Hi, all

Recently, in my region of west-central lower Michigan, the power that be 
obtained an equipment grant to purchase all new equipment for our county 
EOC's.  Sounds great, right???

Well, for one thing, none of us as EC's were consulted on the rig and other 
equipment choices, so we ended up with rigs with which none of us were 
familiar.

But, here's the real kicker:

Two of the rigs are the Icom IC2820 VHF/UHF dual-band radio, and the Icom 
IC2200 2-meter radio.  Upon checking in the AES catalog, and calling AES for 
confirmation, it seems that these radios do not have a voice synthesizer 
chip option.  If this is true, of course, the rigs will be of limited use to 
me as EC in the Emergency Operations Center, unless I have sighted 
assistance with me at all times.

Can someone verify for me that these rigs actually do not have a voice chip 
option??

Tom Behler: KB8TYJ