I’ve wanted to find a transistorized Bajazzo for some time,
and while this one appears to be a ‘baby Bajazzo’, it doesn’t disappoint. The
age range for this 201 is 1969 to 1972, but the Bajazzo name actually
goes back to the early ‘50s tube era of Telefunken’s kofferradios.
Like a lot of radios from this age range, there was an
optional car bracket which held the radio in place with a couple of threaded
holes in the back and connected to the car antenna, speaker and power through a
multi-pin socket in the bottom. I’ve never seen one, but it would have been a
nice way to get shortwave and FM in the car back then. The AUTO button on the
radio provides the connection.
 |
| Car Bracket Mounting and Connections |
A feature I’ve never seen before in my other radios is a
split medium wave band into two bands. MW2 is like a bandspread dial for the
upper part of the band, and covers from about 1410 to greater than 1600 kHz.
From the markings on the dial, it appears to be a part of the band occupied by
specific European stations. It’s a nice feature to have, especially if you like
to do some careful AM dx’ing.
Ok –now for some general impressions. It’s a very portable
radio, and quite light even when loaded up with ‘C’ cells. Like most Telefunken
radios from the early 70s, things got more plasticky. My main complaint is that
the controls feel cheap, especially the tuning knob. It has a springy,
non-precise feel to it and tends to overshoot when rotated. This means you end
up rocking it back and forth to get exact tuning, particularly on shortwave.
Touchy-feelies aside, I find the performance of the radio
very good. Sound is typically rich and bassy considering the size of the radio.
Once again, for FM and shortwave bands, I compared it with my benchmark
mid-to-late seventies Telefunken Partner 500. Right away, I noticed that the
Bajazzo performed better than the Partner on FM. Better sensitivity,
selectivity and lack of front end intermod distortion from overload were
evident. The AFC does an amazing job of finding and locking in stations, even a
MHz or so away from where you’re tuned.
On shortwave, the comparison was not as clear cut. While the
Bajazzo was physically easier to tune, the Partner actually beat the Bajazzo
slightly in sensitivity, to my surprise.
Just about every radio in this category that I’ve tested in
North America was utterly useless on longwave. This Bajazzo is an exception.
While sensitivity was not hot on this band, at least AM band feedthrough was only noticeable below
200kHz, and even then was minimal. What was a pleasant surprise was that I was
able to receive a number of aviation NDBs (non-directional beacons) in the
200-330 kHz range, some as far away as 300 km.
On medium wave (AM) the radio did not disappoint either.
Both MW1 and MW2 performed well. This may be partly due to the extra long
ferrite bar that holds both the AM and longwave coils. More ferrite core means
greater signal capture, and probably explains the reasonable performance on
longwave too.
Frequency coverage is as follows-
·
Longwave: ~150 to 350 kHz
·
MW1: ~520
to 1450 kHz
·
MW2: ~1410 to 1630 kHz
·
Shortwave: ~5.8 to 12.5 MHz
·
FM: ~88 to 108 MHz (North American model)
Power Requirements-
·
7.5 VDC external; 6 ‘C’ cells internal
Line In/Out (TA/TB)-
·
Through standard 5 pin DIN jack
·
Selected by pushing LW & KW buttons
simultaneously
Antenna –
·
Internal telescoping & external via side
panel Motorola-type jack
External Speaker -
·
Via side panel jack
