Icom radios speech chips don't speak the menus, but I find with my 706 I use
for portable and mobile use that if you take the time to learn it, there are
ways to learn the radios still and they're not that bad to manage. I don't
know about the 746 pro but I know blind hams with the 746 who love them and
the 756, all flavors that love them and manage to work them just fine.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lloyd Rasmussen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 11:14 PM
Subject: TS-480 vs. IC-746 Pro


I know that accessible HF radios  is a permathread here on the
Blind-Hams list.  From looking at specs, it appears to me that the
Icom IC746-Pro would be likely to be a better CW receiver, with more
options for adjustment of IF bandwidth, etc.  Have any of you
compared it against a 480, either for receive or for ease of
operation or control panel clutter?  I understand that the 746 Pro
can take a speech board and speaks little more than frequency and
S-meter readings.  Have you 480 users ever thought that your
transceiver was too verbose?  I'm frustrated because my local HRO
store is over 30 miles from here, and they said they never stock
their demo radios with accessory filters, voice boards, etc.

I still don't know when I will actually buy something new, but it
might be this year.  My R4C really works, but I like general coverage
SW listening, and the FS-4 frequency synthesizer is starting to
become very flaky again.