First of all, I want to thank, salute, and congratulate every blind ham, or
blind ham wantnabee on both of these lists!
Secondly, I very much appreciate the diverse experiences of each of you in
this wonderful service, hobby, avocation, blessing, diversion, frustration,
curse, and or moneyPit, known as Amateur/Ham radio!!
Thirdly, There's no question!!! If what you want is a great desktop, home,
or mobile HF, and or HF, VHF, UHF blind Accessible radio,
which you intend to leave in its' place and operate therefrom, Either
Kenwood Or Icom, is what you want to look at, test, and likely buy or swap
for.
Since breaking into ham radio in the late 1950s, I've had and used several
Kenwood and Icom Base, mobile, and or HT rigs, and they've all done very
well!
Kenwood and Icom have more aggressively gone after the blind ham market,
than have most manufacturers, although frankly the accessibility shown in
both Elecraft products, and some of the very recent Chinese HTS, has caused
some of us to wonder, how much more could be done for very little more
effort or expense!
Meanwhile, for the most part, Yaesu, for whatever reasons, has not
really entered into the blind accessibility arena; their FT470 Dual bander
with its' many useable tones and notes, the FT847, and the current ft450
with their speech functions, being exceptions:
Over the years, Kenwood, Icom, and Yaesu have All, made many many! fine
quality Desktop, Mobile, and HT rigs!
***But Yaesu has gone both Kenwood and Icom one better in what has become a
pretty successful nitch of the ham radio market!!!
*********And continue to do things that neither Kenwood nore Icom have
done!!
***What portion of the ham radio market?
The manpack portable, or more portable portion of the HF-VHF-UHF radio
market.
Beginning in either the late seventys or early eightys, with the FT70,
A thumbwheel or decaded switches tuned, up to twenty watt, AM, CW, USB, LSB
military manpack type rig, which I've owned, used, and liked very much;
which occasionally turn up on the used market:
Then, in 2002 or so, The FT-817, and later, the ft-817ND,/
*an Up to five watt, all mode, 160-06m, 2m, and 70CM, rig, with FM, AM, and
Air which was designed for the Japanese market, but has proven hugely
popular worldwide, is still in production, and is and has been, for some
time, my rig of choice!
Finally, there is the FT-897, and either the D, or ND version.
This is an up to 100Watt radio, which I'm not sure is still in production,
with similar coverages and features as the 817.
***All these radios feature internal battery supplies. D cells for the FT70,
AA cells, or a rechargeable pack for the 817, and a couple of different
rechargeable packs allowing up to 20watts output for the 897.
The ft-70 has absolutely no menus, the other two have several layers of
menus.
Earlier this week, Questions were asked about the 897 radio speciffically.
*I've not had my hands on one, but a totally blind ham friend of mine in the
state of AR, has, owns, successfully uses and likes both his 897, and 817.
As discussed on list earlier, there is no speech or any possibility of
speech for any of these three radios, although a "freqmite," or
"stingersinger,"/CW Freq Readout Devices, can be installed in the ft70.
And a Millenium Qsyer,/direct entry freq inputting and reading via CW
device, can be interfaced easily with the 817 and 897 rigs.
Also, as discussed earlier this week, ***The 817 and 897 radios do have
those pesky A B and C Buttons, located below the display, which offer all
kinds of set up possibilities.
Those 3 buttons all sound the same when selected or inadvertently pushed.
Which caused me to carry on a sort of love-hate relationship with the
several 817s and 817NDS I owned earlier in this century.
But eventually, a cover was developed blocking the A B and C buttons, as
well as the Function button from all but intended touches.
The cover attatches to the radio via small pieces of velcro.
Neither Kenwood Nor Icom for whatever reasons, have ventured into this part
of the ham radio market, leaving it, for the most part to Yaesu.
Of course, Elecraft is also in the more portable area of the market, but
their prices are much more than that of the 817.
Around 200 memories are programmed into my 817, with known FM, AM, SW, and
Air stations programmed as markers.
My filter depths, power levels, mic and carrier levels, are preselected.
Bottom line is that an all band, all mode, radio, which cost me $350 Used,
which actually fits in an inside suit coat pocket, can interface with base,
mobile, or MP1 Super Antenna, and is reasonably useable for this blind ham.
We all have differing needs, wants, accessibility and independence levels.
We've all got better access to better ham gear than we've ever had.
Most if not all these manufacturers try to put out a durable and useable
product.
We've all heard horror stories about the exceptions to these generalities,
but in general, they are the exceptions rather than the rules.
There are plenty of user groups and individuals with real world experience
with different kinds of rigs. Figure out what you want to do with your ham
radio, and what you want it to do for you, ask questions, listen to answers,
and proceed with caution but real hope for eventual enjoyment.
Sincerely, Danny Dyer, Wb4idu, Toccoa, GA, USA.
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