[KYHAM] Tribute to John Bell

[K4lid@cedarvalleybbs.com]

I first remember John checking in to the net on 3.960 back in the late
80's using a vertical antenna.  At that time, he could not put up a
dipole.  Several years later I met him at the Central Kentucky Hamfest.
Later in the  late 90's, John called on the phone to tell me that he was
evaluating screen readers which worked with windows and how best some of
them might work on the internet for those who were blind and could not
access the screen visually.  At that time he was trying to find a
suitable screen reader and internet program for Wa4wwh J.B.  John found
that a program called Webspeak was, in his opinion the best there was.
Additionally, he repaired the adaptive recorders from the American
Printing House for the blind at a fraction of the cost that it would be
if one sent them back to Aph for repairs.  At one time he had stocked
parts for the Handi Cassette I and the Handi-cassette Ii both specially
designed recorders with two speeds, four tracks and compressed speech
plus tone indexing.  I truly appreciated Johns ability and interest in
the field of Assistive Technology.  No, he did not have to have the
interest in electronics for the blind and to understand what special
adaptations we needed but he did.  God Bless him and may he always have
a star in his crown.  Please pass this on to his wife.  I am unable to
access the website with my shell account.  Tom Lykins  K4lid.