Est. 2003 · Johannesburg, South Africa
Preserving Southern Africa's Wireless Heritage.
Connect with collectors, access rare schematics, and explore decades of radio history — from spark-gap pioneers to the valve sets glowing on our members' workbenches today.
- 1930s–50s
- Golden‑era valve sets in the collection
- 7 MHz
- Home of the Saturday morning AWASA net
- Free
- Membership, by association
Quick access
The Digital Vault
Everything a collector needs, filed the way a good radio bench is kept — in order, and within reach.
Radio of the month
A Century on the Dial
Follow the eras of Southern African wireless — tap a period to see what our members were building, buying and restoring.
The First Nets on 40 Metres
Before valves, Southern African experimenters coaxed signals from crystal detectors and spark‑gap transmitters — the raw beginnings of a listening culture that would, decades later, become AWASA's Saturday morning net.
Restoration Story: A 1938 Console Set
Bakelite cabinets, glowing rectifier valves and shortwave bandspread dials define this golden era. Many of the sets in our collection were rescued from farm sheds and municipal attics across the Highveld and the Cape.
From Valve to Germanium
Portable transistor sets brought wireless off the sideboard and into the hand. Collectors now chase the earliest Southern African-market portables of this transitional decade.
Collins Gear & the Birth of AWASA
AWASA's own roots trace to a Collins-collector interest group formed in 2000 at a Pretoria flea market — the direct ancestor of today's Association, incorporated in March 2003.
Live from the forum
From the Workbench
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Restoring a 1938 Philips Monoknob32 comments
J. van der Merwe · Cabinet veneer repair & original dial-cord routing
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Sourcing 6V6 tubes in Cape Town12 comments
M. Adams · Western Cape chapter, valve supply thread
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CW Activity Day — logging software?9 comments
S. Khumalo · Prepping for the February contact contest