[ICOM] Re: Best antenna for 706 mobile?

[Gary Pearce KN4AQ]

Nobody's mentioned the Outbacker, or mounts.

I use the Outbacker Perth Plus.  It's a medium profile antenna with 
all-band operation (80 thru 10, and 6/2 meters by changing whips).  To 
change bands, you have to stop and change taps on a lead that runs up the 
antenna, and you probably have to adjust the length of the whip.  The 706 
MKIIG's unique SWR Graph utility makes setting the whip length easy.

2:1 SWR Bandwidth as "whole phone band" on 10-20, about 100 kHz on 40, and 
only about 20 kHz on 80.

Performance is adequate on all bands except 80.  As someone mentioned, 
mobile hamming works better than you might expect - lots of good, easy 
QSO's on 10 thru 40, even mobile to mobile.  I use 80 some for an ARES net, 
and the best I can say is that most of they time they can hear me.  Now and 
then I get that faint praise "good signal, for a mobile."

So you can do better with a bigger antenna.  Mounting is the positive side 
of the compromise.  The Outbacker can be mounted on one of the larger 
trunk-lip mounts (I use the Diamond K-400).  It seemed like the antenna 
might be a little oversize for that mount, but its proven itself over the 
three years I've been using it.

My 3 year old Outbacker is showing signs of age - some cracks in the tall 
loading coil cover material (plastic?), and corrosion in the taps.  But so 
far, performance doesn't seem to be affected.  If you buy one used, get it 
from someone who hasn't used it much.

At about $300, the Outbacker is pretty expensive - about like buying 
Hamsticks for all bands at once (but more convenient).  Lately the smaller 
screwdriver antennas have appeared at about the same price, giving you the 
flexibility to change bands without getting out of the car.  You do that at 
some peril if you're driving, of course.  Still, at replacement time 
(coming soon), I'll probably go for a mini-Tarheel, if I don't get the 
ambition to go for a full-size screwdriver.

73,
Gary KN4AQ




At 10:44 PM 1/4/2005, you wrote:
>Hello all,
>     I am considering purchasing an IC-706MKIIG for mobile use.  I have never
>done any HF mobile work and thought it would be neat to give it a try.  Of
>course, Icom recommends the AH-4 tuner and AH-2B antenna combination.  Can
>anyone recommend this combination?  Or, what other antennas would you
>recommend?  I don't want anything huge and I don't have to be able to tune
>every corner of every band.  I suspect I would use 40 and 20 meters the
>most.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks very much.
>
>Doug W4DAS

__________________________________________________________________________
        Gary Pearce KN4AQ        editor, SERA Repeater Journal
        Cary, NC                 www.sera.org
        919-380-9944             kn4aq at sera.org
        kn4aq at arrl.net
         AOL/Yahoo Instant Messenger: KN4AQ Radio
         (send e-mail to be put on my "buddy list")