Note
QST, Dec 1972, P. 113.
QST, Mar 1973, p. 176. (good photo)
QST, Sep 1973, pp. 116–117. (specs and info on autotune)
QST, Jan 1974, p. 133.
QST, Oct 1974, p. 129. (SS-200A - good photo)
QST, Feb 1975, p. 109.
Swan made three versions of the "SS" transceivers, differing only in the power output .
SS-15 – 15 watts PEP. $579.00
SS-100 – 100 watts PEP. $699.00
SS-200 – 200 watts PEP. $779.00
The rigs covered 80-10 meters and operated directly from 12 VDC. They had built-in VOX, a noise blanker, and semi-break in on CW. Broadband finals provided no-tune operation.
The SS-100 appears to have been dropped by Sep 1973, as it is not listed on Swan's ad in that issue of QST.
The transceivers have built-in VOX and a built-in noise blanker with variable blanking control.
The transmitter circuits, which require no tuning, have infinite SWR protection from an open to a short circuit, so it's impossible to damage the final power transistor because of poor antenna matching.
Receiver sensitivity for the solid-state Swan transceivers is less than 0.5 uV at 50 ohms impedance for a signal-plus-noise-to-noise ratio of 10 dB. Minimum image rejection i s –55 dB at 30 MHz, increasing to better than –75 dB a 3 MHz. Audio response is essentially flat from 300 to 3000 Hz +3 dB.
Audio output, to an external 3.2-ohm speaker, is 4 watts with less than 10% distortion. IF selectivity is provided by a 2.7-kHz wide crystal filter with a 1.7 shape factor. In the transmit mode the unwanted sideband is down more than 50 dB and the carrier is suppressed greater than 60 dB. Distortion products are approximately –30 dB. Transmitter output impedance is 50-ohms nominal.
An audio sidetone is provided to CW monitoring, and CW keying is equivalent to grid-block keying and features semi-breakin with VOX.
The SWR protection circuit cuts output power by 20% when the SWR is 3:1 or higher. Under these conditions, infinite SWR protection i s provided, including open or short circuits.
All transceivers are designed for 13.5 VDC power supplies, the nominal supply voltage of a 12-volt automobile system. All units require 500 mA in the receive mode. For SSB, the SS-200 requires 6 amps average; the SS-100, 3.5 amps average, and the SS-15, 800 mA average.
For CW operation, the current drain is higher: 20, 11 and 2 amps respectively for the SS-200, SS-100 and SS-15.
Accessory power supplies are available for operation in the home station from 117 VAC utility lines. Other accessories include the SS-208
external VFO for split-frequency operation, the 610X crystal-controlled oscillator, the SS-16B 16-pole super-selective crystal filter with a 1.28 shape factor, and the SS-1200 linear amplifier using four 6LQ6 tubes for 117-VAC
operation.