Hi Tom,
I thinkI can answer some of your questions on the Kenwood 480.

The 200 watt version requires 2 power supplies. I also believe it doesn't 
have the internal tuner.

There is also a special low pass filter that seems to work only with the 480 
lower powered version.

Universal radio is great about installing options such as filters and the 
speech chip.

The filters are approximately $120 each. They make two bandwiths I believe 
for CW and one narrower one for SSB.

I don't recall whether or not the speech chip reads out the menu options or 
not.

Also I believe there are programs that can be downloaded from the Kenwood 
web site to control the rig that may work with Jaws or Window-Eyes.

Don't apologize for asking elementary questions.

I would have been asking many of the same ones myself.

I'm trying to get back into hf operations from an apartment using my balcony 
as a place for putting the antenna.

If you want to read up more on the Kenwood 480 go to the universal Radio web 
site which is:

www.rffun.com or www.universal-radio.com

Hope this all helps.

Cordially,

Eric
KU3I