[Boatanchors] My puddle waders, was Re: The ARRL's ...

[Ed Sharpe]

Some commentary on this... 
 
As a youth I was  extremely bright on theory and  construction however code  was impassable  for me  even at 5 wpm. or 2 wpm. or... 
 
Could have  had a general in 6th grade... but...    the  code... alas...
 
I  do have a tremendous  respect though  for  people that are able  to copy  CW  at  great  rate though...  In my youth in Palos Verdes Don Wallace  would amaze my by  not only copying and sending  cw and a great rate  but also carrying on a  conversation  with  me and  the same  time about something completely unrelated to  the message traffic he was handling.
 
I  currently  have an editor I  contribute stuff to in a  community newspaper that  can wail on the typewriter at  great  rate on a  story and talk to me at the same time  about something completely different. There are a number of things  I can  do at the same  time (was better  when younger though) but  when people can achieve this at great  speed that is when it really  gets amazing!
 
I do not think talking  over the radio  was something  I felt I really missed out on as once and a  while  I did it  'supervised'  at another's shack...
 
Played  with  some microwave  stuff in  my pre- licensed  time as it was really  low power   extremely directional.
 
I was more  fascinated with electronics in general and building things and in my youth was blessed  with  really steady hands  to solder  with etc... and always  enjoyed helping older friends  with shakier hands  build  projects!
 
With  CODE  gone  I  got a  general a few years  back  in my 60s...   really  do not   'talk' except tried out a  2 meter  mobile I got at and lashed  to a AC power supply  from a RCA  TK 76 Camera. 
 
Have a SB-101  I want to make  work  (would love the printed manual) as I have  fond memories of my older  Ham friends  using them.... I  also want a KWM-2a like  I used in  USAF  when I was at the MARS station  for a  sting while  healing and  could not lift moderators at the transmitter site.
 
There is also  a  KWS-1 missing some cables  hose and finals  at  the SMECC museum I need to see pared up  with a  receiver (both  for the  display and to someday  crank up)
 
Now in my aged  condition in  my  60's I am one of those old fellows that I used to help build and solder   stuff!  As  time passes things flip... hard to hold  tools... hard to steady the iron... hard to type.. horrible hand cramps whereas my thumb moves into my palm and locks  up  and hurts to the point of screaming and cursing  like an entire chorus line of sailors. ( should  get this  checked out  I  imagine...) Typing  gets interesting when   the wrong fingers  fire....
 
OK  lets  talk about  Disabilities  and  code...    Robert H. Weitbrecht  did  well even though  deaf... I think  he  had the  the headphone  cranked up so loud  he    more  felt  the dot and dash rather than heard it. Amateur  Radio was  great  for the  DEAF if  they could achieve license as  they  could use teletype machines also.  Robert was to go on and invent the Deaf  Acoustic  Coupler and help jumpstart the deaf telephone communications network along with others as  Lee Brody, Paul Taylor, Lester Zimet and others sadly... we have lost  Robert  years  ago and many of the people  that pioneered  Deaf Telecom. 
 
check link   below  for a lot of history...
http://smecc.org/tty___tdd_history_and_resources.htm
 
There is  so much  we as  hearing  and sighted people  take for granted. too often   I  hear  comments about 'those people'  and  'ADA this and that... Hey!   they  want to have  fun  with  some of this stuff  too like  Sighted and Hearing  people do..
 
OK  for an experiment... Take  2  days,  I  did a limited run of  this in my  youth,  and blindfold yourself and try to function  for 2  entire  days... it will give an understanding... and... I did not  make the  full 2  days.
 
 
Ed Sharpe Archivist  for SMECC  www.smec.org 
( Always  looking to save examples of  hardware, photos, books  etc  from any of the categories  you see on our site -  remember the trash can is not our  friend!)
 
In a message dated 3/2/2018 2:51:17 PM US Mountain Standard Time, jmfranke at cox.net writes:
 
> > > > CW test was eliminated by No Code International, a New Zealand group
> > > > of zealots who came out of nowhere and blind sided everyone with a
> > > > grass roots organizing of opposition that welled up in the IARU then
> > > > ITU, and suddenly there was no more international requirement for CW
> > > > testing, and FCC scrapped it. Before that happened, a tiny minority
> > > > of Americans sued FCC claiming the CW test discriminated against them
> > > > because they had a disability of some sort that prevented them from
> > > > passing the CW test. And before that happened the CW test had been
> > > > deskilled to where you only had to pass a multiple guess test about
> > > > what had been sent, instead of turning in a minute of solid copy.
> > > > 
> > > > So to bring back CW FCC would have to get around the ADA. Never going
> > > > to happen.
> > > > 
> > > > Rob
> > > > K5UJ