I also have 2 DX-EE antennas (See Attic Antennas Article Here)in my attic (wide spacing (4-6ft) from wiring and HVAC ducts).  Most noise comes from household items including computers.  Get your radio and shack grounded, as many others have said, and get the antennas tuned for resonance in each band.  If they are not resonant you will have problems with the reflected power going into other things in your home including the HVAC, gas, and electric wiring all over your house. I'm now running 800W output on all bands into the attic antennas including a 75 meter dipole formed into a loop with NO problems, and completed Y2K-DXCC last year.

Good luck.  

I moved into my Terrace Level Ham Shack 5 months ago.  I added electrical service specifically designed to handle an amplifier up to the maximum legal limit with 1 20AMP-120V dedicated outlet and 1 240V-30AMP Outlet.  I run my AL-811H plugged into the single 20AMP outlet run to a single 20AMP CB using #12 wire.  No heat, no smoke, no problem.

Go to www.rainbowkits.com.  317-291-7262. Part number is VOX-1, or 990-0085, also sold at RadioShack.Com.  It is a $15 vox-kit will power a DC mic, output drives your relay. Runs on 5-15VDC.  I use two of these units in my DualBand VHF/UHF Mobile to HF Remote mobile.

Kenwood only made a one tone board.  You had to tune a multiturn trimpot to make it work, and only on TX. I would take it to a hamfest, with all accessories, sell it, and buy a current vintage radio, you will not get much for it on trade in, just like cars, but private sale will get more.  Over all it is a great radio, with a much better RX than most of what is out there now (band pass front end on RX, no wideband, no out of band mods).

Good Luck

Go check www.packetradio.com and see if there is something there.  Almost everything else on how to connect any radio to any TNC is..  Good luck.

Because anything less than a fully extended dipole at the resonant frequency you are operating on is a compromise.  There are lots of ways to shorten the resonant frequency of an antenna, coils, traps, resonators.  All are a compromise when measured against a full 1/4 wavelength, plus 1/4 wavelength reflector.  Reflectors and directors of Beam antennas focus energy where you want it.  Helicals are most often used in space constrained areas, Attics, Mobile Rooftops.  I use multiple Helical antennas on HF mobile.  They are less than the physical size of a dipole or beam antenna on the same frequency. Their efficiency is less than the dipole, hence the 1000Watt mobile amplifier that I run mobile.  Receiving is a lot easier than transmitting.  You can hear quite a lot with 10-30 feet of wire, you have to use the full length antenna to get maximum efficiency on the TX side of the plate.

Go read all the material they have, it is almost as good as using a small sized rubber duckie on HF, when compared to a 1/4 wave groundplane at the same frequency.  Most of the commercial designs are for 800-1900Mhz Cellular, PCS radio's.  The HF designs, 3-30Mhz fall into the category just like VHF-UHF On-Glass Antennas did 15 years ago.  Do they work, kinda, but not as good as a real 1/4 wavelength antenna or full sized dipole antenna.  Size does matter, no matter what frequency. Ask yourself, have you seen a real one functioning, seen a review of it? I have not, and I have been in the Ham world since 1961, and Land Mobile world since 1976, and I do not know of a major distributor that carries one for Ham use.

The best defense against most intruders is the perimeter defense.  When we in the Commercial Land Radio Business build sites, it is very much like a perimeter defense system.  The shelter (Home) is surrounded by multiple ground rods (8ft) all tied together with minimum #2 tinned copper, cad welded (exothermic bonding) to tie each ground rod together.  Space the ground rods not more than 10 feet from one another.  Leave coiled 10 ft pigtails of tinned #2 copper at the locations where your AC Mains, Telco, Cable TV, and to tie to your tower base.  If installing a tower, you do the perimeter thing again with it, and tying that ring into the Home ring.  All connections are done in trenches about 12-18 inches deep, and backfilled after checking for ground resistance of less than 5 ohms.  This is done with commercial units made by Bittle and others.  When the AC Mains are installed, tie meter ground to pigtail, tie telco surges to pigtail, tie CATV surges to pigtail, and run one last #2 into the station area for your station ground.  Planning is of the upmost in this area as to where what is going to be located.  From a perimeter ground ring, it is relatively easy to make last minute changes on the fly.  Just remember to use Cad-Welding on all connections to the ground ring, anything else is less than priceless.  Be sure to add a whole house AC surge protector to your AC Distribution Panel.  Surge protection on antenna feeds occurs at the point they enter the Home.  Again all tied to the Ring Ground.  Good Luck.

Bought a bunch of new items there this year $$$$ only had one shipped to the store,(AL811H) picked it up on day promised, all others I walked out the door with.  One radio swapped out because of mfg problem.  Will do more $$$$ next year with them, happy to live near HRO in Atlanta Ga. Yes the phones ring, the locals crowd the store, and you get very good service, unless you are a type A personality, who will not wait in line at McDonalds.

Get the quick disconnect mount brackets.  Use a "Cellular Post" mount assembly from the floor on the passenger side of the console/stickshift and route the power cable under the dash thru the firewall directly to the battery.  Route the antenna cable out the opposite side of the dash, under the carpet,thru the trunk to a roof mounted 3 mag mount base to whatever band antenna you are using.  Good luck.

The bottom 150khz is almost all HF bands (except WARC) is CW, above that is Phone for Extra, Advanced (grandfathered), then General, 20/15/10 are excepted also in specific chunks.  There are lots of BandPlan programs out there with the Specific Information, but there is No Substitute for the ARRL Handbook which contains the best description of all current US Ham Bandplans.  I stay away from the bottom 1Khz on USB, top 4Khz on LSB, the top 4Khz of USB and the top 1Khz of LSB.  My reference to net my radio is a Secondary Frequency Standard (10Mhz Rubidium Standard), as there are no excuses for being over on the wrong side.

You will need an external duplexer between the DR605 and the Arrow antenna (does it have an option for built on duplexer?).  Most duplexers have N Female or SO239 connectors on them on all ports, although some have N Female in and cables with choice of connectors on the output.  Some additional plumbing is required.

Eggbeaters on 144 (HRO and others sell).  Works LEO's fine, want to work the wide band guy's, move up to circular 2m/440 yagi's of various gains above 10db.  It is ok to set them pointing up, wait for your best apogee above your QTH, and have fun.

Very handy if you will work VHF/UHF SSB or CW.  Install and do the test netting with WWV at 1 wk and 1 month after the install.  Following proper netting procedure, you will be "On Frequency" and have less drift on the Upper Frequencies than before.  If you are not working 2M/440 SSB/CW do not worry.  The regular Ref/Osc is good for FM.

Need 911? Get a used Cell Phone at a hamfest for $0-20 not activated.  Keep it with a good battery or battery eliminator and dial 911 all day long for 0$ per month, or pay $199.00 on TV for the same item.  The Cellular folks have to route 911 calls to the nearest authority as required by law.  You do not have to have a Registered phone to dial 911 on A/B Band Cellular.  Want more, you have to pay for it.  911 is FREE on Cellular, read that 800 mhz A/B Band (Wireline Non-Wireline Analog/Digital Cellular), not 1.7-1.9Ghz PCS or NEXTEL. Dial 911 on a Ham repeater and it may go 50 miles in the wrong direction.