Other radios based on the same chassis:
Basically a Bell Colt with The Skymaster brand name on the Colt dial glass (Bell also made a Rolax version for Sedley Wells).
It appears that this was something Bell did in the early days of the Colt, possibly to increase sales or just to improve market spread of this model.
Currently sighted Skymaster Colts appear to be early serial numbers with either an original Colt chassis or a 5B4 chassis. It is estimated that this arrangement with Skymaster only ran between 1953 and 1954, while Bell Colts ran from 1951 through until about 1980. It seems Skymaster may have then had a brief arrangement with Akrad Radio as there were some Skymaster 5M4 Junior models released.
Bell Colts ran from 1951 through until 1980 - the longest running model of NZ built domestic radio. It saw many different engineering changes over the years, and the last few models dropped valves in favour of new transistor technology.
Please note that not all radios shown in this series were known as Colt's - the Planet, the Mercury etc were models in their own right - but they have a Colt chassis in them and so are included here as part of the wider Bell Colt dynasty.
Intermediate Frequency: 462kc/s
Frequency Bands: 1
Chassis Notes(most schematics can be clicked to download a full size version) David Clist noted an issue with the tone control circuit producing high harmonic distortion at the full bass position - although as most people never set the tone control here its unlikely anyone would have ever noticed. RJ Hatton notes in his 3-part series on the Colt (October 2004) that 100pF caps in this model could prove to be unreliable and cause a crackling sound (possibly a form of silver mica disease). I.F. transformers are ETA round-cans. These were on early 5B4 models as well.
| YEAR | MODEL NAME |
|---|---|
| 1951 | Bell Colt Original |
| 1953 | Rolax Colt |
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