Absolutely, I've run kenwoods for years because of this and they're also 
good radios.  The 480 is a good radio as is the 590 if your budjet can 
handle it.  The 590 is one of the best bang for the buck radios out 
there today.
73
Butch
WA0VJR
Node 3148
Wallace, ks.


On Fri, 10 Jul 2015, Matthew Chao wrote:

> 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
>>
>>
>> Sent with AquaMail for Android
>> http://www.aqua-mail.com
>
>