Icom HF spec for DSC antenna?

[njthake]

Fitting a new Icom HF and have an AT141 tuner for the main antenna to backstay.
What are the second antenna specs for the additional DSC receiver ?
Will a second backstay do the job without an ATU?

 

[jdc]

I have an Icom 801e, which is an MF/HF set with DSC, as is yours I imagine.

The antenna port for the DSC is, as you rightly observe, completely separate from and independent of the main set's; indeed it is tuned to different frequencies. So an untuned antenna with reasonable SWR for the frequency range of the DSC is needed, for which another vertical wire will do fine. An alternative, which is what I have done, is to use the existing AM/FM antenna which is mounted on the comms pole at the transom. I added a frequency selective diplexer to route sub 20MHz to the Icom's DSC port and broadcast FM frequencies to the FM 'car radio'. Seems to work, except there's almost never any traffic on marine HF anymore.

Downside is that I lost the MW band from the car radio, but I never listened to that anyway and I can get LW from the Icom.

 

[njthake]

Thanks jdc i will use the backstay.