See, David,

I knew my blindness helped in some ways.  Great story.

Phil.
K0NX




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David W Wood" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 11:20 PM
Subject: Re: One good thing a blind ham can do


> Hi Phil
>
> Some 20 or so years ago when I built a home brew tower, all the work was
> done at night, including drilling the half inch holes into the brick work.
> I did this because of the nosy neighbours being about during the day.
> Having finished the project, raised the th5 to 50 feet, it was over a year
> before anyone even commented on it!
>
> 73
>
> David W Wood
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Phil Scovell
> Sent: Friday, September 26, 2014 1:10 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: One good thing a blind ham can do
>
> Living in Omaha as a teenager, during the hot summer days, I used to have 
> to
>
> wait until midnight for the roof to cool down because the shingles were 
> just
>
> burning, even through your shoes, during the day.  I had a little 3 
> element
> TH3 Junior tri bander on an 8 foot tripod and a 5 foot mast so if I were
> lucky, the little beam was 28 feet off the ground.  Trees in the yard were
> higher but that, I figured, was good for lightning protection, haha.  I 
> was
> using the A R22 rotor.  I was doing something with the RG8 coax so I
> disconnected it from the beam after stepping up two step brackets of the
> tripod.  I sat down on the still, quite warm, roof and began working on 
> the
> connector.  My coax snaked down over the edge of the roof, passed my
> mother's bedroom window, and down through a basement window into my shack.
> I learned my lesson that night to wrap the coax around my waist, or around
> one leg at least once, so the coax wouldn't get away from me.  You know 
> how
> heavy RG8 gets after 50 feet or 100 feet.  Anyhow, the coax slipped from 
> my
> hands and went sliding away down the roof and coiled in the grass between
> houses.  No, I might be blind but I wasn't about to dive head first right
> after the sliding coax in case I did a header off the roof.  I said, "Oh,
> shoot," or something like that, haha, because now I would have to find the
> ladder, climb down, hunt around for the coax in the grass, thread it back 
> up
>
> to the roof, re-climb the ladder, and another hour would  be lost.  Before 
> I
>
> could start my trek off the roof, I heard a side window slide up and my
> mother's voice from within the air conditioned house saying, "Philip!  Is
> that you on the roof?"  I sighed and said, "Yes, it is me, mom."  "What 
> are
> you doing at this time of night on the roof?" she wanted to know.  "You 
> are
> going to wake the neighbors.  Still mad at myself for letting the coax 
> slide
>
> away, I calmly said, "I'm trying to fix my coax."  She insisted I get down
> and right now.  She didn't care I was on the roof, I did it all the time,
> but she was trying to go to sleep so she could go to work the next day.  I
> didn't tell her I had to climb down and climb back up again but I was much
> quieter the next time.  So blind guys, if they are young enough and skinny
> enough, can work on their towers and antennas in the dark; at least I 
> always
>
> did.  Shoot, I remember climbing my 65 foot tower to fix a burned out 
> relay
> on Christmas day here in Denver when it had just snowed the night before 
> 25
> inches.  Only time I ever used gloves climbing a tower but I took them off
> as I worked on the relay and coax feeding it and it was 3:30 PM and the 
> son
> was behind the mountains.  Fortunately there was no wind but it was 32
> degrees so I was careful, tempted maybe, but careful not to touch my 
> tongue
> to the tower, smile.  My kids were all pretty little so they played in the
> snow while old crazy dad was 65 feet in the air freezing his butt off. 
> No,
> silly.  I made them play a long way off from the base of the tower.  It 
> was
> a standing safety rule because I was always dropping at least one bolt. 
> You
>
> know what a single bolt on the head can do to your skull from 65 feet?
>
> Phil.
> K0NX
>