Beolit 700 family

(1964-1966) FM/MW/LW/SW Portable radio, 1x1W

This quality, fully featured set moved the now well established Beolit transistor radio range even further up market. Offering coverage of four wavebands, a powerful amplifier and a large loudspeaker, the new model showed how good the performance from a transistor portable could be. Detail refinements included a tuning/battery meter, separate treble and bass controls, AFC on FM and a duplex tuning drive with separate scales for FM and the AM bands. A similar pushbutton assembly to that used in the Beomaster 900K was used, and in the same way the tuning control clutch was operated by pressing the FM key. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

Two telescopic rod antennas were fitted, one for SW and the other primarily for FM, though under difficult reception conditions both could be used together for FM in a “dipole” configuration. The internal rod antenna for MW and LW was very directional and could be used for direction finding in conjunction with the tuning meter. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

The set was powered by six “D” sized torch batteries, a welcome relief in the UK as these were cheaper and easier to come by than the specialised radio types that many other sets used. An external aerial, external loudspeaker and a record player or tape recorder could all be connected through sockets in the base of the set. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

The moulded plastic sides of the set were made in blue, grey or black. The Beolit De Luxe 611-FMK was replaced in 1966 by the Beolit 700. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

(1966-1968) FM/MW/LW/SW Portable radio, 1x1W

This model replaced the Beolit 611 De Luxe 611-FMK. Outwardly it was very similar, but can be easily recognised by its restyled tuning dial, round metal (instead of rectangular white plastic) pushbuttons and slightly different control knobs. The new knobs were all the same size (previously the tuning knob had been larger) so in order to make the tuning control easier to recognise at a glance it was given a black centre. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

Internally the receiver circuit remained largely unaltered but the audio amplifier had been redesigned. The amplifier in the original version used five transistors and although capable of reasonable performance had in truth a little too much gain, leading to excessive background noise and a volume control that could prove difficult to adjust. The new circuit had only four transistors, replacing two PNP germanium types in the preamplifier with a single low noise NPN silicon device. This change brought improved performance at the cost of slightly increased battery consumption. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.

The Beolit 700 was dropped from the range when the Beolit 1000 appeared. The name would be revived in the early 70s however for the new AM/FM Beolit 700, at the top of the Beolit range of the day. Text copyright © Beocentral. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.