The good news is that those batteries last a long time.

To save money you might want to consider getting two sets of 6 nimh D
cells.  That way you'll always have a set ready and they will last for 500
to 1000 charges.

Will K4SAY

[log in to unmask]
  On Sun, 10 Oct 2004, Bob Humbert wrote:

> I want to thank all of you who told me about and helped me to get the G.E.
> super radio 3.  I got it for just $40 in just 4 days.  It does everything
> that it is supposed to do and I am very satisfied.  However, I do have 2
> observations.  There is a very annoying 60 cycle hum but only because I have
> it on my head board just a foot from my head.  What they call a feature, I
> don't like.  The radio automatically switches from 110 to battery when
> necessary.  I would rather control that myself to save the batteries for an
> emergency situation.  Until I found the hum annoying I was going to put a
> piece of heavy paper or cardboard between 2 of the batteries and then just
> pull it out when I wanted the batteries to work.  Now, I guess I'll just run
> it on batteries and keep an extra set of batteries around.  6 D's!!  Again;
> thanks to all who assisted me.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2004 10:49 AM
> Subject: Re: What Constitutes Accessibility?
>
>
>> What I call an accessible radio is one, I can program, and use with out
>> asking for sighted help can can do everything with out the computer though
>> semi accessible I'd say I can do it with the computer but like my old
>> Yaesu
>> FT-51, I can't do much beyond the basics on it with out software.
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Louis Kim Kline" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2004 1:44 PM
>> Subject: What Constitutes Accessibility?
>>
>>
>>> Hi to all.
>>>
>>> As I was reading through the posts on accessible handhelds, it occurs to
>>> me
>>> that a lot of different things constitute accessibility.
>>>
>>> In our modern age, we've gotten used to thinking of accessibility as
>>> voice
>>> readout and an auto tuner, and as much as I love my HF rigs that have
>>> these
>>> features, I know that there was a time when it wasn't so.
>>>
>>> While I was in college in the late 1970's, a good friend of mine who was
>>> totally blind had a Ten Tec Triton IV, which had the following
>>> modifications:
>>>
>>> A dial skirt with single dots on the five khz marks, two dots on the 10
>>> khz
>>> marks and three dots on the zero.  He also had an audio oscillator hooked
>>> up across the LED for the ALC so that when the LED lit, the oscillator
>>> beeped.
>>>
>>> With those two modifications, he could always adjust the radio for proper
>>> levels, and he could always get it on frequency.  In that sense, it was
>>> accessible.
>>>
>>> I had a Standard C528A HT in the 1990's.  It was pretty straightforward
>>> in
>>> its command set, with articulating beeps for the various functions, much
>>> as
>>> John described on the THF6A.  At the time, I still had my vision, yet I
>>> hardly ever looked at the display because I got so much feedback from the
>>> beeps on the radio that it wasn't necessary to look at the display.  So,
>>> in
>>> my mind, that radio was truly accessible.
>>>
>>> At times, I think that half of the battle in accessibility is in getting
>>> accessible documentation that explains things from a blind person's point
>>> of view.  For example, I had a rotten time with the Icom IC-706 Mk II G
>>> until someone put up a really great key chart on
>>> www.icanworkthisthing.com
>>> and suddenly a bunch of things made sense to me and the radio became much
>>> more usable.
>>>
>>> I think the area of documentation is one area where the industry could do
>>> better, but I suspect that they do not even realize there is a problem
>>> there.
>>>
>>> Anyway, I thought that Jerry's post was amusing because of the
>>> assumptions
>>> that he started out with.  Incidentally, I believe that the reason why
>>> there are not HT's with voice boards is not because the industry cannot
>>> do
>>> it, because the technology is readily available to do just that, but
>>> because there has always been a conscious effort to keep these radios
>>> very
>>> small, lightweight, and above all, to sacrifice anything that would
>>> degrade
>>> battery life.  And, even if I was prepared to live with a little shorter
>>> time between charges, thinking about how tiny my Icom IC-T7H is, I would
>>> not want to try to install anything into it.
>>>
>>> Incidentally, I program it with the Icom Cloning software from my PC.
>>> The
>>> software works great with JAWS, and I see no reason why it shouldn't work
>>> with Window-Eyes, so in that sense, my present HT is at least
>>> "semi-accessible."
>>>
>>> 73, de Lou K2LKK
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Louis Kim Kline
>>> A.R.S. K2LKK
>>> Home e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
>>> Work e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
>>> Work Telephone:  (585) 697-5753
>>>
>>
>