Telefunken Shortwave Radio

[Clara Zellinger]

TheTelefunken partner international 101 portable receiver was introduced around 1975, it is an analogue world band radio with six spread shortwave bands in double conversion technology.

On the front face are the dials for the shortwave broadcast bands with frequency marks every 50 kHz. In a small window, the active shortwave band is indicated; it is set with the wave selector knob acting on a turret tuner on the left face of the set.

At the top are the slider controls for volume and tone control (linear potentiometers, they are somewhat susceptible to corrosion and dust), next to them is the push-button switch unit with the main power switch and the waveband buttons.

The set is powered by six UM-2 batteries. The mains cable compartment on the underside opens when the semicircular cover on the battery / mains cable lid is turned accordingly and the opening of the lid is released.

The left red button turns on the receiver, the band range is selected with the push-buttons: longwave / mediumwave, the maritime communications band between 2 - 4.5 MHz, the shortwave ranges (K/SW, the desired broadcast band can be selected with the band switch on the left face of the set and its displayed in a small window) or FM broadcast band. The tuning knob, which is commonly used in all ranges (in contrast to the Nordmende Globetrotter 808 with a similar design and two tuning knobs for L / M / MB / FM broadcast band and shortwaves) at the right is used to hunt for stations.

In the spread shortwave boraadcast bands 1 - 6, the set works as a double conversion superhet with a moderately high first IF of 3750 kHz and the usual second IF of 460 kHz, the mirror frequency rejection is better than with the standard single conversion superhets.

A guy I know from work is offering me one of these in primo condition fully operational sans a stylus for the phono, any idea on this thing. I searched Google and Yahoo and did not find out a whole lot and couldn't find a viewable photo either. It is tubed but I am wondering what is in it? Probably going to look at it this weekend, the guy wants like $50 or less for it.

Not familiar with the model but most Telefunkens are basically radios, and probably wouldn't be that useful in terms of turning it's guts into a useful integrated amp. 1958 so it may not even be stereo. I have a a telefunken console with stereo and shortwave and it pretty much just sits there.

Yeah sounds like their standards radio console with a turntable. They sound nice in a console kind of way. I think it's consoles like these that brought about that "warmth"label used to describe the tube sound. You will find that the transformers are really dinky and there is probably no Aux or rape loop so it would be hard to hook up a cd player wihtout major re-wiring. You can pretty much count on most of the tubes and caps being on their last legs. If you buy it don't leave the house with it turned on.

What the Telefunkens usually have going for them, though, is really cool looks. A lot of them have that 50's/60's Scandinavian thing going on. If it's got the fold out front you could use the top for your regular stereo gear and have a conversation piece to boot. Give it a look see but don't pay to much or get your hopes up to high. These are not like the Fisher consoles which have really good stuff in them.

Nauen Transmitter Station (German: Grossfunkstelle Nauen or Sender Nauen) in Nauen, Havelland district, Brandenburg, Germany, is the oldest continuously operating radio transmitting installation in the world. Germany's first high power radio transmitter, it was founded on 1 April 1906 by Telefunken corporation and operated as a longwave radiotelegraphy station through World War II, and during World War I became Germany's main link with the outside world when its submarine communications cables were cut. Upgraded with shortwave transmitters in the 1920s it was Germany's most advanced long range radio station, continually upgraded with the latest equipment and serving as an experimental station for Telefunken to test new technology. At the end of World War II, invading Russian troops dismantled and removed the transmitting equipment. During the Cold War it served as the GDR's (East Germany's) international shortwave station Radio Berlin International (RBI), and was the East Bloc's second most powerful radio station, disseminating Communist propaganda to other countries. Since German Reunification in 1991 it has been operated by Deutsche Telekom, Germany's state telecommunication service. The original 1920 transmitter building designed by architect Herman Muthesius is still used; it is one of the many remaining buildings designed by that architect that is a protected cultural heritage site.

During the early years of the 20th century after Marconi's 1901 transatlantic radio demonstration, industrial nations began building networks of powerful longwave transoceanic radiotelegraphy stations to communicate with other countries and keep in touch with their overseas colonies. These transmitted telegram traffic with Morse code at high speed using paper tape machines. During World War I long-distance radio communication became a strategic technology; not only was it necessary to keep in timely contact with distant armies and naval fleets, but a nation without it could be isolated by an enemy cutting its submarine telegraph cables, as happened to Germany during both world wars.

The station was financed by Germany's Post Office, which wanted to develop it as a strategic link with Germany's overseas colonies, as well as handling commercial telegram traffic to the Americas.[5] In 1909 a post office official, Hans Bredow, became station director, who set about to achieve these goals by making Nauen a 'superpower' station.[1]

In 1911 the station changed from an experimental to a commercial station, with call sign POZ. The steam power plant was increased to 100 kW and the transmitter was replaced with a new more efficient 35 kW quenched-spark transmitter which increased the range to about 5,300 kilometres (3,300 mi).[4] In the same year the antenna tower was increased to 200 metres in height; however, this tower was destroyed by a storm on 31 March 1912. A temporary replacement antenna was suspended between two 120 metres high masts.

After the beginning of World War I in 1914, the station became very important because the transatlantic cables leading to Germany were cut by the British Navy. During the war, the station was run by the German Admiralty, which used it for military communication with its fleet as well as commercial radiotelegraphy traffic. The British Radio Intelligence Service devoted much effort into intercepting and decoding encrypted military communications from the station during the war.

In 1916, at the urging of Bredow, major additional development of the station took place. Two huge 400 kW Joly-Arco alternator transmitters were installed, which could work in parallel giving an output power of 800 kW;[7] making the station by far the most powerful radio transmitter in the world. These were some of the largest alternator transmitters ever built, and operated at the limit of this technology.[7] The alternator had a 1.65 meter diameter rotor weighing 7 tons, rotating at 1500 rpm.[6][7] The rotor's 240 teeth (magnetic poles) generated 1200 amps alternating current at 450 volts and a frequency of 6 kHz. This was doubled twice by two cascaded frequency doubler transformers to give 24 kHz, which was applied to the antenna.[8] The large doubler transformers, although 90% efficient, required a powerful forced-oil cooling system to remove the 40 kW waste heat.[8][7] A system of switchable doubler and tripler transformers allowed the transmitter to operate on a range of frequencies: 12 kHz, 18 kHz, 24 kHz, 36 kHz, or 48 kHz.[7] The antenna system was enormously increased in size. In 1920 the main flattop antenna, carried on two 260-metre (850 ft) and four 125-metre (410 ft) masts, was 2,484 metres (8,150 ft) long. These transmitters gave the station a range of 11,000 kilometres (6,800 mi), which was increased to 18,000 kilometres (11,000 mi) by the end of the war, essentially covering most of the world.[9]

During the war the Nauen station was Germany's main communication link with the outside world.[1] Germany's Transocean news service broadcast overseas news summaries in English twice daily from Nauen, which could be received worldwide, to circumvent the censorship of Britain's cable network, to get their version of the news to the Americas and the Far East.[9] In 1918 in World War 1 US president Woodrow Wilson transmitted a request for surrender to Nauen from the alternator station at New Brunswick, New Jersey.

A new transmitter building designed by Hermann Muthesius was erected in 1920, an Art Deco style cathedral-like structure to give space for more high power transmitting equipment. The modernized station was inaugurated on September 29, 1920 by German president Friedrich Ebert.

In the 1920s long distance radio communication shifted from the longwave to the shortwave bands with the discovery of the skywave (skip) propagation mechanism. The last longwave transmitter was installed at Nauen in 1923 and vacuum tube shortwave transmitters were installed after 1924. On 1 January 1932 the German Reichspost took over the station. It was considerably expanded and by 1939 was one of the biggest and most powerful communication complexes in the world. Although vacuum tube transmitters had long been the state of the art in the 1930s, the high power alternator transmitters were again modernized in 1937 for use in WW2 to communicate with Germany's U-boat fleet.

In World War II, the longwave transmitters were used by the military to transmit instructions to submerged submarines. Unlike higher frequency radio waves, the very low frequency (VLF) waves generated by the alternator transmitters could penetrate seawater and reach submerged submarines without the need for them to surface and become vulnerable to detection. The station survived World War II without damage, but after May 1945 was disassembled by Soviet occupation forces. All technical mechanisms were dismantled and the masts of the station were blown up. Whether and where the dismantled transmitters were used in the Soviet Union is unknown. The Muthesius building was also planned to be blown up, but this was prevented.

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