This is the Siltronix 1011D, a 10 (and 11) meter tube-type "ham" radio, which gathered a bit of a loyal following in the mid to late 70's. The "D" was the last in the series of 1011 model radios from Siltronix.  The Siltronix company was a spin off from the older Swan corp. and was created, supposedly, to market products that were aimed more toward the illegal CB market, while parent Swan continued to concentrate on the "legitimate" ham markets.  Consequently, as in the case of newer "10 meter" radios such as the Uniden HR-2510 and RCI-2950, the Siltronix 1011 series had a much greater following among the illegal CB freeband market.  From a serious H.F. ham perspective, this radio was sparse in the feature category, sporting only the basics like Volume, R.F. Gain, Mic Gain, Mode Selector, Band Switch, and output tuning controls. Other features included dial calibrator and a multi-function meter which measured received signal, as well as output power and cathode current. The rig covered the 10 meter ham band, as well as (out of the box) the CB band on receive only. It was a simple modification to enable CB band transmit.

Performance wise, this radio did ok on SSB. Power output exceeded 110 watts in most cases, and audio was good. The receiver performance was about average. It would hold its own against a CB radio, but fell far short of a "true" HF ham rig equipped with the usual features of variable bandwidth, selectable filters, and processors. The 1011's VFO was also known to drift a bit, especially on warm-up. Many Siltronix proponents are quick to downplay this drifting as a product of poor alignment or modifications, rather than inherent design flaws.  However, I never saw one that didn't drift, and many of the people who ran them, never turned them off so as to minimize drift.

Users who tried to run them on AM were in for a bit of a disappointment. Transmit audio was, in a word, terrible. If you tried to drive the mic gain too high, the audio would mush up, and become "sideband-like" (Which was exactly what was happening as the AM mode was simply the SSB mode with the carrier balance mistuned). Keeping the audio reined in for best clarity, would result in a flat and not very strong sound.  Adding an external speech compressor would help somewhat, but the realization was that this was just not the rig to use on AM, and most of the people who ran them kept another CB nearby for AM talking.

I was the owner of one for a brief period of time in the early 80's as the result of a horse trade. I quickly found out just how poorly they were for anyone who was less than a full time SSB'er. I eventually gave the rig to my father-in-law, who used to practically drool over it. I then picked up a Yaesu FT-101E, which was a much better rig for the mostly AM'er and part time SSB'er. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate the 1011D as about a 4.  It did give you a good frequency range but, IMHO, it just didn't perform all that well.

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