THanks much.  I got the 897d last night, and it is a reasonably small 
and light radio.  I can tell you after owning radios that at least spoke 
the frequency for many many years, this is strange!!  Took me forever to 
find 40 meters this morning just to do some listening, and finally 
figured out I had the antenna on the wrong jack, no wonder I thought the 
radio was dead!!!

They do make a remote mike for this thing, and as I read it, I think you 
can enter frequencies with that.  There are also 3 definable function 
keys as I read the manual.  It is a strange radio.  The menus do seem to 
beep at the first one, but the function key just seems to go round and 
round.  If anyone else on this list has one of these I'd be interested 
on how you do some of this stuff.  The function key works with an a b 
and c key and these 3 keys do a different thing depending on which of 
the  17 function modes you have selected, such as noise blanker, digital 
mode, memory and so forth.  I'll probably buy the remote mike if I 
decide to keep the thing, and I'm not sure what I'd be able to afford to 
replace it with.  Could sell it I suppose and keep the dough, but who 
wants to give up a radio?

73
Butch Bussen
wa0vjr
open Node 3148
Las Vegas


On Wed, 10 Nov 2010, Lloyd Rasmussen wrote:

> I was looking at the PDF manual on the Yaesu web site, and it appears that
> the 450 does not have a direct frequency entry keypad.  There is a "select"
> knob which can apparently be set up to use fairly large tuning steps.  But
> it looks to me as if this rig doesn't havbe direct frequency entry, except
> by means of its serial port.  At least you can interrogate its voice
> synthesizer to find out what frequency you have arrived at.  Another reason
> why I thought the 450 was rather limited.
>
> Lloyd Rasmussen, Kensington, Maryland
> Home:  http://lras.home.sprynet.com
> Work:  http://www.loc.gov/nls
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>> On Behalf Of Butch Bussen
>> Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 2:36 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: ft0-450
>>
>> I called a e s today to ask about the ft-450 and was told you couldn't
>> enter frequency or select memory with the keypad.  They acted like the rig
>> didn't even have a keypad?  Anyone on here have a 450 and can comment.  I
>> also have had no luck finding a manual on line.
>>   Thanks.
>> 73
>> Butch Bussen
>> wa0vjr
>> open Node 3148
>> Las Vegas
>
>