are you stationed overseas right now wyo? But Corey has, and im getting a Yaesu ft-857-d It is one of the few radios out there that had coverage on all bands for a decent price. Right now they have a special $681 after instant rebate and a ysk 857 seportaion kit (allows you to mount the body anywhere and run the face to anywhere else so not alot of space is taken up) and as for antennas for good coverage on all bands youll probabally need two one for VHF/UHF and one for HF most usually run better, i believe coreys antenna the yaesu ATAS 120a is all bands but im not sure, those tend to be finaky (sp?) im running a Diamond sg7900a for VHF/UHF, and hopefully soon will be getting a tarheel antenna.. the 100a-hp for good HF coverage... if you go back and read theres alot of goood info on the earlier posts about wireing, grounding, homemade filters.. good study books and test resorurces.. as for other radios i havnt done that much research, i looked at the yaesu alot and fell in love with it, i hear Icom makes great radios, as said in an earlier post they are "firefighter proof"... also the links at the bottom that show like posts are great too, but this one seems to be the most indepth.. let us know what you think!

cory you may find time.. haha it sounds like you are a veery busy person.. how did you ever find time o do al those mods to your Fj.. haha j/k

 

Lot of those mods are done in the warmer/dry months.
Now that winter is getting near and the rainy season is here, I do not get much done since my "tech/mod shop is under an old growth fir tree.

Yeah, that ATAS-120a antenna will allow the 867D radio to use all of its bands.

 

sounds like a great place to work.. haha i have to work on my truck in the middle of an apartment parking lot.. and especially in the sun even in winter its soo hot!

 

That is exactly where my shop is.

 

we dont need no fancy auto shops... a socket and screwdriver set, and an ice cold beer are the only things needed to fix a rig haha... i have one of those 10x10 pop up tent things.. its too combersome though, so i go up to the upper floors of my schools parking deck.. no one ever goes up to the top 2 floors.. i have the place to myself!

 

VSU, yes i am currently over sees, and i actually already have read the whole thing. there is to much information to start at the most recent post. im reading posts from years ago. that yaesu 857d would be on point for what i want, but i cant spend 700 on a radio right now. im spending money on everything else for my truck. im going to have a lot of work to do when i get home. im trying to get a decent enough radio for about 400 or less. ill probably end up just doing it right and getting the 857d so that i dont have to upgrade in the near future. but well see.

 

yah there are alot of great radios that are VHF and UHF for around 200.. a great website is gigaparts.com and eham.net has great reviews from users.. and aesham.com also has very competative prices.. its the HF bands that drive up the cost of the radio... ill go look, i cant remember the radios i looked at, but ill go look them up and get back to you... where are you posted?

 

Camp Al Taqqadum, decent sized air base over here. Thanks in advance for the information.

 

the yaesu ft 7800r is a good VHF/UHF transciever for around the mid 200s
and the icom v8000 is a great 2m transciever for like 150 i think?

 

I like the 7800 and the 8800s, they are good.

The reason I went with the 857D was Wayne told me it would be the last radio I would ever need for ham since it covers so much.
Plus he has it and likes it.

 

yah thats about the same reason i got it.. the only radio ill ever need..

 

VSU your pretty new to the HAM op as well. Are you having much trouble learning the radio?

 

eeeh.. a little, the test was pretty easy, i read the book (wasnt too helpful in actually broadcasting) and took a bunch of practice tests and was able to pass pretty easy. But after that I looked into youtube, and talked with some local hamies about establishing contact and protacol and such and that really helped. and i learn pretty darn fast, but i guess it was pretty easy, the more i use it the easier it comes i guess is how to phrase it.

 

i was wondering about your 857d, if you were having any trouble learning to use it, not so much radio etiquette. sorry for the confusion.

 

ooh its alright.. not really, i read the manual like the bible, haha. and i unplugged the antenna from the radio and just played with it, pressed buttons turned knobs, then i hooked up my antenna to test the TX/DX and to go through all the modes and channels and such. it was pretty simple for me.. im not sure about how others feel.. but check out eham.net, ill post the link to the review of the 857d (the 857 does not have 60 meters) some people say its too complex, but i assume those are much older ham people

 

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/3046?page=1
this site is great it really helps to find out whats good whats a lemon, and what people are just trying to sell you

 

alright, ill check it out. i just dont see the point in buying half a$$, why spend 250 now and then another 600 when you need to upgrade thats why i was asking how it worked for you. ill probably end up buying a good one that will be the last one i need.

 

thats what i said, in the beginning i was liek heck no ill get one of those $250 radios, but then when i saw how much people used HF and started looking into upgrades and such i thought ill just bite the bullett, put off my air locker for an extra month or so and spend $400 extra and not need a radio fo a long long time.. it ca even be used as a base satation, i saw a guy make contact on 60 meters i think from kentucky to brazil..l sure he had a massive antenna, but it still could broadcast that much power

 

if i was a guessing kind of guy, the dude broadcasting to brazil how to have another power amp besides the one in the radio. but ya ive heard of long distance shots like that as well. and going across water RF waves seem to reflect really well. the farthest ive heard of someone doing was off the coast of florida to NC. and i dont have to put off the locker, i have one waiting to be installed when i get back, along with all kinds of other goodies.

 

Actually people are talking from the US clear to Australia on the 70 cm band on stock power.
70 cm band is setup with multiple repeaters for that exact reason.
At least that is what I read in my training book I am studying for the license.