Phil is the expert on the IC-7000, and has gotten a lot of mileage out of 
it.
Yet again, I'll state that you can't count all of the Yaesu equipment out. I 
have had my FT950 for 7 years (it's my only active rig). There are 118 items 
on menus, and you may need some help, or at least count clicks of the Select 
knob to get to some of them, but you don't need to use the menus all that 
much. This rig has real knobs for squelch, mike gain, CW speed, monitor 
level, main tuning, RF gain, AF gain and VFO B. The Select knob (30 detents 
per revolution) sets bandwidth, passband tuning, notch frequency, contour 
frequency, or menu numbers from 1 to 118, among other things. The VFO B knob 
adjusts the setting for a menu item. There are about 60 other push buttons 
of various shapes, in clusters that can be learned. I have placed dymo tape 
with dots on a few of them for faster orientation. I never got the hang of 
the memories and memory banks, but the last three frequency/mode 
combinations are memorized for each band, and any frequency from 30 KHz to 
56 MHz can be punched in. The FT-950 is no longer in production.
If I were getting a new rig, it might be the TS590SG. But it might also be 
the Yaesu FTDX-1200, the successor to the 950. I've never had my hands on 
either of those radios, but suspect that the 1200 would have good ergonomics 
and somewhat better receive specs than the FT950. It also, finally, is 
controlled by a choice of USB or RS-232, whereas the FT-950 is RS-232 only.
Although it covers bands from 160 meters through 432 MHz, I wouldn't 
recommend the FT-991, because much of it is controlled by a touch screen. 
I'm sure it could be computer-controlled, also, but I like having plenty of 
knobs and buttons, with the beep feedback that tells you a surprising amount 
about what you did with them.
I, too, will be interested to see how Phil gets along with the N4PY 
software. While not essential all of the time, it is useful with a rig like 
the FT-950 to be able to control some of its functions from accessible 
software.
73,

Lloyd Rasmussen, W3IUU, Kensington, MD
http://lras.home.sprynet.com
-----Original Message----- 
From: Phil Scovell
Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2015 7:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Icom 7000 and speech

Frank,

I have been running the Icom 7000 since November of 2008.  I was having some
neurological problems at the time and about the time I started learning how
to run the rig, I ended up in the hospital having neck surgery.  It took a
lot of courage to go back and start from the bottom up with the radio and
with nothing more than a MS Word copy of the manual to help.  The Icom 7000
is not a blind friendly radio in my opinion.  You access 90 percent of
everything by entering menus when pressing a button.  Lot of things beep and
double beep when pressed so that helps but the speech is restricted to
frequencies, channels preprogrammed, the modes available, and signal
strength.  In short, a blind guy better have a pretty good memory or take a
lot of notes.  However, recently I found Icom software by N4PY that appears
to be worth the 75 dollars.  I have talked with him personally and he has
given me a list of hot keys he has built in to the control software.  I have
not gotten it yet but it is next on my list.  The Icom 7000 receiver turned
me on big time.  I have been a ham since age 14 in April of 1966 so I have
run tube rigs all the way up the line to these fancy computerized radios.
Frankly, I would buy, for a blind ham, one of the Kenwoods like even the
TS590 you hear guys talking about on here.  I don't think the Icom 7000 is
made any longer.  I worked 36 states and 3 countries the first year I had
this rig on 6 meters.  I enjoy the 2 meter band on it as well and for an old
CW operator, I have never fiddled with a better receiver for the money.  I
wish this rig would have been available a long time ago because the learning
curved wouldn't have been so bad if I were younger.  I also bought the QSY
ER and I can almost control all of what I use on the radio from the separate
keypad but microphone gain and other such things are hard to get to because
they are in menus, or submenus, and you have to press different buttons to
get to those settings, speech doesn't work in the menu settings, and I'm no
kid any more.  If you can get a use 7000 for like 500 or 600 dollars and
then buy the QSY ER from, I forget the guy who makes them, and if you want
to interface using the N4PY control software, you will have a ball.  I'm
mostly a CW operator so the phone settings and adjustments don't bother me
so much but a guy or gal does like to know their radio.  Go with whatever
you can get the most help with while learning.  If you like CW, so much the
better, and in that case, consider some of the Ten Tec rigs.  Kenwood seems
to have a corner on the market, though, for the blind ham.

Phil.
K0NX