HRSA - AORSM Summary Database

About the AORSM

AORSM stands for the "Australian Official Radio Service Manual", an annual compendium of circuit diagrams, service data and component values for most radios made in Australia each year.

The AORSM was published annually over the nineteen year period from 1937 to 1955 inclusive, with the exception of the period of World War Two, where the years 1940 and 1941 were combined into a single volume, and none were published between 1942 and 1945. During this wartime period, Australia's radio factories were either closed for the duration, or manufacturing various types of military gear.

The arrival of television in 1956 signalled the end of the prominence of radio as a luxury item; the advent of not only television, but tape recording, microgroove records and hi-fidelity, together meant that radio was relegated to a lesser place in both the home and on the salesroom floor.

Hence "radio servicing" was no longer an industry all to itself, but now formed a part of the much larger field of electronics servicing. There was no longer a sufficient call for whole books of radio service data, as radios were becoming cheaper, more reliable and comparatively more disposable items after 1955. It was gradually becoming cheaper for a serviceman to obtain the circuit diagrams individually. Hence 1955 became the last year of AORSM publication.

For those interested, a CD containing scans of all copies of the AORSM is offered in the yellow marketplace section of 'Radio Waves'.

See separate page for Help on explanation of the data fields.

AORSM Volume Index