"Channel Jumper" wrote in message
...


Spend your money once and spend it right.

My first antenna was a G5RV which is a poor antenna and is a non
resonant antenna, that does work on 20 meters, but only 20 meters.

My second antenna was a Solorcon / Antron A99 Vertical - which works
well for 10 / 12 / 15 and 17 - with my internal antenna tuner.
I do not like external antenna tuners.

Your technician class license will not allow you to operate anything
lower then 10 meters phone 28.300 - 28.500 MHz USB....

If you are going to spend good money on a resonant HF antenna - that
does not require a expensive antenna tuner - you would want to purchase
a Barker & Williamson BWD 90 - folded dipole.

I'm not sure if you are going to be happy with your combo HF / VHF / UHF
transceiver. It lacks good filtering and doesn't do anything especially
well - other then it affords you the opportunity to use it in more then
one band or mode...

The price of the B&W will probably be one third of what you spent on the
706..

For listening, it doesn't matter how high you put it up, as long as you
put it up and use the best possible coax to feed it.

Two meters / 440 - you would want to purchase a Diamond X 500 and get it
up as high as you can and feed it with the best possible coax such as
the Belden 9913F7 or LMR 400


For the cost of the B&W BWD 90 you can get a tuner and use a more simple
dipole. The B&W is really just a big dummy load of an antenna. I have
worked several stations that use them and they were not very strong
compaired to other stations near them. The military uses them because they
can run plenty of power to make up for the short commings of the B&W. Also
they operate over many frequencies and want something simple that will cover
them. It is almost like a radiating dummy load.

The G5RV is ok if high enough. Still nothing special except for maybe 20
meters if the stations are in the correct direction. It does need tuner for
transmitting.

For just receiving, just about anything is ok as many have mentioned.

There is nothing wrong with the Icom 706 for casual use. I have one and a
746pro and they compair very well for casual usage except for the filtering
the 746 has. I do have a cw filter in the 706 that helps out for cw and
rtty. For the price, the 706 is a fine radio.