you'll need either software/ft817 Commander, or the software sold by either 
RT systems, or w4RT, also I believe that the ham radio delux software  will 
allow for this part of menu setting, although it will not allow you to do 
mems.  You turn on the charger, and you set the length of time in a charge 
cycle, I believe the options are 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 hours, although I'm not 
sure.  I believe the manual says you need to charge one size bat for 8 
hours, and the other size for 10 hours, but I'm not sure.  You can 
also/although I don't particularly reccommend it, do what's known as the 
"green wire mod" referring to a change in the placement of the green wire in 
the double A pack so that charging will then take place on AAs.  The default 
position in that tray is non charge, and the default position on the battery 
charge option is also off.  Gary lee sent the ft817ND manual to 
icanworkthisthing.com  HTH, dd.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Glass" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2010 2:39 PM
Subject: Charging The FT-817's Internal Battery Pack?


> Hello,
>
> I have heard that in order to charge the battery, you have to choose a 
> menu option after plugging in the charger. Can anyone tell me if this is 
> true? If it is, how easy is it for a blind person to initiate charging?
>
> John