I recently came into possession of a radio receiver I purchased for my
father (who passed away- that is why I now have it), an ICOM IC-R7000. The
problem is that when connected to a low gain omnidirectional antenna which I
purchased recently, it does not even have reception as good as my FM home
stereo in the FM band and it doesn't seem to have very good reception at any
other frequency.

Here's the question: do I need some kind of amplifier to make this set work
even to the performance capabilities of my home stereo system? If so, does
anyone have any recommendations on what kind of a preamp I should use. Do I
need a specialized antenna for the various bands? Is there anything else I
can try to boost performance?

I have to admit that I know just about nothing about shortwave, but think I
would like to learn.

Thanks in advance.