GT version was given the 500MZ designation in later production runs.

500MY, same as 500M, but with some slight changes in the back-bias circuit & uses a 6X5GT rectifier.

And as mentioned before, the 516M, which uses a 5Y3GT rectifier, has a different circuit & chassis layout to the 500 types