The N.Z. Vintage Radio Project

5-valve plus vibrator supply (6-valve equivalent) Army Canteen Radio Receiver.

One of two different sets released by the Army Education Welfare Service for 'education and entertainment' (as noted in the AEW1 manual).

This set is understood to have been designed by Radio (1936) Ltd, with 15000 produced for the Eastern Group Supply Council (British armed forces), and an additional 600 spares packs.  It was manufactured by the Radio Corporation of New Zealand Ltd (who made 4050), Radio (1936) Ltd (3000), Philips NZ (2200), Akradio Radio (1250), DRECO (1000), Westonhouse Radio (1000), Collier & Beale (1000), HMV (500), International Traders (400), Wellmade (350), Sheffield Radio (150) and Megann Ltd (100).

The knobs are known as type 1150, and used on the ZC1 as well.  They were moulded by Urlwins.

They were shipped with two batteries per radio, ancilliary equipment (aerial, earth spike, etc) speaker and generous maintenance spares for 18 months.

There is evidence in a section of a letter from Alex Marks in the Radio Corp factory (Alex was the son of William Marks, the RCNZ founder) to Fred Green (who was their factory rep / buyer in England at the time) in 1946 that they were still producing spares packages for the AEW1:

The AEWS (Army Education Welfare Service) offered training for post-war life to NZ soldiers, and this included radio technician training.  It is unclear to the author what the link (if any) is to the AEWS... perhaps just a name?

It is interesting to note that the front panel dimensions follow the golden ratio - the author calculated the actual ratio at 1.616 from measurements - almost exactly the actual Golden Ratio figure of 1.618.