In article , mikea
wrote:

Any advice gratefully appreciated -

I don't have one, though I have the 817's bigger brothers the 857D and
897D.

Two of my friends *do* have 817s, and _LOVE_ them.

Yeah, they are cute little buggers. Here, we are all way beyond
cell-phone range, so a few hams sprinkled around here can do a
lot of good in an emergency.

I will check out the 857D and 897D, just to make sure I have
covered all the bases; thanks for mentioning those models.

Mark