For cryin' in a bucket!...before you buy, rent, build or trade for a spectrum analyzer. try the KISS method.  Have a few local hams listen on the suspect frequency with their everyday radios and see if anyone hears your unwanted signal.  If no on hears it, relax and enjoy playing with it.  If you're heard by someone, take their distance and antenna into mind, add a pinch of common sense and decide it you have a real problem or its just a miniscule, legal and acceptable amount of incidental radiation.  I am guessing the transverter is a Ten Tec model 1209 so if this method doesn't work and/or you are still worried, contact me and maybe we can come to an agreement on a price because I'm sure sorry I sold mine.   73, Bob    

DRAT!!! the &^#$ phone rang and I forgot to add that stacking, with it's supposed 3 db gain will  counteract the loss I mentioned before and get you back up to unity gain.   Sorry, I didn't make up the rules.  

And now to wander back to your question....ANY horizontal omni will be an almost 3db loss compared to a dipole because you are going from 'x' power in 180 degrees to the same power in (theoretically) 360 degrees.  OK...that being said, halos and squalos have either a space on one side or a pair of discs/plates; it is an air dialectric capacitor.  They are all a bear to tune and match.  ANY humidity change, ANY moisture, temperature changes, heck, sometimes I think even passing clouds two states away radically change the vswr. I have found that the Par (brand) Omni's come as close to humanly possible in overcoming this situation plus, they are supurbly built.  You know about 6....when its open you can work the world with a noodle; when its closed you are on the dark side of the moon, so an omni will do fine.  On 2 and above, omnis are great for local rag chewing and some tropo but don't expect to "reach out and touch someone" much beyond that.  Last antenna 'trueism'; "anything is better'n nuttin'".

WB2WIK was spot on about the noise. It seems that almost all the noise in the world zeros in around 6 meters. Additionally, mobils suffer from ignition, fuel injector and fuel pump noise both from the host vehicle and the surounding traffic. Have a TV channel 2 in the area?? They are at 54 to 60 megs. Even with -60db spurious suppression, at the power levels they run, that's a whole gob of garbage just a squidge up from your frequency. Need I mention leaky cable TV lines....computers?...the list is endless. With FM receivers being the way they are, you may not hear the noise but if you were to meter your limiters you'd see it. This is more from personal feelings than cold, hard facts but I think 6 meters isn't worth the powder to blow it to &*%%.

A few years ago, my friend Bill (K4CBA, now SK), lived in Alexanderia, Va., on the 9th floor with a small balcony. He schmoozed the manager and got permission to clamp a "small" antenna to the railing; I think he used the "it's not much bigger than a pizza dish TV antenna" ploy. He choose a Spider 4 band mobil/portable antenna. It worked quite well considering. Spider antennas are now extinct but they do show up on the used market, ebay and hamfests from time to time. Although I don't really care for them, the Hustlers with the multi-resonator adapter will be a lot easier to find and may do just as well for you. If it causes a lot of heartburn to the manager, etc., you can always unclamp it and set it aside when not in use. GL, Bob

I have found it's sort of like learning a new language by listening to it.....practice is the biggie. Plain text as sent by practice stations (the ARRL for instance) helps a lot. After awhile you will hear the first few letters and the brain completes it. Of course, catching onto the jist of the text really makes it easier. Now, on the air stuff is a longer row to hoe because of all the abreviations; some are made up as the guy goes along, ie., b4 and that infamous guy that sounds like he's sending with his left foot. Your brain will trip over them quite often. With ref. to practice, you will hit days you can't copy your own call at 5 wpm. Relax, you've reached I/O overload. Step away for a few days and forget code. When you return you may be suprised to find an improvement. BTW, gud luk es 73.

Hi Dean.   You have gotten some great advice and all of it 'spot on'.  If a horizontal "omni" becomes your choice, check out the PAR Omnis at    http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/1232

I use the 144 mHz. version for SSB and for an omni it is top drawer.  Most halo types are shortened dipoles folded back on themselves and use some variation of air dielectric capacitor to compensate.  That is well and good but from years of 6 meter experience I can tell you that they are extremely sensitive to weather and humidity changes.  If you have it outside you can almost gauge the changes in humidity by watching your vswr going all over the place. If it rains...forget it!

BTW...with reference to a dipole, an omni will be a loss.  You are taking a bi-directional (180 degree) antenna (dipole) and making it ostensibly 360 degrees you will lose a few dbd.  So as the unknown philosopher said, "they're ain't no free lunch."  73, es gud luk, Bob

Before you do anything drastic,  contact Scott at MTS service    mts@trip.net

He is one of the best Icom repair guys in this country and is always gald to help out with answers and advice.

ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS use 52 ohm paint!!

All the answers about being under FCC R & R's are correct. Form my active duty time at Naval Station, Guam, I found the 'locals' to be pretty unfriendly to visitors. I hope that has changed. If you are going to work HF take plenty of QSL cars with /KH2 after your call and the address to the JA 'buro'. The JA's seem to really go after Guam...that may have changed too. I used to mooch a Navy vehicle, go on the old WW2 Japanesse runways, throw a wire into a palm tree and have at it. Do watch for coconuts falling from 40 to 60 foot trees; they will make your 'coconut' hurt..bad. You may also want to watch for brown tree snakes. They have nasty dispositions and are everywhere. Hafa Da is their standard greeting and salutation.  If you drive, kinda watch for the Japanesse visitors that forget we drive on the other side of the road.

Jim, out of total desperation I have used the battery-charger setup before. I found as long as you keep and eye on the water levels in the cells and provide for safe venting of the off gasses, the battery itself does a pretty nice job of voltage regulation and  filtering any ripple from the charger. Unfortunately, this was done before the 'switchers' came about so I can't address that. I want to also pass along that once off the charger, the battery voltage will dribble down to 12 volts. Do some transmiting and it will drop even further under load. The receiver may not care but I'm betting the transmitter won't be happy. Be watchfull of 'spurs', audio distortion and/or FM'ing (assuming you're not trying for FM), etc. On some rigs, you may get indications of transmitting but it isn't putting out anything. This is really bad because the current it's drawing is going somewhere other than in and out, round and round and going out to the antenna as RF.  

Yup, PLENTY slow.  You could always go to QRZ.com.......it loads fast as a bunny, of course it only posts new "news" once, maybe twice, a month!!!

...and the "Hit the Nail Right On the Head" award goes to.....(insert trumpet fanfare here).............VE3EFJ!

Hi Ed,  Ya' gotta' love those 735's; I've had a few or three of them and still do have one.....it keeps my really nice 730 company.  Anyway, I've had power switch contacts get flakey.  If it "heals" up after switching it on and off a few times that may be the problem.  Another almost standard fix for Icoms is to go thru it and give every little board mounting screw a snugging up......NOT with a torque wrench; just maybe a 1/8th or 1/4 turn.  Hope this helps.  The power switch is pretty easy to change out.  BTW.....if you ever have to change the internal battery, let me know and I can give you a few pointers.....and let me tell you, you don't want that going 'paws up' on you because it will have to go in for a re-programming.

What worked very well for me was to leave the rig's power up where it usually is and the same for the mic. gain (don't leave the mic. live if you go in thru an acc. plug) then vary the amount of audio from the interface device until when driven your power out meter shows 2,3,5, 10 watts, or what ever you need to make the qso.  It is almost impossible to stay in the railroad tracks using the ALC meter; its just too unresponsive at the low drive levels of PSK.   I routinely got kudos on my PSK signal.   Just an additional comment.....turn off all the beeps, boops, ding-dings and the rest of the "cutsie" noises your computer is set to do because they will be transmitted in all their glory.