AWA Radiola

If you thought clock radios were a late 1960s with flip numbers or a series of drums for the clock and where flat, think again. This AWA was released in 1952 along with clock radios from HMV, Philips, and Tasma. This and the Hotpoint clone seem to the most popular as there are quite a few around.

This one of four variants of this model picked up in Adelaide in May 2021.

While it is a fairly pedestrian set designed for the bedroom it performs well, although the speakers in these sets seem to go very scratchy and need replacing.

This radio was no exception, and apart from needing the speaker and all the paper and electrolytic replaced, performs well. The speaker is a 4 inch unit as opposed to the 5 inch units fitted to the remainder of the models. This is to fit the clock. Fitting was a pain in the.... as the clock mechanism is relatively large.

It took quite a while to work out why the clock was keeping perfect time, yet the radio itself wasn't working at all. I knew it was a contact switch in the clock. It took careful disassembly, and even more careful cleaning of all the contacts to get it working. The Radiola badge can be 3D printed.

These came in a variety of colours to suit the décor of your new home. Walnut, Burgundy, Ivory & Grey combinations of cabinet and front escutcheon.

There is also a Hotpoint variant the P64MEC that looks a little better with the speaker grill being all slats as opposed to slats and milk-crate.
Valve line-up was 6BE6 6AU6 6BV7 6X4