[Hallicrafters] Update On Historic Halligan Project

[Duane Fischer]

The contractor completed the restoration of my den/office/computer room from
water damage sustained on September 22nd, today Monday October 10th.

I am currently slowly moving the former occupants of said room back into their
familiar habitat. I hope to have this completed by Tuesday evening.

Unfortunately, the primary computer system and its accessories are down, probably
for good. It will be replaced by the insurance company, but not for several
weeks.

Meanwhile i am moving the backup system to my main desk and using it to put the
final touches on the master digital video files. If all goes as hoped, the master
DVD will be sent by registered overnight delivery to California where it will be
commercially produced. As soon as they ship the ready to ship product back to me,
all orders will be finalized and shipped on the same day.

Depending on how close this is to October 31st, the date I had planned to ship
the two CD set out to all who advanced ordered it, I 'may' wait and ship both
pieces together.

I regret the delay caused by the storm damage to my home, office and computers on
September 22nd, but am very thankful that the 'one of a kind' original video,
photos and documents were on the opposite side of the room where the water came
through the ceiling.

This unfortunate event has made my life miserable, as being totally blind has its
own associated problems, but having everything in your home scattered all over
the place really makes them hard to find, especially when much of it 'feels' the
same! (LOL!) Especially when the Perkins Braille Writer I use to take notes with,
(this is what you hear thunking away as I write down your call sign during the
HCI Nets), had a mechanical failure after a mere forty years of use! Totally
mechanical, nothing electric about it. This happened the night before the
thunderstorm that damaged my roof and allowed water to saturate the rolled
insulation between the ceiling rafters over my den, then soak through the drywall
and stream down on my desk and computer equipment September 28th.

I was ready to ship the Braille Writer back to the manufacturer, the Howe
Printing Co. in MA on Thursday October 6th, when a friend just happened to notice
a screw missing from a stabilizer arm that affected the horizontal line spacing.
A trip to the hardware store turned up a pair of the right screws, he replaced
both of them securing the stabilizer and the Perkins Braille Writer was happily
punching out call signs again! Now that is my kind of repair, low tech and no
wounds from hot solder!

No computer means no scanning of documents, which means I have to call in the
sighted readers to help me sort out the incredible amount of valuable material
that was located in my den/office/computer room. Hey! It could not possibly be
junk, right! (chuckle)

Fortunately for me, my home escaped the real disasters that many other residents
of this county did not. I have much to be thankful for, as even though it truly
has made my daily living functions difficult to not possible, all that was
important and irreplaceable, including me, survived.

I truly appreciate your patience and will get the incredible video and mind
bending audio recordings into your stockings 'before' they are "hung by the
chimney with care"!

I 'hope' to be back on-line on my regular schedule by this weekend. Stay tuned!

Duane Fischer, W8DBF
Historic Halligan Project: http://www.w9wze.org