Hi Danny,

Well, I must confess that I do not have an 817.  I was just commenting 
generally on brand new budget rigs--mostly QRP that do a lot.  I must also 
confess that I was not taking into account accessibility issues when I 
referred to it.  I guess I forgot the list was called 'Blind Hams'--since I 
belong to a number of other groups that do not involve Blind folk.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Danny Dyer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 12:28 AM
Subject: Re Re Budget Minded


Subject, Re Budget Minded,
Hi Ron And Matt, Ron, I'm Very Interested in your thoughts on the 817.
Couple of
questions, Do you have and use one?  Do You Have Any Sight at all?  If Not,
how do you find the radio in actual practice?  817's A Great feature and
value packed radio, but Not Very Blind
Friendly, even with the John Hansen W2FS Millenium QSYER, which is a must
for either a sight challenged or a "blind as a bat person like me." I've
had, operated, and loved/hated, 2 817s and 2 817NDs, and prefer the Icom
IC703+ for portable HF work.  The little bottom row buttons on the 817 are
too easy to inadvertently punch and then not know how to get back to a known
state with out sighted assistance, without doing a hard reset....been there
done that, and got overly
tired of doing it.  Please get back to me as I'm interested to hear your
observations!  And Matt, Anything I can do to help you come up with the best
rig for your situation, I'm more than willing to do.  Thanks, Danny.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Canazzi" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, December 09, 2006 2:27 PM
Subject: Re: budget minded


> Hi Matt,
>
> Well, if you do not mind QRP rigs, the Yaesu 817 is a little more than 500
> dollars.  I think I saw it for 549 dollars on one of the Internet
> sites--this is brand new.  It only has 5 watts, but you can get external
> amplifiers for the future--when you save up enough.
>
> ----- 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