Hi, I'm a new ham, and I'm looking for my first HF transceiver. I am
considering the Yaesu FT-817ND. I did some google searches and could
not find any information about using an antenna tuner with this rig.
How can it work on all bands without a tuner? Would I need a tuner or
does the supplied antenna work on all bands without a tuner?

I'm not sure what you are referring to regarding the "supplied
antenna". The FT-817 does come with a small VHF antenna for 2 meter
operation, but like all other HF transceivers, it does not come with any
HF antenna. You can build yourself some dipole antennas for the bands
you want to operate on.... they would be resonant and have a 50 ohm
feedpoint so you would not need any tuner.... ( the output connection to
almost all radios has a 50 ohm impedance). If you want to use a non-
resonant antenna, then an outboard Tuner should work fine.... as long as
it is capable of operating at low power levels of 5Watts or less. LDG
Electronics makes some fine QRP type tuners. My old LDG Z-11 tuner
works great with my FT-817.


Ed K7AAT