K3UL who is a blind ham from my area has quite an asortment of rigs 
including the FTDX5000, which he thinks very highly of.  Bob also has the 
K3, which he accesses with the hampod and the Kenwood TS590 so he has had 
quite a lot of experience using rigs with varying degrees of accessibility. 
I don't know how he manages the 5000, but he does like its performance. 
most of you know how resourceful we can be at finding ways around problems. 
73,  Lou
Lou Kolb
Voice-over Artist:
Radio/TV Ads, Video narrations
Messages On-hold:
www.loukolb.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lloyd Rasmussen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2012 9:14 PM
Subject: Re: accessiblity of two yaesu radios


> Perhaps there is a menu item where the voice guidance speed can be 
> adjusted
> in the '450.  I'm not sure.
>
> I have written several times before about using the FT950.  I have had it
> for nearly 5 years now, and still think I made the right decision in 
> buying
> it.  If I were starting out right now, I would take a hard look at the
> TS590, but I don't see a need to switch to that rig from what I currently
> use.  The FT950 has enough knobs and switches to satisfy most hams.  The
> keypad can be used either to select one of the three "band stack" memories
> for each ham band or to enter frequencies.  Beeps indicate when buttons 
> have
> been pushed, whether an erroneous entry was made or the SWR is too high, 
> and
> when a secondary function has been activated.  There are real knobs for
> adjusting squelch, mike gain, monitor level, CW speed, and RF and AF gain.
> Several different tuning rates are available, and on A M it can be tuned 
> in
> 5 or 50 KHz increments if you wish, using the detented Select knob.
>
> Sometimes I really want to know what frequency I have tuned to.  You can
> accurately estimate, based on the current mode and tuning rate, or read 
> with
> N1MM or Ham Radio Deluxe's "voice synthesizer" option.
>
> I have looked at the manuals for the FTDX3000 and 5000, and am not sure 
> how
> you would get to a particular menu number.  There may be a way, and I have
> never had my hands on those rigs.  It may seem tedious and unnecessary, 
> but
> I can reach any of the 118 menu items by counting clicks.
>
> Anyway, I'm only saying that the FT950 gives me enough accessibility to 
> get
> by, and is a good value.  No rig is right for everybody.
> 73,  W3IUU
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Kelvin Marsh
> Sent: Monday, December 31, 2012 4:00 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: accessiblity of two yaesu radios
>
> Hi,
>
> I've recently had an FT-450 on the bench here, to write an accessibility
> review for Active Elements.  One of the big charities in the UK has bought
> FT-450s for their blind members, and I was keen to take a look.
>
> In my opinion, the fact it has a voice readout fitted as standard is 
> fairly
> misleading.  The uninitiated will believe it is accessible.
>
> I found the frequency readout did not read to the hundreds of kilohertz. 
> It
> would read 7.100.0.  It was missing the last digit you need for standard
> accuracy.  OK, you could net with a station by ear, but you could never 
> get
> to 7.100.00 to run an exact rounded  frequency yourself.  There was no
> keypad, compounding the problem.
>
> The second niggle was that pressing the readout key, caused the RX to be
> silent.  The voice was so slow, it took 13 seconds to read.
>
> I only evaluated the FT-450, not the FT-450D.  Perhaps it has improved...
> In contrast, I've also just had a few days with a FT-2000.  OK, there is 
> no
> voice chip, but I could use this fairly happily through the CAT, including
> using split and the second RX.
>
> Best wishes, Kelvin Marsh - M0AID
>
> Working to improve accessibility for radio amateurs with disabilities
>
> www.active-elements.org
>
> For accessibility evaluations of amateur equipment and MP3 manuals
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of John Miller
> Sent: 31 December 2012 18:08
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: accessiblity of two yaesu radios
>
> Yaesu never did care about accessibility, the 847 was a 1 off try at it 
> and
> had a lot of problems, and now they have the ft-450 which took one of my
> sighted friends, with the manual almost 3 hours to figure out how to turn
> the voice read out on at a special event so I could use the radio and I
> still did not like the radio at all. The RIT/XIT knob on my ts-2000 is 
> about
>
> the size of the tuning dial on the FT-450, even the IC-706 has a bigger 
> dial
>
> than that. I was far from impressed. Sadly that's what a lot of the 
> hospital
>
> EOC's have in this area of the state, I suppose if you're not tuning 
> around
> it's OK, but I'd hate to have to sit there tuning around with it.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Michael Thurman" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, December 31, 2012 11:55 AM
> Subject: Re: accessiblity of two yaesu radios
>
>
>> yaesu walked away from accessible radios when they dropped the ft 847 =
>> which is why I will not own another yaesu rig. also icon and ken wood =
>> rigs seem to be more reliable in my opinion
>> On Dec 30, 2012, at 1:29 PM, Bob Ray <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> Greetings,  I already know about the wonders of the kenwood products =
>> like
>>> the TMV-71A but I have been asked if a person can use either the =
>> FT-8900R or
>>> VR-7R(b)?  Any thoughts on these two radios would be appreciated.
>>>=20
>>> 73,
>>>=20
>>> Bob KD0BR
>
>
>
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