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Sorry to reply to myself, but here's a great example radio. In particular note it's submersible, and with some programmer work (or solder bridging if you want permanence) will let you transmit outside of band (just be super careful with that - you can get yourself into big trouble by accidentally transmitting that way without cause)

The Icom 706 Mk II G is a decent mobile with much better DSP. You just need a PhD to be able to figure out how to operate it.

Interesting point. There are indeed complaints about the sound quality of the FT-897D; personally, I think it sounds great.

I'll concede that the 706mkiig is potentially the single most popular HF/VHF/UHF all-mode radio. It got that way for being a very solid performer both mobile (in a car) and sitting on your desk. If I were to install a transceiver in my car, the 706mkiig is the one I'd go with.

However, there are hams that have studied the relative power usage of the 706mkiig and the FT-897 and found that the 706mkiig tends to suck down quite a bit of power even while only receiving, making it a poor candidate for portable (extra-vehicular, shall we say?) activity, such as mountain topping:

The FT-897 can be configured to use minimal current on RX by turning the dial light to automatic, and disabling the DSP. Using headphones helps as well. In this mode, you can get down to 550-600mA, which is much lower than counterparts like the IC-706. In fact, other than the dedicated manpacks like the F-817, VX-1210 and military equivilants, only a few rigs like the Elecraft are more frugal.

Just looking at the specifications for the FT-897D and for the IC-706mkiig:

FT-897D:

Squelched: 600 mA (Approx.)
Receive: 1 A

IC-706MKIIG:

Rx Standby: 1.8A
Max Audio: 2.0 A

I don't know what the OP means by mountain topping -- does he mean he's going to drive his truck to a mountain top and transmit from there or does he mean to toss everything he needs in a backpack and hoof it to a high point? The radio he chooses depends on that distinction. If he's backpacking, I would say the FT-897d is the best choice of the two.

Next step is I want to get something portable like an FT-857 or 817 and do some mountaintopping. Good times!

Have to recommend the FT-897 wholeheartedly. The FT-897 is electrically identical to the FT-857. The FT-857 is the FT-897 in a smaller package intended for use in a car. As such, the FT-857 has fewer external buttons and knobs than the FT-897 so navigating it while it's on your desk or on top of a boulder could be more challenging than with the FT-897.

While the FT-817 is very popular among the mountain topping community, 5 watts is a frustratingly low level of power unless you're on CW. I'm not sure about the condition of your legs and back, but carrying a larger battery and a marginally heavier transceiver so that you can do 20 watts is probably worth the effort. Further, the FT-897 will do a better job on your desk than either the FT-817 or the FT-857 will do.

I bought a 897 used on craigslist for about $650. Don't even bother with the retail price tag -- Yaesu and ICOM both build their gear to last.

send email using APRS to one of many available satellites, although you may only get a few good passes each day-
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/information/faqs/aprs.php

including the international space station-
http://www.ariss.net/

many APRS handheld radios are available-
yaesu vx-8r:
http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=111&encProdID=64C913CDBC183621AAA39980149EA8C6

kenwood th-d72:
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/ht/3072.html

True enough, but he's going to have a hard time learning how to use an FT-817 in an emergency if he can only use it as a technician most of the time. He'd be limited to CW on small portions of of 15, 40 and 80m, and 200KHz of phone privileges on 10m. Plus, the FT-817 only puts out five watts and weighs 2.5 pounds, which is twice what he said was his maximum weight.

This project is embarrassing. It took five college seniors ("Wireless and Telecommunications Technology" majors, no less) a whole year to build and use a pointable ham VHF antenna comparable to a fringe-area TV antenna. That's all they built; the transceiver was a stock ICOM Ic-V8000, which is a ham mobile radio that's basically a CB radio with higher power (75W) and fewer restrictions built in. This is not exotic technology. NASA has a program devoted to doing this in high schools.

From their blog, the only big problem was getting permission to go on the roof of a building (a large flat roof) to put up the antenna. If they'd just headed out to an open field (they're using a radio intended for car installation, after all), mounted the antenna on a tripod, and aimed it by hand, they probably could have completed the project in a week.

Hams talk to the ISS all the time. When it's visible, it's only a few hundred miles away, after all. The only real problem is booking some astronaut time. If you don't want to bother with that, the ISS has an open packet repeater hams can use. It's only 9600 baud, using an old TNC. This technology is so old it was on Mir.

Their blog is like reading Twitter output:
Of course, we've been busy for real lately. There's a whole bunch of new stuff going on. Exciting stuff! For instance, we soldered the connectors to the control wires for our antenna's rotor. After all that was said and done, we were able to control the movement of our antenna from inside room N214. Here's a few pictures of us working on that.

Yaesu VX-7R hand-held VHF/UHF transceiver.

Or, for even cheaper ($350), Ten-Tec's RX-320D, with digital radio. Everything from DC to 30MHz (shortwave).

I've never used any of them, your milage may vary, etc.

I've been watching the shuttle mission on the K6BEN amateur TV repeater near San Jose, which is on 421.25Mhz, the same as cable (not broadcast) channel 57, through my VCR and with a Yagi I made from a magazine article. The NASA Ames Amateur Radio Club is providing the feed with a 1.2GHz uplink to the repeater. They also have shuttle audio on two meters, and I can receive that with my VX-2R HT.

You can break out the coded ACARS messages. Here's one example of how.

I've had good luck with buying quality AM/FM/SW radios, like Grundig's YB400. Even if you never listen to SW, it does a nice job on AM and FM. In general, you get what you pay for. Don't expect good performance from a cheap radio.

Bug-sweeping system, $17,550.00

Another one, $7,999.95

Wide-band receiver, $4499.95

Shortwave receiver, $3950.00

That first item is two orders of magnitude more expensive than our subject, but the others are only one greater. I think the really good radios are hard to find prices for, unless you are a qualified customer, perhaps with an account with the vendor.

I've also noticed that items from retailers targeted toward spies charge more for their products than other retailers do. I suppose that is because spies are backed by some deep-pocketed government (or James Bond wannabe types are suckers).

Bug-sweeping system, $17,550.00

Another one, $7,999.95

Wide-band receiver, $4499.95

Shortwave receiver, $3950.00

That first item is two orders of magnitude more expensive than our subject, but the others are only one greater. I think the really good radios are hard to find prices for, unless you are a qualified customer, perhaps with an account with the vendor.

I've also noticed that items from retailers targeted toward spies charge more for their products than other retailers do. I suppose that is because spies are backed by some deep-pocketed government (or James Bond wannabe types are suckers).

Here you can buy it ...

Still ... $450 for a ultra-wide band WITH a 2" TFT ...

Only better (at 10x the price) would be the AR-one here, almost forgot ... have to be a non-US location to ship to ...

Still ... $450 for a ultra-wide band WITH a 2" TFT ...

Only better (at 10x the price) would be the AR-one here, almost forgot ... have to be a non-US location to ship to ...

The Icom PCR1000 receiver is only $350 bucks plus shipping from Universal Radio Inc.

My /. subscription costs more than this so I can get those frist posts!!!!!!!

As far as I can tell, the "No Electronic Theft" or NET act, making it illegal "to reproduce or distribute, including by electronic means, one or more copyrighted works having a total retail value of more than $1,000." (description from this page) is now law. It seems that you can read it here.

Now, it should be obvious to any reasonable person that 99% of the people who warez down software either can't afford to buy it, and so never would have bought it, or are just trying it out and will probably either buy it or decide it's crap and never run it again. Software "piracy" might not be a victimless crime, but it comes awfully close.

So why are the feds so concerned about it? Could be just that the adbusters people are right, and the corporations' interests override common sense and the public interest (like, having the FBI spend its time on actual threats to public safety rather than warez mavens, most of whom would probably never hurt a fly.)

But there's a subtler, more chilling trend going on, too. It's already illegal to buy or sell a radio scanner that tunes the cellular frequencies; you can't buy a wideband receiver unless you're the government (or live overseas; so much for the "land of the free"), and I believe you're not allowed to tune into alphanumeric pagers, though I can't find a reference for this. And the electromagnetic spectrum belongs to all of us, not the government, damnit; why can't I do what I want with the electrons running through my antenna on my property?

With these raids, they're telling us what we can and can't do with the bits that come down our cable modem; and with the truly chilling SSSCA and prohibitions on digital VCRs, they're going to prevent the computer and home electronics manufacturers from selling boxes that will even permit us from doing things they don't like with the bits.

It's still a pretty long way before Big Brother and the two-way, spying TV-- but that is the direction we are moving, and as annoying as it is that I'm not gonna be able to get warez as easily now, the broader implications are what really bug me.