On Sun, 18 Mar 2007 12:48:37 CST, Newby wrote in :
Would appreciate opinions from those who are familiar with either or both
radios. Still trying to decide what to buy. Don't like the detached head
of the Kenwood 480 SAT.

I have an FT-897D as my primary shack rig, as well as an FT-857D (mobile)
and an FT-857 (secondary shack rig). I don't have any experience with the
KW 480SAT at all. I *do* like the FT-897D quite a lot: it has a decent
receiver with quite good noise reduction through DSP, as well as DSP-based
bandpass filters. I'd buy another in a heartbeat. The FT-857 and FT-857D
are the same radio (modulo 60- meter phone, TCXO, and possibly DSP) as the
FT-897 and FT-897D. All of them use the same programming software, have the
same set of CAT commands, return the same data, and can be run remotely
using the same programs. This has made life very much easier for me.

I don't like having to dive into a menu for some settings that I would
like to have on the front panel, but there's damn little real-estate
on the 897's front panel, and about half that on the 857, so I live
with it and enjoy the wonderful things the radio does. It does a great
many things very well stock from the factory; add some filters for CW
and SSB, and it's even better.

--
Mike Andrews, W5EGO

Tired old sysadmin