Awesome thanks, I've got an interface on the way. We'll see how it turns out. Thanks for the help

Your best bet for this is going to be to get a HT with an external antenna. This way when you get into the hobby you can spend a little more money and get a better rig and you'll already have the antenna! You'll also have a HT that you can use in emergencies!

What interface are you using to do digital? I have the MFJ-1279 and I have been unsuccessful in getting HRD to connect to the IC-735. HRD says that it cannot read the freq, which i was expecting, but will still not connect to the radio and let me send or receive signals.

I have a ic-735 and a mfj1279 computer interface running with a dell desktop running xp pro. I am using HRD and i am having problems connecting. HRD goes through the connecting process and everything is good execept it fails to read the freq off the radio. I am not concerned about this as i dont mind manually entering it in. The problem is that HRD will not connect to the radio if it cannot read the freq and so i cannot use it to do digital. During the connect process HRD keys the radio and it all seems to work but it doesnt let it connect. HELP!?