I've seen a lot of Hacks, Technicians and Engineers modify many of the Swan and
Siltronix radios through the years. Some were pretty wild and wacky mods. Around
Northern California where I live, I know of three or four mod packages which were
offered to 1011 owners. Many of these modifications involved the addition of an
internal "Albatross type Frequency Counter" (of which I don't really like) in what
I term a half-ass method of operational frequency display. The internal counter
required you press a button to see the display in the receive mode. The VFO band
range - switch sometimes went away and the single range was "broad banded" to work
much of the entire 26 to 28MHz bandwidth (on some modified units). Internal Counter
units with the orignal dual ranges would not display the second band position. In
my opinion a poorly applied modification when the radio lost so much usable frequency.
I found one up for sale on Ebay and placed a picture of it below. Notice the dial
set is now replaced with a red push button and the vfo dial is a Red LED type lens.
The dual band switch remained on this unit, other radio owners mod requests removed
the bandswitch. Shawn, North of us ended up with this tranceiver from an Ebay Seller.
It's a real nice unit... strange to operate, but still a workhorse on SSB.
Albatross Electronics was Joe in Northern California modifying Siltronix radios
with package of features/options he felt a serious Siltronix Operator would desire.
His Paper Brochure Listed Updates included the mentioned onboard frequency counter,
tighter crystal filter, constant ac power mods and a basic rework of the radio. To
be honest, his work was real quality, but the reason for his mods don't make much
sense to me or others which included folks at Siltronix. I'm told there was a meeting
of Joe and the Siltronix crew which never really went anywhere. Still, Joe was able
to convince many an owner to let him rework their radios and I've seen many around
like the one shown below. His resultant owners manual doesn't really make a lot of
common sense, but I do have copies of it if you end up with an Albatross Radio. I
would be cautious about following some of his instructions as I believe some of the
tune - adjustment steps described are pretty non conventional.
This to me, most all of these mods were almost hack jobs as the VFO stability
suffered a great deal. I inherited two or three of these units, some called "Albatross"
refurbished rigs... some day I'll rework them to a better full time counter display
circuit or Ebay them off to many a fan of this type mod/"update." I know there's a
better way to deal with an on board frequency counter. Maybe I'll attribute the mod
to the technology of the time period. If time allows, I'll pop a few more pictures
of these hybrid rigs I have stored here, their internal views. I repair many brand HF,
Siltronix and Swan radios as my limited time allows, but if possible, I prefer to
enjoy them in original/stock operation. Other newer solid state radios work much
better when heavily modified... if your so inclined to blow your way up and down a
band. A vintage radio modification has to really enhance regular operation to be worth
the time.
Other odd ball mods included a power on standby switch which constantly kept the tube
heaters on. Bad news in my opinion... many a rig power supply was lost while long unused
idle times allowed a power surge/spike to wack the unit. Not to mention the heat and
increasing price of the utility power bills these days. The reasons given on the mod
advertisements I have were in the interest of better vfo stability. Well heck, if
people wouldn't hack up the original vfo from the start, the long term stability
would remain pretty darn good. Considering the technology of the time, the solid
state VFO circuit is a real winner. Adding that standby switch... all you end up
with is a lot of wasted/lost tube life, heat and a potential for trouble when your
not around.
Another popular modification was to remove the onboard power supply and place it
into the matching speaker... The modification never made much sense to me but a
lot of people had it done. You can see there was ample power supply space in the
original 1011C shown above. This rather dirty rig (sold on Ebay) still worked well,
lacking years of proper care. Hopefully the new owner cleaned it up a bit...
A few other Techs removed the stock crystal filter and installed a 2.7KHz wide
in the interest of "tight" SSB only operation. Not my cup of tea because the stock
filter worked very well for SSB thank you. AM operation was lost after this mod
which was sold to "the serious SSB Only Operators." I've installed crystal filter
switch kits in this radio for the real die-hard ops, but again one defeats the
practical cost and operation of a great radio, for such a little benefit. Most
modern ham rigs use a "standard" 3.3KHz filter bandwidth for "generic SSB and
switching is done to a 6 or 10Khz filter for AM operation."
One of the most wild rigs I saw was a bare chassis buildup with a 4cx250 final
tube. Wow..! This well known Fairfield, California Technician mentioned to me
that he was working on a dual 4CX250 rig (how about a 1kw plus Siltronix..?).
If you've ever heard of the famous Glenn VFO or Northern Calif. "tpl" amplifiers
(not the solid state commerial line you now see sold on the used market and Ebay),
you might know about some of the overkill designs these Stockton, Fairfield,
Auburn and Vacaville, California Radio Techs were up to. I've done more than
a few PA section mods myself, but a scheme to cool a ceramic tetrode inside
that small chassis box was nuts. I never saw it in operation, but I saw it
pretty close to completion many years ago. I prefer to keep my ceramic tetrodes
in a larger box thank you.
So there you have a little history and information about the Siltronix line up.
They hold up well when they're kept clean. The 8950 final tube is getting to be
a hens tooth to find cheap enough, but resourceful people shouldn't have a problem
finding a replacement. Worst case when the 8950 supply dries up and goes away,
you can retrofit the 6HF5 on board using the proper circuit mods (described in
the 80's vintage ARRL Book "Hints and Kinks for the Radio Amateur). Another popular
retrofit tube is the 6LB6 which I like a lot. I saw a few
early (pre "late 70's boom") cb'ers using 1011 stations to work DX and wow... I
was hooked. That lead to a ham ticket and all the fun that includes. Legal
operation of the Siltronix in the Ten Meter Ham band is very enjoyable.
Other 70's "Radio Camps" included the very popular Yaseu FT-101, Henry Tempo-One,
Kenwood and a few other early multiband HF rigs. Some of which I've had and still
own now in storage. Keep your Siltronix covered when not in use, Dust and excessive
heat are The Killers of This Rig! If you still have the original power supply
filter electrolytic "can" capacitor in service, consider a very slow power-up
with an AC Variac or some type of equivalent "AC line step start circuit" each
time you power the rig up from a long storage time or down period. This will
allow the power supply electrolytic capacitor(s) dilectrics to slowly reform
as best possible. I will often give a very long term stored radio a few days
of a very slow increasing voltage through a variac.
Blow out your rig with moderate pressure air. Buy and only use a small amount
of Caig Labs ProGold, DeOxit, G5, B2 or B5 Control-Cleaner/Spray. Trust me
on this one thing if nothing else you learn here. This stuff "IS-IT" for keeping
volume pots, switches and controls in order. If it won't clean or lubricate the
contacts back in shape, they really need replacement.
First, use a Q-Tip with a common silver contact cleaner like "Tarn-X" on the
plated band switch controls to remove the oxide buildup. After cleaning, displace
the Tarn-X with a non-residue spray cleaner (available from most all Electronic
Supply Stores) followed by the Craig Labs Contact Treatment or whatever control
preservative type you obtain. Dirty and oxidated band switch contacts are the
very common problem with many older radios and there are bandswitch contacts
inside the Siltronix VFO box which might also need cleaning. It just depends
on how clean, dry and well kept the radio is.
Place a small slow to moderate speed boxer fan on top of the chassis above the
PA Tube Section, sucking air up out of the radio. This little addition will
really help the chassis temperature normalize from a "cold start" and save
your expensive PA Tube many hours of potential life.