Hi All,

I just wanted to share something I did this weekend that I hope may
encourage others to try something new.  Please remember during the following
explanation that I am totally blind so am doing everything by speech and
sound.  I have a Kam TNC which is a dual port TNC capable of operating a vhf
and an hf radio.  This weekend there was an RTTY contest going on.  I had
worked one RTTY contact before and thought I would try it again this
weekend.  Here is how I did it.  First, I turn my IC-746 to lower sideband
(I was on ten meters).  Next, I set one of the band pass tuning controls to
cut off low tones and emphasize the higher tones by turning it all the way
to the high side.  I then set my TNC to rtty 45 which is the typical speed
used in amateur RTTY.  Here is the tricky part for a blind guy.  Normally,
you would tune across the teletype signal and watch the bar graph on the
TNC.  However, I can't do that.  So, I turned on the monitor of my 746 and
transmitted a tone with the tnc.  This is the mark tone.  Next I would tune
in a signal, match the low tone to my memory of my mark tone and low and
behold, I would have words spoken by the terminal program I am using and
could copy the conversation or cq of the station to which I was tuned.
Using this method I worked France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Canada and Costa
Rica in a period of maybe 20 minutes.

Will this turn me into a hard core teletype enthusiast?  Probably not.  But,
when I see a good dx spot come across the packet cluster, and note it is on
RTTY, I probably won't hesitate to give it a shot.  I guess my purpose here
is to encourage all of us who may be reluctant to try new things to jump
right in and give them a shot any way.

Take care all and 73.
Kevin, K7RX

Kevin Nathan, Independent Living Coordinator
Dept. of Services for the Blind
3411 S. Alaska
Seattle, Wa 98118
Voice:  (206) 721-6450
Cell:  (206) 604-4767
Toll Free:  (800) 552-7103
Fax:  (206) 721-6403
Email:  [log in to unmask]