Interesting.  Wonder why that is?  So, how is it being a transplanted 
American in Kiwi Land?  Was there three times, and love the 
place.--Matt, N1IBB.

At 11:03 AM 7/12/2015 +1200, you wrote:
>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
> >
> >
> > Sent with AquaMail for Android
> > http://www.aqua-mail.com
> >