I agree completely with what you've said here, Collin.  I don't use them 
either and for the same reasons but I hear more Yaesu's on than any other 
rig and most of them sound great.  Many sound excellent.  I also regret the 
Yaesu aproach or rather lack of an aproach on accessibility but it is what 
it is.  It's a good reason to patronize Kenwood and to keep urging Elecraft 
to deal with accessibility as I intend to do.  Lou WA3MIX
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "colin McDonald" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, November 07, 2010 2:22 AM
Subject: Re: ft-897d


> John:
> while I know your opinions on Yaesu very well, and some may be warranted,
> the 897/857d/817 series are all pretty solid and well respected radios.
> The local ham store sells almost exclusively yaesu gear, and so many many
> local guys have the 857D.  I hear them on 2m and 70CM all the time, and
> quite allot on local HF nets.
> I actually don't know a single guy who has had one in the past 5 years 
> that
> has had to send it in for repares, the 857 or the 897.  Not only that, 
> they
> seem to perform, they are built very well with the exception of the front
> pannel perhaps, and they are as solid as anything else out there in that
> class.  Small buttons and small controls on any radio weather it's a 
> yaesu,
> icom or kenwood will tend to fail more often than bigger heavier duty bass
> type radio controls do.
> Look at the TM V7A from kenwood for instance? it had huge problems with 
> the
> display..not an issue for most blind hams, but a major problem in the 
> model.
> I will say though that some of the yaesu HF gear like the ft2000, ft9000,
> and several other earlier yaesu radios did have a reputation of being a 
> bit
> flaky.
> I too don't use them because they are non-speech friendly, but the rigs 
> are
> very well made and as solid as anything else out there.
> Like I said, I hear about 6 857's on the air on a daily basses, and many
> many more on a weekly basses on most of the bands.  the audio is good, 
> they
> are easy to use in a mobile setting by drivers, they're less pricy than
> other similar models, and they really are built like a brick outhouse.
> but, again, they're not accessible to us and I agree there.
> 73
> Colin, V A6BKX
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "John Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2010 9:19 PM
> Subject: Re: ft-897d
>
>
>> no speech for that radio. All I can say is good luck.
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Butch Bussen" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2010 6:42 PM
>> Subject: ft-897d
>>
>>
>>> Wondering what anyone can tell me about this radio.  Does it have a 
>>> voice
>>> synthesizer or voice as an option?  I just got a call and I won this
>>> radio
>>> at Kingman ham fest.
>>> 73
>>> Butch Bussen
>>> wa0vjr
>>> open Node 3148
>>> Las Vegas