TELEFUNKEN PARTNER 500

I bought this radio new in the late '70s. If you look it up on radiomuseum.org, it lists the country of manufacture as West Germany. Perhaps the version of this radio that was sold in Europe was made there, but mine (sold in North America and wired for 110V) was made in Taiwan. Given that it was made near the end of the '70s, it's probably safe to say that this timeframe marked the end of an era of great German-made radios.

Having said that, the design undoubtedly remained German. I still use this radio every day because the sound is what you would expect from a German radio - clear and full at the bass end.

All that despite the indignity it suffered when exposed one time to heat and smoke, as evidenced by the pictures. The grille is warped and the pushbuttons are a little wonky, but it continues to work fairly well regardless.

The downsides:

• Tuning mechanism is sticky, being plastic. I can't remember the reason, but I've had to restring it twice (arrrggghh!). Probably my fault, but it's now reluctant to go completely end to end. I may have wound something too tight, but don't want to touch it again.
• Switches - the bane of every radio. These are no exception. The heat may not have helped, but getting AM and long wave to work has been a struggle.

Features:

• Full North American FM coverage of 88-108 MHz (some European models only go to 104 MHz)
• Shortwave coverage of 19m to 49m continuous (~6 to 15MHz)
• AM coverage of 520 to 1600 kHz
• Long wave coverage of ~150 to 265 kHz
• Line input/output by 5-pin DIN connector
• Standard 1/8" mono headphone jack
• AM/Long Wave preset dial. I have modified mine to be a bandspread tuner for shortwave, but the idea is that you can pre-select a favourite AM or Long Wave station and go to that station by pressing the appropriate buttons on the top of the radio.
  

 

 Like most portables with a single wide coverage shortwave band, tuning in a station is fiddly and image rejection is typically poor. This is true of all single conversion receivers with a 455 kHz I.F., so no surprise.

 

I look forward to doing side-by-side comparisons with other vintage portables as they become available. I'll be comparing sound quality, sensitivity on all bands, the quality of the tuning mechanism, useability and overall build quality in subsequent posts.