Topband: Maritime gear programmable on ham bands?

[Martin]

A fellow ham once was on a trip  from Spain to the Caribbean on a 
sailing boat. For comms with me and some friends he was using a FT-900, 
and as a backup rig he could have used the onboard Icom marine radio, in 
case his Yaesu failed. He is not a techie, so i think modifying the Icom 
was rather easy. Why should it be any harder than 'opening up' ham gear 
, e.g. cut out diodes? The Icom was USB only on all bands.


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73, Martin