I'm hoping the mud community can offer some advice that I can't seem to find elsewhere. I've posted on a few Ham forums, but have received answers that were either too technical (which is OK) but skipped over some of the basics that I also needed or answers that basically said I was an idiot and didn't deserve my license and this fine piece of equipment (I don't necessarily dispute these answer BTW, they just didn't help me any 
).
So, on to the question(s). I have a recently purchased and (mostly) installed Icom IC-7000 all-band, all-mode radio. It has two antenna inputs - one for HF, and one for VHF/UHF. At the moment, I have a Larsen NMO 2/70 mounted and connected to the VHF/UHF input. All seems fine there. My question(s) involve the HF band and its antenna option(s).
(1)(a) am I correct that if I do NOT connect any antenna to the HF input, I will recieve nothing on those bands (appears to the be case currently). (b) What if I accidently tune to one of the HF bands and key the mic? Will it transmit and damage the radio? Or will the radio determine the SWR is way too high and decrease the output power (possibly all the way down to no output)? Or will it attempt to transmit via the VHF/UHF Larsen antenna and, if so, what will be the result?
(2) I have an 11 meter CB antenna already mounted on the vehicle and connected to my CB radio for trail communications (it is a 5ft Fiberglass Firestick FS-5 with hand-tuneable tip). I don't plan to add another HF antenna in the near future, but I'm interested in the possibility of using the 11 meter antenna as it is already there and the coax is already neatly installed. So, (a) if I connect this antenna to the second HF input on the IC-7000 will I recieve very much? (b)If I transmit in the 10 or 12 meter bands (or anywhere else), will it damage anything or just not transmit very well? (c) will it help any if I add a tuner such as the Icom AH-4 or the LDG AT-7000 and, if so, how? Finally, I don't want to have both the IC-7000 and CB on at the same time (makes listening difficult) but I do like to monitor some of the CB bands while traveling. It would be nice if I could monitor these bands on the IC-7000 (which is capable of receiving 11 meters) and then turn on the CB and transmit on the few occassions I so desire. So (d) is there any way to add a "splitter" on the 11 meter antenna coax and feed both the CB and IC-7000 simultaneously? I wouldn't ever be receiving (or transmitting) from both radios at the same time. I've seen the usual coax switches, but I really don't want to have to manually switch the feed, I'd prefer both radios get the signal simultaneously and constantly - is this possible, and will it matter that the overall length of the coax will now be longer than 18' once the splitter and additional coax is added? (e) does any of this change if a tuner (mentioned above) is added on the IC-7000 side of the switched coax?
Thanks!
).So, on to the question(s). I have a recently purchased and (mostly) installed Icom IC-7000 all-band, all-mode radio. It has two antenna inputs - one for HF, and one for VHF/UHF. At the moment, I have a Larsen NMO 2/70 mounted and connected to the VHF/UHF input. All seems fine there. My question(s) involve the HF band and its antenna option(s).
(1)(a) am I correct that if I do NOT connect any antenna to the HF input, I will recieve nothing on those bands (appears to the be case currently). (b) What if I accidently tune to one of the HF bands and key the mic? Will it transmit and damage the radio? Or will the radio determine the SWR is way too high and decrease the output power (possibly all the way down to no output)? Or will it attempt to transmit via the VHF/UHF Larsen antenna and, if so, what will be the result?
(2) I have an 11 meter CB antenna already mounted on the vehicle and connected to my CB radio for trail communications (it is a 5ft Fiberglass Firestick FS-5 with hand-tuneable tip). I don't plan to add another HF antenna in the near future, but I'm interested in the possibility of using the 11 meter antenna as it is already there and the coax is already neatly installed. So, (a) if I connect this antenna to the second HF input on the IC-7000 will I recieve very much? (b)If I transmit in the 10 or 12 meter bands (or anywhere else), will it damage anything or just not transmit very well? (c) will it help any if I add a tuner such as the Icom AH-4 or the LDG AT-7000 and, if so, how? Finally, I don't want to have both the IC-7000 and CB on at the same time (makes listening difficult) but I do like to monitor some of the CB bands while traveling. It would be nice if I could monitor these bands on the IC-7000 (which is capable of receiving 11 meters) and then turn on the CB and transmit on the few occassions I so desire. So (d) is there any way to add a "splitter" on the 11 meter antenna coax and feed both the CB and IC-7000 simultaneously? I wouldn't ever be receiving (or transmitting) from both radios at the same time. I've seen the usual coax switches, but I really don't want to have to manually switch the feed, I'd prefer both radios get the signal simultaneously and constantly - is this possible, and will it matter that the overall length of the coax will now be longer than 18' once the splitter and additional coax is added? (e) does any of this change if a tuner (mentioned above) is added on the IC-7000 side of the switched coax?
Thanks!
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