Must admit I'm finding it difficult to see what the problem is you're actually reporting. The log shows plenty of ATC transmission to you and when you reached the last waypoint you were cleared for the approach using the selected STAR
I flew again this morning and got the same "VCP silent" problem.
VCP still operates "normally"; transmitting and receiving ATC messages
Aren't these contradictory? VCP is silent but he operates normally transmitting and receiving.
VCP has a voice selected which gets set to "none" once I select the PF3 connect to FS button
How would you know that? You can't see the voice selection screen once you 'connect' to FS. Besides, if you're using MCE then you should have it set to 'None' and you wouldn't here the VCP anyway
On departure ATC will not issue "cleared to xxxx or cleared own navigation" call.
That's because you were flying a SID so you are already on your own navigation
On arrival ATC used to call a few miles from my last waypoint "contact Approach on freq xxx.x", once reaching my last waypoint ATC cleared me for the approach to runway XX
Well you were flying a STAR so ATC gave you the following:-
Beech November 6 Alpha Charlie at Sierra Echo Sierra Kilo Alpha Descend 3 thousand Cleared to final for Sierra Tango Approach runway 04 when ready Contact Tower on 118.5 when established. '
I think it may be a better idea to take things one at a time. Instead of flying a SID and STAR and using MCE, why not simply try PF3 with none of them first, just to be sure it's working as it should. The intriduce these additional features one at a time.... just a suggestion