Just a side-note tho... I have a 706 MKII in the car. I had a 6
meter whip on a mag-mount connected to the HF side where I was
listening to a local beacon. I removed the 6 meter whip and replaced
it with a White GMS/Volvo CB whip about an inch shorter (the cb
antenna is just under 4 feet long.) The signal of the 6 meter beacon
came up from 1/2 to full scale. I swapped back and forth and tested
the SWR to make sure. The CB antenna was maximum SWR but sounded
considerably better. I have several of these antennas so I am
planning to try to trim one for 6 meters and use it instead of the
whip I am using now. I don't have enough data to determine what
causes the improvement, but I believe I have ruled out propagation.


You should have checked several becons in diffearant directions. A few
years back a friend and I had several 2 meter antennas that would fit the
same mount. While checking out several repeaters in differant directions we
found one antenna would be beter in one direction and another in a differant
direction . It may have been due to the differance in the lobes of the
antennas and the height of the repeaters.