The new 'Arm' option on the activation keys solved a problem I've had for months that just about made me give up completely on VAC. I primarily fly LockOn and for the longest time, assigning a button to depress while I gave a voice command just refused to work, both inside and outside the game. I had a feeling that maybe the fact I was using a profile created many versions ago was the culprit, like some new feature had not gotten integrated correctly in my input file.
Tonight I happened to check on the versions and found 1.8.5 had been released, so I gave it a try and while I had the same problem I'd had before, I found that the 'Arm' option worked for me. Good enough! Finally I can issue radio commands now by voice ... great idea for a new option, thanks!