As just an addition to the things that have been said, I tried a couple
experiments.  I used the 15MHz time station in Colorado as a basis.  I
can't get that at all from my rubber duck here in Maine.  I connected my
th-f6 to my homemade longwire and found that with 15 meter tuning, I got
the station loud and clear.  My 10m homemade ground plane was pretty good,
but not great.  My homemade G5RV was loud, but with a lot of QRN.

I found that a Radio Shack discone greatly improves FM and Weather radio
reception here.  The hf antennas also help for fm, but be careful.  A
couple of the antennas were picking up a weak distant station instead of
the weak local one I wanted.  Discone was best.

I get little daytime AM broadcast band stuff with any antenna.

SWL-ing is greatly improved by all the hf antennas.  Seems to depend on
time of day and frequency as you'd expect.

Hope this helps.

Since this is my first post, let me introduce myself.  I am Don Tarbet,
KD1XU.  I am a VE, CE/CI, a recent volunteer for handihams, and am
interested in bringing more blind and visually impaired people into
emergency communications.  My organization provides non-visual science and
nature education and recreation.  I am also a local officer of ARRL (just
in process), president of a ham club in Bangor, Maine, an officer in ARES
and REACT.

One further note:  I can get the 15 MHz time better with my th-f6a than I
can with my TS2000.

73
Don
At 08:39 PM 7/29/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello,
>I'm asking this question for the icom t90 but it would also be appropriate
>for the kenwood thf6a
>I'm interested in tuning in some shortwave and am stations, but the
>supplied rubber duck isn't designed for hf reception.  Has anyone improved
>low band reception with other antennas.
>tnx and 73
>Chris w1gm