On 2008-02-07, blue box thief "blue box wrote:

A 23' base loaded vertical on the back of my motorhome. Works
superbly, but I always adjust my loading coil assy for a good 50 ohm
match for the radio.

Oh, one more thing Ed. Have you ever carried the radio for a long distance?
Is it heavy? I know its 2.xKg, but just wondering if its possible to carry
the thing in a backpack?

Just curious..

thanks
b
ei8fdb

blue box thief wrote:

Have you any experience of the 817? I had thought about picking one up for
SOTA type stuff. The dollar is a good price for me at the moment


I owned an 817 for about 2 years, and wish I still had it. I used it
for PSK31 a lot. I had a Z11 tuner velcro'd to the top and they were a
good pair. It got traded in when I purchased the 897.

tom
K0TAR

On 2008-02-07, Tom Ring wrote:
I owned an 817 for about 2 years, and wish I still had it. I used it
for PSK31 a lot. I had a Z11 tuner velcro'd to the top and they were a
good pair. It got traded in when I purchased the 897.

Yes I have read about the combination of the Z11 and the 817.
I might have a look and see if I can get an 817 as well as the 450.

thanks very much for your help.

b
ei8fdb

That is very good news. Very glad to hear it. So the 450, has a
"better" menu system than the 817/57/97?


Menus are a rather "personal" interface between the operator and the
hardware. I am rather old fashined and I like knobs and buttons with
dedicated functions. Not much made like that now-a-days. While the FT-
450 is a bit better in this regard compared to those other modern Yaesu
radios, it is NOT even close to perfect by any means. In my opinion,
yes, the FT-450 has a 'better' menu system but others may disagree.


Ed K7AAT

Oh, one more thing Ed. Have you ever carried the radio for a long
distance? Is it heavy? I know its 2.xKg, but just wondering if its
possible to carry the thing in a backpack?


No, I'm not much of a packer any more. If there was any significant
reason for me to pack a radio on my body, I would get the FT-857...
although more for size reason than weight. THe FT-450 is smallish, and
far lighter and smaller than most of the radios aimed at use as a
primary base station, but still, its a bit big compared to the smaller
mobile type radios.

Yes, its is possible to carry the FT-450 but its size, in my
opinion, would possibly preclude carrying some other desired stuff....
and of course batteries would be the biggest problem. If you really
want to hoof it into the wilderness I'd recommend something like the FT-
817... even though it is a QRP rig.



Ed K7AAT