Telefunken Bajazzo Sport 201

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