What I used

When I was first licensed back in late 2017 the only accessible handheld radio I knew of (at the time) was the Baofeng BF-F8HP. While this was a good radio for the price, it was not completely accessible. For example, pressing menu 13 would announce that you had reached the CTCSS option. Pressing the menu key a second time to edit this value would not provide any spoken feedback to the user.

What I currently Use

Fast forward a few years to the OpenGD77 Project. This added voice prompts to a few cheap Chinese radios, such as the Radioddity GD-77, GD-77S, and Baofeng RD-5R. (for a full list of supported radios, you can check the User Guide or the forums linked in the paragraph above.) Thanks to Chris 2E0UKH for helping me by reaching out to his subscribers. I’d also like to thank the OpenGD77 developers, including Roger Clark and Ian Spencer.

What I hope to acquire

I have heard consistent praise for Kenwood products when it comes to the accessibility of their hardware. Although they are both discontinued, I would like to experiment with the Kenwood TH-D74A and TS2000. The TH-D74A is an analog and D-Star handheld transceiver. The unit also does APRS as well.

Kelvin Marsh (M0AID) posted an accessibility review of the Kenwood TH-D74 on the Active Elements website. 

Update: as of mid to late May, 2023 there have been rumors going around about a Kenwood TH-D75A. This radio offers more descriptive voice prompts. You can hear the speech around the 4-minute mark. A video by Ria’s Ham Shack  provides a demo of the radio in action.

The TS2000 is a more modern cousin to my TS 430 HF transceiver. Unlike the 430, though, this unit can actually be outfitted with a speech synthesis module. The computer interface means that (in the event that my speech fails, or if I just want to operate my radio remotely) I have the flexibility to do what I want.