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

GRUNDIG CONCERT BOY 1100

I recently took a chance and won this radio at an auction; untested, with a seized tuning mechanism and coated with nictone.

When I got it on the bench, of course, it was totally non-functional. A little probing revealed a shorted filter capacitor in the power supply, which prevented it from working from either AC or batteries. A higher voltage and capacitance-rated part fixed that.


As for the seized tuner, I didn't have a clue what was going on. Thanks to the Internet and Google, I found that this was a common problem on Grundigs of this vintage ('73-'78). Apparently, the grease in the tuning capacitor hardens over time. One suggestion, which worked well for me, was to gently heat the capacitor with a hair dryer until the grease melted, then wash it away with a solvent like lighter fluid. I then re-greased the gears and pivot points with lithium grease, being careful not to get it on the plates. Result.

An unknown knucklehead who owned it before me decided that the headphone jack on the back (which works perfectly well) was not good enough for him. So, he proceeded to drill a hole in the front of the unit, just above the "G" in Grundig, and mount his own jack. The jack's now gone, but the hole remains. As for the nicotine...well, it's gone too, thanks to Windex and paper towels.

Concert Boy Goliath (left) and Partner David (right)

Since I've had my Telefunken Partner 500 for many years and am familiar with its characteristics the most, I will again use it as a benchmark. It seems like an unfair comparison when you look at the relative sizes of these radios...like David versus Goliath. But David puts up a good fight.

Right away, not surprisingly, the difference in bass presence goes to the Grundig. While the Partner's bass response for its size is excellent, physics says the bigger box is going to win. This Grundig big boy comes in at a whopping footprint of 41cm x 22cm x 10cm (approx.) [about 16.25" x 9" x 4"].

The Grundig's communications receiver - style tuning knob 

With telescopic antennas on both radios retracted, it was evident that the FM sensitivity of the Concert Boy was also better than the Partner's. In an urban area, the Partner gets overloaded easily, so lowering the antenna is required to prevent "ghosting" and distortion. The Grundig handled this proliferation of FM signals better, even with its antenna fully extended. Another point for Goliath, but his luck is about to run out.

Switching to the shortwave bands, the Concert Boy was almost useless on its K2 band (SW2 - 6.1 to 18 MHz) because of extreme feedthrough of local FM signals clobbering the weak shortwave signals. While the Partner had no such issue on the 19 m band through to the 41 m band, when a shortwave signal was heard on the Grundig between the FM splatter, the Grundig was slightly more sensitive.

That gap was closed at the 49 m band, where the sensitivity of both radios seemed comparable (on a subjective basis - not measured), and the FM interference on the Grundig subsided somewhat. One advantage the Concert Boy has is a second band (K1 or SW1), which is a bandspread band for 49 m (5.9 -6.23 MHz). While this makes tuning easier, I still find the tuning mechanism somewhat stiff, yet springy and imprecise. More heat and grease needed, perhaps?

Testing longwave here in North America is pointless, so I'll discuss AM performance. The same FM feedthrough problem exists on the Grundig if, for some reason, you leave the telescopic antenna extended. Since the AM band uses the internal loopstick antenna, keep the antenna down when listening to this band. Otherwise, the Concert Boy once again becomes useless.

If you live in a fringe FM area, the Grundig has terminals on the back for an FM dipole, as well as a DIN input/output jack and a headphone jack. The Partner has the latter two only. Note that the antenna terminals are only for FM and will not improve shortwave performance.

I have to say that I think Grundig's engineers got a little lazy on this one by providing themselves with tons of room to stuff their electronics into, while not taking advantage of it to enhance front-end performance. This radio suffers badly from cross-band interference. If you want a room-filling kitchen radio for FM, though, this one may fit the bill.

The big Boy needs big batteries : 6 'D' cells

NORDMENDE TRANSITA DELUXE

Radio makers tended to use the same model names over several years, while making significant design changes along the way. This is no different from the auto industry. A Toyota Camry, for instance, evolves in looks and features throughout the years. This applies to the Transita, the Telefunken Partner which I recently reviewed and probably every other radio produced in this era.

The Deluxe version of the Transita shown here was introduced in the early 60s, and is based on a wooden case covered with leatherette. This particular model covers the AM (medium wave) band, shortwave from 49m to 25m (~6-12 MHz) plus FM. The rounded profile gives it a charming retro shape. Later German radios became more squared off.

External connections include a Motorola automotive-type external antenna socket on the right hand side, and 9 Volt DC power input and headphone jack on the left. I didn't have much luck forcing a Motorola plug into the socket, because the chassis seems to be misaligned with the case.

A 6-cell C-size battery pack attaches with two snap connectors. As can be seen from the photo below, the back cover can be conveniently separated from the radio by unplugging the telescopic antenna's banana plug.


In this post, I will compare (subjectively) the Transita Deluxe with the Telefunken Partner 500.

I complained about the sticky tuning mechanism on the Partner. The Transita feels lovely and smooth in comparison. Despite that, on shortwave and AM, the Partner comes out somewhat ahead. The sensitivity (again, not measured, but subjective) is lacking on the Transita, as I found myself cranking the volume to near maximum when trying to find stations. Once I found a strong station, another Transita shortcoming appeared: apparent lack of automatic gain control (AGC). Because of this, I found myself jockeying the volume control every time I tuned in stations of varying strength.


From a sound quality standpoint, the Transita definitely was clean and generally sweet. The Partner, however, once again had the edge by offering more presence at the bass end. As opposed to the continuous tone control on the Partner, the Transita uses a switch, which introduces a single heavy-handed treble rolloff preset when pressed. I suppose a simple lower value capacitor swap in the tone circuit would improve it, but currently this is one feature I can't ever see using. 
 
The comparison of FM performance, however, was a little less black and white. While the Partner had apparently better sensitivity, in a crowded urban FM spectrum, this proved a slight disadvantage. I found the Partner subject to intermodulation (IM) distortion, which means it was overloaded with too many strong signals. This results in stations appearing like images in multiple places on the dial, and generally with distorted audio. This is different from the 'images' you would get on shortwave, because the higher I.F. stage frequency of 10.7 MHz on the FM band is generally effective at rejecting images. Retracting the telescopic antenna somewhat helped act as a front end attenuator, but then weaker stations get lost. By default then, the Transita makes a better big-city FM radio (sound quality aside), but the Partner would excel in rural fringe areas.

Performance aside, the wooden case and the retro curves make the Transita Deluxe a nice decorative element for any home with mid-century décor. While radio performance improved in later years, the plastic-fantastic housings they evolved into didn't carry quite the charm that this radio has.