trp2525,
Wow, you really know your MON's! You are a wealth of info on these classic and AMAZING antennas.
Actually, I cannot make that statement about the MON-7XX Series, only the older ones MONR33, MONR51, MON-52, MON-53) because I have had all of those in the past, and have lucked into a bunch of them (almost all NIB) in the past few months. I guard them like gold!
Anyway, I wonder why they took the “Micro-Choke” off these later 7XX Series…..?? I have compared my MONR33 (no choke) to my MON-52 and MON-53 (both with choke) and I DO notice a marked difference in 800MHz reception – much less “crackle” with the ones that have the Micro-Choke.