Most of you will have already read the About pages on this website and will thus already know a bit about me so there'd be no point in repeating all that here.

However I would like to try and answer a question often put to me, given my young age relative to the average collector. What surprises people even more is that I started collecting almost 20 years ago. I bought my first radio when I was about 18.

When people enter my office the first thing they see and hear is a 1947 AWA Radiolette bringing 2CH into the room. After asking if it is the real thing and then being shown the works they ask if I have any more and then I show them the desktop wallpaper on my computer which is spread across two monitors.

They then ask how long it has taken to amass a collection of around 120 radios and that other question - do they all work?

The answer to why I started collecting radios in 1989 has always been hard to answer. Sometimes I am not really sure why I developed the desire to own a valve radio at a time when their owners considered them dust-collecting pieces of rubbish and would have paid to see the last of them. People generally know better nowadays and will try to sell a radio before resorting to disposal and with good reason - there is often plenty of money to make from selling that dust collector and I can use my most recent acquisition as an example.

By way of the Wanted and For Sale forum here I was lucky enough to find for sale a walnut AWA Radiolette dating back to 1935. Despite the fact that I couldn't really afford to do so, I swooped on that receiver like a hungry eagle, offering the market price for it. I was lucky that the owner of the set decided to accept the offer and consider myself privileged to now own the receiver. I have since restored it though down the track it will need some more work by way of component replacement.

Back to what attracts me to collect and own old radios, I guess that from an early age and well before I actually decided to start collecting, I was impressed by the fact that for the best part of 40 years there were radios made to work well without any solid-state components at all. Everything from rectification of the input voltage and the radio waves to the pre-amplification and final amplification of the tuned station was carried out by thermionic valves which gave a warm pleasing glow to reassure the listener that all was well.

I also have an appreciation for old artefacts that were well-made and still work in a world of constant change. At this time I am listening to the Radiolette that I normally have at work. It developed a fault in a coil and this required replacement tonight before the start of a new working week. I am listening to it as I write this and an advertisement by the Commonwealth Government for the upcoming start of digital radio broadcasting just came over. In many ways it seems funny that a radio that has stood the test of time and survived 62 years and has itself come under the threat of being dropped on a floor, have paint spilt on it, been relegated to workshop duties and ultimately be thrown on the tip - yet the latter never happened. It's here. It's alive and well because an appreciative nation of dedicated collectors and restorers have made sure that this radio and around 20,000 other radios have not gone to the tip but are restored to as-new condition and are in display for other people to admire and appreciate.

Digital radio will spell the end for the practical usage of most valve radios. Those collectors who don't construct a personal repeater station (valve-powered of course) will no longer be able to receive any stations on their sets. That is not to say that the choice is not already limited. Most music stations have converted to FM broadcasting in the last 15 years. Since around 1990, the only new AM stations have been those run by the Parliamentary and News Network, The Special Broadcasting Service or local community stations.

With that in mind I think it is safe to say that AM broadcasting will be with us for another couple of years at least so there is plenty of time for us to go about building our little transmitters. I will try and construct one before the end of the year.

Tomorrow morning I will be taking my Radiolette back to work and sitting it on it's custom-made shelf - I can't picture being able to do my work without the music that comes from this radio. It relieves stress and keeps me focussed on what is a fairly busy job.

Hi Brad - Just a quick comment, but I think I beat you with the radio collecting starting age - 12. Now I'm almost 14, have fixed a radio from 1949, almost done radios from 1941 & 55, and have 4 1-sided flat records from before 1908...

Also, I saw, at an antique shop recently, an early rectifier with the screw in base, but a 90v filament, a oval/balloonish bulb, and a plate that looked like a plain, thick wire coming from a thin roundish block.
Is it worth $30?

I think I have 1 one-sided record but I am not sure what year it was made. It is a lot thicker than my others, about 7 or 8mm thick from memory. I can't check it because it is at my parents' place at the moment. You are right in a way though, at the age of twelve you got me by a few years!

I am not sure about the rectifier valve though. Does it have two valve caps on top for the cathodes? Either way I would certainly hang on to it. It may be worth more than $30.

Ahhh I forgot to mention that I have a 78 that is the same size as a CD. On one side is Ten little nigger boys, a song they probably wouldn't be allowed to sing these days.

I think this one dates from the early 1930s.

Hi Brad

Just on that rectifier, It's at an antique shop, and I haven't got it yet, but i'm planning a trip over that way soon. It has the original box, I can't remember much but it said to "Run it on 90v before putting full power on" or something similar. It has a screw-in base for the filament, and the plate is a small, wide and thick round piece of a darkish metal. There is a thick wire going straight from that, through the glass, and this protrudes about 3 cm from the top. The glass looks like a eleptical balloonish thingo (I think) and is reasonably tall. I think the shop is selling it for around $30, and if my plunder is successful I'll post a photo or two.

Hey Brad...
so glad I stumbled across your site as I absolutely adore australian vintage radios - although my knowledge of them is slim to say the least...

however, I have recently started an australian-focused vintage/heritage blog & am looking for a valve radio collector to contribute a guest post once every 2 or 3 months - (the long-term concept behind the blog is for it to be a platform for a collective of individuals to share their knowledge about various things vintage)... I was wondering if this might be something you would be interested in considering?... the posts could be something more generalized and obviously link back to your site & forum here...
i would be really pleased if you would think about maybe being my blogs radio-room guy... you can check my blog out here... http://analiebe.wordpress.com & let me know if it might be possible
cheers, analiebe

Hi Brad, did you managing to find any references or photos of the airzone portable I wrote you about. you mentioned at the time you may have something. David Hambour