Simple Ham Radio Antennas

Nice video from KP4COD on the operation of the Swan 260/270 Amateur Radio Transceiver. During my first years as an amateur radio operator, I owned a few old tube and hybrid rigs, because that was all I could afford at the time. Among my early rigs was a well-used Swan 260 Cygnet transceiver I bought from my mentor, Dean Manley (KH6B). I carried that old rig to field days, portable operations, and even into my garage room ham shack. After I let the old girl warm up for 30 minutes or so, it was fairly steady with very little drift. Combined with a simple 40 meter inverted vee, some ladder line, a 4:1 balun, and an old Drake MN-4 antenna transmatch, I worked the world. I always got good audio reports, both CW and SSB. I usually ran the rig at 50 watts or less in order to save the final tube, which was one of those TV horizontal oscillator tubes that couldn't take a lot of abuse. I later gave the rig to a newly licensed ham who had as much fun with this old classic as I did. KP...