With the Handi-Hams

How Hams help Hams with unusual needs get on the air

By Patrick Tice, WAØTDA

My son, Will, was four when he mastered the monkey bars at the playground in the park. Day after day, he and I would walk to the playground, and he would run to the monkey bars, launching himself across what must have seemed a huge chasm, hand over hand. Tears of frustration flowed many times before he finally learned how to make it to the other side, but learn he did, and he was only satisfied when he could do it on his own, without help from dad! 

The truth is that we all want to do things on our own. We cherish independence, and work hard to gain it, even from our earliest days. Of course, we soon learn that help is sometimes needed, but ultimately we seek to do things on our own without having to constantly ask for assistance. Three Hams who understand the importance of self-reliance are Dr. Tom Linde, KZØT, Clair Robinson, KØCJ, and Lyle Koehler, KØLR. They are all volunteers for the Courage HANDI-HAM System, and are focused on helping Hams with severe disabilities to get on the air. 

At a recent Radio Camp, Tom and Lyle worked with Rick Jorgenson, KBØQPY, a camper whose disability makes it difficult for him to speak. Getting Rick on the air was a team effort. First, Lyle assessed the Toshiba laptop that Rick had brought to camp, and learned the software commands necessary to activate an attached speech hardware device. Then Tom worked with Rick to devise common phrases useful in a typical QSO. Both Tom and Lyle worked with Rick, practicing the phrases with the Toshiba's speech synthesizer and then getting on the air and working stations. Lyle devised a crude interface between the computer's speaker and the rig's microphone using rubber bands! Ultimately, though, Rick would not be satisfied to make every QSO a "team effort". He would want to get on the air on his own! Tom, a retired psychologist, offered to help Rick devise as many phrases as necessary to help him communicate independently, both on the air and off. The laptop would become a global communications tool. Lyle, dissatisfied with the rubber band interface, designed a true electronic interface that would allow Rick, or anyone who cannot speak, to feed a computer's synthesized speech directly into a radio. Lyle's device includes a VOX circuit, making switching between transmit and receive a simple matter!

Meanwhile, back at Courage Center, volunteer Clair Robinson, KØCJ, was working an another adaptive project. Clair and Lyle have both volunteered at Radio Camp, and both have worked with blind Hams. They knew that HANDI-HAMS had long offered simple electronic devices to blind operators who need to know the position of their beam antennas or whether their rigs were properly tuned. What Clair and Lyle found out was these devices could stand a bit of updating, and they began a collaborative project to do just that! Almost immediately, a change in circuitry made the HANDI-HAM Beam Heading Indicator a more accurate device. Blind users, hearing the audio output, would be able to position their antennas much more accurately. The Audio Tuning Device had become somewhat dated, though, as vacuum tube finals gave way to solid-state rigs. Although still useful for tuning outboard antenna tuners, it really would be better to provide a way for blind Hams to independently determine SWR without having to ask a sighted person to read a meter.

A circuit by Ben Spencer, G4YNM, first published in the July, 1994 issue of QST, seemed to hold the most promise. Several beta versions were built, but again it took a team effort between Lyle and Clair to make the project really useful to blind Hams.

"Why not", they reasoned, "combine as many functions as possible in one all-purpose adaptive device?"

Work began on another G4YNM circuit, with Lyle and Clair designing a circuit board that would incorporate the function of the Beam Heading Indicator. A working prototype finally fit into the small aluminum project boxes already used for the Audio Tuner. When this device is finally produced in the HANDI-HAM shop by volunteers Rex Kiser, WØGLU, and Ken Williams, WØJKM, it will allow an extra degree of independence for blind amateurs, who will be able to check their antenna position and SWR with one useful adaptive device. Independence. We all want it, from the time we pull ourselves up and take our first steps. The volunteers at the Courage HANDI-HAM System know just how important that is.

California Radio Camp is 28 February-07 March 1999. For more information about Amateur Radio for people with physical disabilities, or for a circuit diagram of the KØLR VOX interface device, contact: The Courage HANDI-HAM System, 3915 Golden Valley Road, Golden Valley, MN 55422; 612/520-0511; handiham@courage.org; Or on the Web at: http://www.mtn.org/handiham. 

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