Telefunken E1501

The Telefunken 19 inch professional receiver, model E1501, is the most advanced version of the E1500 model. The latter is a sized-down version without ISB, antenna diversity and tuning aid / display for RTTY. The 1501 can be expanded with various modules, the most valuable expansion is the pre-selector-module.This module is installed in my receiver.

The E1501 was used in the coastguard and military for communication surveillance and communication intelligence. It could be adapted to particular requirements because of its modular design. The E1501 was widely used because of its excellent performance. It was also used by the Swiss governmental agencies and military. Once in a while are these receivers offered at Ebay or sold privately. I would like to recommend, better advice, to test these receivers prior making an offer to the seller. Quiet often are these receivers offered with defects. The excellent features of the E1501 start with the mechanical design of the receiver and continue with the electronics and finally with its receiving performance. These receivers were built to last forever, without failing. I got mine from a skilled owner who maintained it properly, mechanically and electronically. I only replaced the tuning knobs as they had become a bit yellow. The E1501 is for the classist. Its ideal location is QRM-free because it has no features such as a notch-filter, pass-band tuning etc. Only a noise reduction has been built in which limits the high-frequency audio peaks and there for makes the reception at bit quieter. That was it. What also could be seen as a noise aid are the mechanical bandwidth filters which are very steep and give an excellent sound quality. Someone who cannot miss a notch-filter etc. can install an external audio filter. I used an old Dierking GD 82 NF which could once in a while improve the reception from some disturbances.

How is the 17 kg heavy receiver? I compared it with other amateur- and professional receivers. When there are few HF-disturbances is the E1501 an excellent receiver. It is a real hardcore dx-machine, even when the bandwidth filters are poorly selected for voice understandability. The E1501 can beat almost 80 % of the amateur receivers in receiving performance. The sensitivity, the (very) clear sound and the super large-signal behavior puts the E1501 in the front league. When operating it with manual AGC performs the E1501 even better and comes close to the performances of the recently tested Ten-Tec RX-340.  It is there for hard to decide its favorite receiver as the differences are minimal, not least because such receivers have a magical attraction.

A receiver without any bells and whistles but with an excellent reception quality!

Written at 13 Nov. 2012

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