[Boatanchors] Re: Talking VOM alternative

[Steve Uhrig]

On 6 Mar 2004 at 4:03, "Duane Fischer, W8DBF " <dfischer@usol.com> wrote:

> The happiness I experienced when Radio Shack corporate managed to find
> the replacement IC#1 board with cpu for my RS Talking Multi-Meter,
> originally made by Micronta, turned to despair yesterday afternoon. 	

snip

> The bottom line is, the board won't fit the unit and repairs are not
> possible. The Talking Multi-Meter is no more - 	

Duane, most of us cannot place ourselves in your shoes. We sympathize 
but feel helpless.

When I was a young ham, I had a ham friend who was blind. This was in 
the days pre-digital.

He simply had the glass removed from analog meters, and could tune 
his HF radio and SWR meter by feeling the pressure on the needles 
against his finger.

I found a wrecked Simpson 260 VOM at a hamfest, an analog one with a 
large meter, which I fixed up and removed the glass and gave to my 
friend. The large meter face and long needle worked fine for him, and 
he adapted to it very quickly and was nearly self sustaining.

Perhaps something like that could be workable. I've seen it work 
well.

There are companies who make products for blind technicians. One was 
right here in my community but he folded a few years ago. There are 
others who specialize in modifying existing equipment for handicapped 
persons. 

Like anything else, products are market driven. If a company could be 
convinced there was a market enough to return a profit on their 
investment in developing a speech meter, I'm sure it would happen. 
However, as companies who must make a profit to stay in business, 
they can't afford just to be kind. They must be profitable.

Decent working Simpson 260s are inexpensive and were used to build 
the world until the 1970s when digital stuff started. Do you think 
something like this could work out for you, with the glass removed?

Steve WA3SWS


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Steve Uhrig, SWS Security, Maryland (USA)
Mfrs of electronic surveillance equip
mailto:Steve@swssec.com  website http://www.swssec.com
tel +1+410-879-4035, fax +1+410-836-1190
"In God we trust, all others we monitor"
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