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

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.