Hello All -

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I am a new member of this group and fairly new to amateur radio.

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My question involves settings I might check/change in the IC 7000 to improve reception on the 52-54 MHz portion of the 6 meter band.? We are installing about 30 IC 7000s in local emergency operations centers and in most places we are using a triband 6/2/440 antenna either a Comet GP-15 or a Diamond V2000A.??

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I realize these are compromise antennas that are less than ideal on the 6 meter band, but we only need a couple of frequencies on 6 meters to do some short range simplex (10-15 miles in most cases).? SWR on 6 is about 1.6:1 at 52.390 MHz. When testing a newly installed station the other day I was full quieting into a 6 meter repeater about 17 miles away over hilly terrain.? But I could not hear anyone talking back to me, not even static, nor could I hear the repeater’s ID tone which the other station involved in the test could hear clearly.? I checked the squelch and volume settings and they were fine.? The reception on 2 and 440 is fine.???

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Are there settings I might check or internal filters that might help with 6 meter reception?? Does this radio have any record of poor sensitivity or poor reception on 6 meters?? Others believe the issue is related to the antenna, yet the antenna seems to be functioning sufficiently well to reach a repeater 17 miles away over hilly terrain.?

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I suspect there is some sort of interference that is attenuating the received signal, yet there is no background “noise” showing on the S meter.??

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Any suggestions or thoughts about what might be going on would be most appreciated.? In the meantime we are going to find a couple of mobile units that have 6 meters to do some further testing with.

Thanks, all -

Paul

KB1TOR

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