If we look at the radio properties of the nearby ellipticals we find a situation considerably different from that just described by van der Kruit for the spiral galaxies. For example NGC 5128 (Cen A), the nearest giant elliptical galaxy, is a thousand times more powerful a radio source than the brightest spiral galaxies and furthermore its radio emission comes from a multiple lobed radio structure which bears no resemblance to the optical light distribution (e.g. Ekers, 1975). The other radio emitting elliptical galaxies in our neighbourhood, NGC 1316 (Fornax A), IC 4296 (1333–33), have similar morphology. A question which then arises is whether at lower levels we can detect radio emission coming from the optical image of the elliptical galaxies and which may be more closely related to the kind of emission seen in the spiral galaxies.