I managed to pick up a beautiful fully restored HMV Model No. 886 for the princely sum of 40 bucks. Yes 40 bucks. I also managed to pick up a Hotpoint version of my 1955 AWA Radiola . Everything there was as cheap as chips and I could have come home with a heap more stuff but I really dont relish the idea of another divorce lol.

This model was the second radio in my collection, way back in January, 1989 and I still own it. It cost me $20 but it was a right mess and the cabinet required a massive restoration. These days it awaits a chassis restoration though as way back then it was still safe (or safer than it is these days) to power up a radio due to the younger age of components. This radio is pictured at the bottom of the page linked below.

https://vintage-radio.com.au/default.asp?id=needs

If I ever get around to a restoration of the chassis I should consider a touch-up of the cabinet. I had to make new speaker grille bars by hand but they are varnished rather than being stained to the colour of the radio in the photos. I also remember reconing the loudspeaker as mice had eaten the old cone.

About two years later I came into possession of the smaller Model 881, same chassis but a smaller cabinet and smaller loudspeaker.

You will like the volume these radios produce when you restore yours. They pick up lots of stations with a good aerial at night too.

Off-topic: The linked page contains my shopping list of 2003, one of the original pages on this site when it was first launched. Most of the 'wants and needs' are no longer so, though I really do still desperately need the item in the first picture - a tuning dial pointer for a 500-series AWA Radiolette, jade green in colour. After 12 years I am still in the market for one.

That looks virtually identical in cabinet & layout to an 880 that was one where I did the rare thing & had the cabinet restored as well. It was a fixer.

Cabinet looked like brand new when it left. If you have troubles up front, this one had a ferrite slug as a padder (BC) and it had gone AWOL.

If you have to make a new one. Ferrite has to be ground. Have Photos of unit.

Marc

This is the one I think...

https://vintage-radio.com.au/default.asp?f=3&th=361#1187

Mine lacks the transfer that sticks on the top before the lacquer is applied.

This one is already completed. it was restored by Peter Eldridge in Sydney. Thats what amazed me the most was the quality at that price. I just could not go past it.

Timber radios don't usually fetch high prices at the Sydney auctions, and consoles and portables rarely sell at all.

In fact, I would say that in recent times bids for all sets, including the high quality ones, appear to be falling. It's possibly a demographic thing with more Sydney members unloading than buying as the years go by. Dunno really.

Well I love the wooden sets so its good for me. They just have a certain appeal especially the cabinet work.

Consoles usually only sell to those with the space for them. I used to own about 15 but when I shifted house about 18 months ago I couldn't take them all with me. I kept those with the highest degree of historic value and took the rest to the tip after finding that no-one wanted them.

I still have a Raycophone, a Breville and a couple of Airzones but at this point in time I wouldn't buy a console unless it was considered a classic.

As far as timber radios of the mantel and table variety go, I have quite a few these days andany of them are classic receivers from the early 30s but I also have two 20s coffin boxes, namely a Little Astor and a Udisco, both have horn speakers.

Wo you took them to the tip oh that brought tears to my eyes. But its the way it is. I wish I had known you then because I would have saved some.

Wish I had visited, and picked up some cheap radios.

Maybe I'll try next year.

Carl, it looks like you got here a couple of months too late. This was the sale and in the end I just wanted someone to take them but no offers came about so I popped them on Ebay and again, nothing. I put the sale up for a second go and took the sale down after five days. Following that I received an abusive message letting me know that I had a hide doing-so and this was despite the fact that the bloke admitted watching both auctions. If he wanted the radios badly enough he should have put a bid on.

This isn't a course of action I'd take with any radio, most of those that went to the tip were no-namers and not particularly old. I did manage to find a home for a Kriesler Projectographic but apart from what I kept I had to let the rest go. I did pull the valves out of the sets before disposal, as I am trying to building up a collection of good valves for future restorations. I think I have a couple of thousand though most require testing - another project for the future.

You had some nice radios, pity I wasn't here then. I would have been interested in some of the consoles but not all of them at once. Since the condition was to take the lot, I (like everyone else it seems) would have declined.

I put the sale up for a second go and took the sale down after five days. Following that I received an abusive message letting me know that I had a hide doing-so and this was despite the fact that the bloke admitted watching both auctions.

I guess he just likes to watch.

Since the condition was to take the lot, I (like everyone else it seems) would have declined.

I guess not too many people can pick up and store that many consoles in the one go.

However, I figure that even if Brad had've listed them individually they would not have attracted much interest given that they were mainly "no-namers" plus the fact that consoles are hard to sell in the local market from what I have observed.

Brad: I did think you were planning on saving the chassis and speakers, though, for parts if nothing else.

They are indeed hard to sell. There's widespread opinion that Australia produced more consoles as a proportion of the total radio market than any other nation and due largely to Australia's high level of home ownership, which means that those heavy beasts don't need shifting all that much. It does seem to make sense. The low monetary value could well be due to the fact that most Australian consoles simply aren't rare enough to become highly sought after. 1940s HMV, STC and Philips sets tend to dominate console sales on Ebay.

When I purchased many of those sets (quite cheaply, in fact) I was unopposed except for the Airzone and I ended up paying about $300 for that. The tuning dial of that console once adorned the site's masthead image.

Yes I understand where you are coming from .With the guy that got abusive, that is a very strange trait of human nature, some people are just nutters and will do that without even thinking that maybe they should have comunicated with you or maybe they might have thought that they might have got them for a couple of dollar ( they are out there ). I can imagine the plight you were in just letting them go like that, I remember letting a few beautiful sets go myself due to family circumstances. A beautifully restored 1933 radiola comes to mind grrr. I hope you dont think I was having a go at you Brad because I fully understand how things go.