Any amatuer radio people there?

[Daniel Bates]

I've been weighing the merits of the FT-817 and FT-897. They are very different radios, but each have their pros and cons, rather like camera gear: portable and lightweight vs powerful and heavy.

I used to lust over the FT-1000MP Mk V, but its sheer size alone would make me stay away from it, even if I could afford such a beast. I don't need a radio as big as a small car.

[Nocturnus]

Heh yeah.. 950 looks like it will be a good learning curve.. but it's got decent power output and I'd like to try for some good DX contacts..

[kenmcphotos]

KI5NE - have not been on the air in years - I have a dual band talkie around here some where ....

[Daniel Bates]

I had to look up the 950 as it's been a while since I was very involved with amateur radio. I think I stopped taking an active interest in it close to the time when the FTDX-9000 series was released. That 950 does sure seem like a good one, though - it's got an outstanding feature set and enough physical controls to keep you from having to memorize pages and pages of menus (I'm looking at you, Icom IC-756 series).

[Chief]

Originally Posted by Daniel Bates

I've been weighing the merits of the FT-817 and FT-897. They are very different radios, but each have their pros and cons, rather like camera gear: portable and lightweight vs powerful and heavy.

I used to lust over the FT-1000MP Mk V, but its sheer size alone would make me stay away from it, even if I could afford such a beast. I don't need a radio as big as a small car.

I've had both of those radios and enjoyed them both. I traded the 817 for a yaesu vx8r and love it and traded the 897d for an icom 746. The display was to small for me . other than that it was a great radio ( I may even get another 897d someday )

Here's my radio list
Icom 756 pro3
Icom 746
Icom 7000 ( in my jeep )
Icom 706 mk2g

Icom 82v
Yaesu vx8r
Yaesu vx5
Yaesi 170


73
Gordon

[wclavey]

It's hard to believe my "new" radio is now so old... Kenwood TS-850... quite fantastic when I got it... probably all the radio I would ever need. I wish I had sprung for the matching speaker & accessory cabinet, but I didn't. Compared to it, my previous radios might as well have been spark gap! But now it is boxed up, waiting for me to get around to putting up some kind of hidden antenna system.

But things have changed a lot from those magical first days, with a cobbled together rig, home-made antenna tuner and a wire running from my bedroom window in our row house when I made my first contacts. I might as well have been one of the Hardy Boys! LOL! I remember my first DX contact: 15M... GM5ASI... I couldn't believe it!