I would but there is almost no kenwood gear for sail out here. 

Scott
N0HOK / ZL1CHM
Auckland New Zealand 

Sent from my iPhone

On 11/07/2015, at 1:13 PM, Jim Gammon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Simply put, forget Yaesu and go for a Kenwood! The VGS1 for an 
> additional $50 or $60, plugged into the circuitboard will speak 
> all kind of functions.  Jim WA6EKS
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Michael Ryan <[log in to unmask]
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date sent: Fri, 10 Jul 2015 22:31:20 -0230
> Subject: Re Yaesu FT-897D
> 
> Scott:
> 
> Although a greate and flexable radio, there is no speech and you 
> can't add
> it physically via internal board etc.
> You would only get speech through a PC running either ham radio 
> delux or
> any other loging program that would proagat the frequency, band 
> and mode
> fields etc.
> Also, this radio has a group of buttons which bring up a list of 
> items then
> you use the select knob to adjust things.  Very complex.
> The only Yaesu rig that has speech to my knowledge is the FT-450D 
> and Yaesu
> doesn't plan on adding speech to anything else any time soon.
> So you could either spring for that 1, a Yaesu rig that has lots 
> of buttons
> like the FT-950 and up or look for an excellent condition FT-847 
> which did
> have speech back in the day.
> 
> 73:
> Mike DE VO1AX
> 
> 
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