[OKDXA] Your input suggestions welcomed

[W5LE]

I want to start by saying that it's now "official".  Ryan, my son, is a 
LICENSED ham operator.  His newly-assigned callsign is KG5AXB.

Now, having said that, I have a question for all of you and welcome your 
input.  Ryan was wanting to know what would be a good "starter" HF rig 
for him.
I have considerable knowledge of only the 2 transceivers I have here in 
my shack, which are the Kenwood TS-480SAT and the Icom IC-746.  I know 
their capabilities.
I consider myself a Kenwood man as far as preferences in radio 
equipment.  I know precious little about Icoms and Yaesus as far as what 
they offer for a rig that would
be a good starter rig.
In my opinion, I consider a few things as a "given" as far as what the 
rig should have.  I think it needs to be a 100W rig, with split 
capability and the ability to interface to
a laptop for rig to logging software is high on the desirable list. If 
it should have the ability to store frequencies into memory, that would 
be a plus but not crucial.

Now, please give me your insights, and thanks in advance to all who respond.

73 and see you in the pileups.
Gene W5LE