Icom IC-706

The Icom 706 is a great radio for mobile applications. Covering all of the HF bands and 6 meters, with 100W output, it also supplies you with 2 meter 10W all-mode operation. Now that the newer Mark II models are available, the original 706s are beginning to appear on the used market at fairly reasonable pricing. As shown above, the front panel can be remote mounted, making it much easier to mount in today's "limited-dash-space" vehicles.

I am glad that they made some "user interface" improvements on the Mark II model.  Moving between bands is a bit clumsy on the original model.  The easiest method I found so far is as follows:

• Save each band in a memory slot.  I save the low edge of my phone band privileges for each band.
• While in memory mode, select the desired memory/band for operation.
• Select the menu function to copy the memory to a VFO.
• Switch back to the VFO and tune to the desired frequency. 

I usually keep either 6 or 2 meters in one of the VFOs and use the remaining one for switching to other bands.  Given the limits of the interface of the original model, this seems to work out pretty good.  Anyone have any better ideas to limit the number of keystrokes?

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