Gene wrote:

Getting ready to purchase a ICOM 8500, and as I live in a community
where a long wire would be out of the question, I have been told that
a discone will work quite well for my monitoring activities, and will
be rather hard for the grumpy neighbors to see, as compared to a beam,
etc. etc.... . Any comments on this? How high should I install it.
Probably cant go over 15 or 20 feet at the most. I intend to use some
type of telescoping mast, so when one of our Florida hurricanes comes,
I can "bring er down"! Since the antenna will be coupled to the mast,
will I still need to ground it? (I know thats probably a really stupid
question, but it seems as if the metal mast would take a lightning
strike (God forbid!) to the ground, rather than into the house..(??)
A neighbor of mine has a little discone up around 15 ft., and uses it
to transmit on the 6 meter (or is it 20 meter) bank. Works quite well,
he says. Thanks in advance for any info

You'll most certainly need (or want) some other sort of antenna other than
the discone to monitor shortwave.

dxAce