AWA C55163 Communications Receiver

General Notes

The C55163 was designed in Australia by AWA (Amalgamated Wireless) in 1950 as a general purpose communications receiver in their Teleradio range. The design is a fairly straight forward 6 valve superhet using mechanical bandspread and covered 200khz to 30mhz in 5 bands. The units were powered by a vibrator power supply. The set is quite large being 52 x 28 x 30 cms in size and correspondingly heavy. These sets are quite rare and were one of the first in Australia to use miniature valves. Line up is R/F 6BA6, Mixer 6BE6, I/F 6BA6, Det 6AV6, BFO 6BE6, O/P 6AQ5. A headphone socket, which disconnects the speaker when in use, is fitted on the left hand side of the cabinet and may be original.

History of No 87

This example, serial no 87, was in commercial use for many years, finally ending up with the Volunteer Coastal Patrol. During its life it has been professionally rebuilt, and it is a matter of opinion as to whether this makes it more desirable as a collectable radio.

As part of the rebuild, the original vibrator power supply has been replaced with an AC mains power supply and all fixed capacitors have been replaced. The Send/Receive relay has also been removed as well as the original 3" internal speaker which was replaced with an external unit. The set when acquired was wired to an external kit type digital frequency meter.

Current Condition

I have removed the external fittings as well as some stickers on the outside and fitted a suitable internal speaker. Switches and pots were lubricated. The knobs were a horrible mixture of plastic and these have been replaced with contemporary ones, though probably not exactly correct. The small hole at the rear of the chassis has re-fitted with a PL259 socket with a length of coax to the original antenna terminals behind the tuning dial.

The set is in good operating condition and looks quite nice externally. It is missing its base (both the coil box cover and the bottom of the case), though this does not detract too much from its appearance. Apart from being on the ID label, the serial number (87) has also been painted on the side.

Documentation

Very little information about these sets appears to be available, though I have a poor photocopy of the original AWA Circuit Dwg No 55163G1 in DJVU format, which opens in a new window. The circuit of the vibrator power supply is on a separate drawing, Dwg No 55163D1, but I have no copy. If anyone has a manual for the set, I would appreciate a scanned copy.

Collectability

Although locally made, these sets appear to be very rare and I have never seen another one and have only heard of a couple of others. There are no decent photos around and those on other web sites are all mine. Because this set is a nice AWA communications receiver and very scarce, it would be considered very attractive to many Australian collectors, despite the missing base of this particular one. Authorised rebuilds are quite common, especially with RAAF sets of the WWII period, and if anything they improve the desirability and functionality of sets due to the more reliable plastic wiring and better quality of capacitors as well as a better looking finish.

Count since 28/6/07.
Page maintained by Simon Buxton VK2UA . Created: 10/02/02 Updated: 13/10/2009