I found feedback within the SW-5 to be a problem. This isn't too bad for casual listening but it is a real problem for on-the-air operating. Checking through my QST files I found the James Millen Sept 1931 article describing the design process for the SW-3. In it he talks about various shielding options. The SW-5 shielding looks a lot like Millen's first attempt at SW-3 shielding. He described the results as "most disappointing" and "the RF stage oscillated violently". My no holes solution? Turn the tuned SW-5 RF stage into an untuned RF stage. I inserted an RF choke and an antenna coupling capacitor into an empty SW-5 coil form and use it instead of a standard RF stage coil. Now the SW-5 RF stage stays out of oscillation and it still picks up plenty of 80 and 40 meter signals.
It looks like I may be able to use my new QSL cards after all.
