AWA Radiola

The AWA Radiola 897P was Australia's first transistor radio.

The 897P was the first transistor set that Australian's could buy and was released in November 1957. Just before Christmas, and just a year after television started in this country. It must have been fairly exiting to people who wanted the latest and greatest, but was  extremely expensive at 44 Guinea's. Production ramped up in early 1958.

For your money you received a case that was more or less identical to the 581 series valve set, a leather case in either Gunmetal Grey or Tan, and a seven transistor chassis that was wired in the same manner as valve sets, i.e. point to point. Australia would have to wait a few years for circuit boards. The 897 was designed by Graham Moore who had designed many of the AWA sets.

While the 897P had a mixture of RCA 2N, and local OC type transistors, the later PZ and PY models (it was AWAs practice to go backwards from Z for model revisions) used OC types exclusively as they became available. 

To cut costs the PZ and PY models used vinyl covered cardboard for the cases.

My example was from a diseased estate and is in poor condition. The electrical restoration can be seen here. I'm waiting on a better case that can be restored.  This to look out for are very noisy transistors - see video.

Page last updated - July 2025