Hi Howard, well, I wouldn't want to drop it out of a plane, cause it might 
land on its' front knobs, but I've had several, and presently own and very 
much like, a Yaesu FT817ND, five watt 
160-80-60-40-30-20-17-15-12-10-06-02m+70CM, 5watt very portable all mode 
XCVER, which also has LW-30MHZ, FM Broadcast, and Air band receive coverage
It's not, out of the box blind friendly, but with work arounds, (at very 
minimum, a John Hansen Millenium QSYER, a CT62 Computer interface cable, 
some kind of tuner, or tunable antenna, and hopefully a face 
guard/[available from a couple of developers,]for atatching to the front to 
block the A, B, and C, buttons along the bottom front of the radio, and 
maybe even the function button,  to keep from inadvertently fouling 
something up after you get it set up by computer, and or sighted help,)
and for what it is, an affordable, useable really portable radio, it 
definitely is, such as it is,  a really winning performer.  *I'm not being 
paid by Yaesu, and I've had my frustrations with the lil things, )as I say, 
I've had several of them, and finally came back to one when I figured out 
ways to work with them, cause , but once you learn it, figure out what you 
want to do and how you want to do it, and make allowances for all of that, 
there isn't anything like it out there, for $650 or less. Danny.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Howard Kaufman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, July 10, 2010 8:41 PM
Subject: Re: shortened antenna


>I think so, the thing was built like a tank, ran 160 through 440 mhz, all
> modes, 5 watts.  No idea how they put that much in that small of a box. 
> The
> case looks like you could drop it out of a plane and it would still work.