Absolutely agree.  I have a Kenwood TS480SAT and a TMV71A.  Both are 
great rigs, and they speak most functions that weren't spoken on many 
base/mobile rigs only a few years ago.  In short, take the guesswork 
out of what your rig's doing and buy an accessible Kenwood product. 
--Matt, N1IBB.

At 06:13 PM 7/10/2015 -0700, you 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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