Some Swan and Siltronix Details


The Siltronix 1011 was and is very similar in size and physical layout to its six meter cousin, the Swan 250. Over time, I've heard about the many hams who have converted 1011 radios up to six meters and CB types who've used 250's down on the HF CB Bands. The latter mentioned not being legal for tx Class D CB operation. One going up, the other going down type conversions were a lot of work to complete. The Swan 250 band switch was a wacky variable capacitor bandspread with some versions including a front panel mounted physical knob clamp/lock. All I can say is that frequency spoting without some type of calibrator must have been a real chore.
By the time the first Swan 1011 rigs made it out the factory door, the 250 type bandspread variable capacitor design was thankfully replaced by a fixed, bandswitch range selector switch, typical of it's Swan 350 and 500 model cousins.

The crystal filter in the Siltronix 1011 rigs were less than 6KHz in bandwidth. The rig was quite usable in the AM mode and indeed, many owners enjoyed regular AM mode operation. There's a front panel "spot" switch on some models, which is an AM rx mode "zero beat" used to center in the received signal carrier. Unlike it's larger Swan 350/500 cousins, the Siltronix rigs even have an AM postion on the mode switch. I purchased from Ebay, a package of Swan Manuals... most of which are for the Swan 250. Turns out the 250 was produced in at least three or four versions and at least one version included AM operation on the mode switch. Other versions were made for serious CW (code) operation.
Siltronix AM mode operation was often labeled poor or quiet by classic AM wideband Ham/CB Radio Operators. The "quiet" label was often operator error or assumption the receiver would sound similar to a "regular wideband am cb." The on board narrow <6KHz lattice crystal filter made for some "really tight" AM CB channel monitoring, compared to a classic CB radio receiver. The normal "window" for common AM mode operation is expected to be about >6 to 10KHz wide... often quite wide in less expensive CB receivers. Siltronix 1011 owners in "Round Table Conversations" with more than one or two "off center frequency" stations had to chase the current active received signal. The user had to center each signal into the more narrow 1011 receiver passband.

Operation of a 1011 transciever required more than a plug and play mindset. One had to actually to be a bit intuitive and better informed vs the "average Joe..."




Last Update: 04/28/04