[ICOM] Running mobile with some CW problems

[John Geiger]

I was running my Icom 706MKII mobile over the past few days and made quite a few QSOs on the County Hunters Net.  However, 2 interesting things showed up, that I am looking for solutions for.  I had my 706 plugged into the cigarette lighter on a 2007 Chrysler Town and Country Minivan. The cables were 10 or 12 guage so there shouldn't have been much voltage drop. The antenna was a MFJ mini hamstick (3 feet tall on a 5 inch mag mount) for 20 meters.  I had the rig set to 40 watts due to the current limitations of the cigarette lighter.

The first thing I noticed was that I was getting RF bites off of the set up MFJ mini travel paddles I was using.  Also off of the rig case at times.  This is intersting because it didn't happen last month when I was using a Yaesu FT857 with the same setup.  The only difference was that the paddles have a 1/8" plug on the end, so they plugged directly into the FT857's key jack, whereas I had to use a 1/8' to 1/4" adaptor for the key jack on the Icom 706MKII.  Don't know if the adaptor could cause something like that.

Secondly, a couple of stations told me I had a chirp on my signal, like the battery was low.  I didn't get this report when the FT857 either, running at around the same power, nor with an Icom 706 original I used to have. Could the 706mKII be more sensitive to lower voltages?

I wonder if others have experienced these problems with their 7-6s or have an idea as to what could be going on with my setup.

73 John AF5CC