Hi Matt, IMHO, and I've had both the General US model and the European
model/more on that later, A Very Good Choice Used and almost New price wise
for your budget figure would be the Icom IC718,AKA IC78...(___Warning, The
IC78/European version, won't take the ut102 voice chip necessary for
accessibility, but otherwise is essentially the same radio.) check out the
reviews on Handiham.org, eham.net and other places.  It's easy to operate,
/with built in keypad on front of radio, front firing speaker, Not as menu
deep as the 706-703 series, and overall A very_ Good_ choice for we blinks
or anyone else, but make sure you also get the ut102 Voice chip, about sixty
bucks from Icom, and available from forty to sixty on the used market.
There's also a ut106, plug in DSP unit, that is already in some of them and
can be added to the others, That sells for around a hundred and fifty new, I
think, and somewhat less than that on the used market.   I haven't priced
any of the 718 stuff recently, but both the ut102 and the ut106 are readily
available.  One drawback is that it has neither built in antenna tuner, or
power supply, but if you have either from a previous installation, it's a
real good rig.
Hope this helps, dd.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "matt V" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, December 09, 2006 1:52 PM
Subject: budget minded


> this is probably a long shot but, is there such a thing as an hf radio =
> for under say, $500? the ones i have seen on hamradio.com are mostly =
> over 5k.  ok maybe i should add "that are actually good radios" for =
> under 500 say, maybe the price of a 2m mobile or something or should i =
> just keep dreaming, i want to get on hf again but i don't see that =
> happening with the prices i've seen