[Yaesu] Resells of the FT-2000 and FT-450

Tue Sep 18 16:51:41 EDT 2007

On Tue, Sep 18, 2007 at 04:35:37PM -0400, David Thompson wrote:
> Boy, ran across several hams reselling both of the new transceivers. One
> guy said the FT-450 was too small for his fingers...sure glad he did not try
> the FT-857 et al.

The first thing I did after I got my very first 857 was to order the
mike with all the functions on it, so that I didn't have to try to 
do front-panel adjustments while driving. I liked it so much that I 
ordered one with my 897D, and another with my 857D. Maybe not the 
best thing since sliced bread or guuuurlz, but pretty darned good. If
only there were a way to adjust the Squelch level from the mike, so I
didn't have to have the control head (857/857D) or front panel (897D) 
within arm's length. 
My eyes still are good enough to be able to read the display OK -- so
far. I hope that's still true in a few years. 
But if the 450 front panel is more packed than the 857 or 857D front 
panel, that' pretty tight packing.
A friend has an ICOM 7000; even allowing for the difference in control
panel function philosophies, it is just too tightly packed for me to 
be comfortable with. Like my daughter's Cadillac "sports car", back
around 1993 or -4, it's just too many almost-identical buttons too
close together. 
-- 
Mike Andrews, W5EGO
mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin