Hi Glen
I have mine for a few weeks now and will try to answer:
1) No, no bias voltage and no menu item to swicth it on or off
2) As far as I know, Microphone ist dynamic. At least my Heil headset works, and as far as I know is Axel (member of this group) using a normal PC headset with great success
3) You juts need the audio cable, connect it to your PCs soundcard and you are ready to go. I use as Raspberry PI for that. You can configure the VOX to work in Digi Modes. (Just a press of a button :-)
4) No it is only used for CAT control
5) Doesn't really matter, I used a Peiker 4 Ohm and used the 8 Ohm Heil headset speaker and found no real difference
6) I don't know, bought it directly from Lab599
Hope I could help.
In my opinion it is a really easy to operate rig. Everything is straight forward, no unnessecary bells and whistles :-) I do Digi Modes most of the time and this is working very well. CW is also great (but my CW skills are very limited :-) )
I'll be on a camp site next weekend with my RV and will make a few pictures, videos and a digi mode howto then!
73s, Stephan
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DF6PA
Licensed since 1978
TX-500, KX2, IC-703, FT-817ND
DF6PA