Don,

My final comment got lost at the bottom of my message in your comments to me
so I doubt you saw it.  I was saying that I have a blind ham friend who is
also totally deaf.  He now has two, not one, but two ear implants.  I got
him into ham radio many years ago and I am one of the few people with whom
he can communicate because I know how to talk to him.  So, rest easy, Don.
I'm a for real ham even if we differ on the current true nature of ham
radio.  With cell phone communications what they are, and what they are
becoming, as well as satellite services, ham radio is taking a back seat in
the realm of providing emergency national communications.  In the last few
years, I never once have been able to call the police to report something
called in on the repeater without the dispatcher imforming me that a cell
phone citizen already had phoned it in.  The auto patches in Denver are
rarely used compaired to just a few years ago.  Communications is changing.
Don't be surprised if ham radio winks out of existance all together in the
next few years.  Besides, it would just take one nuclear air burst in any
area of the country to wipe out even emergency ham communications no matter
how circumspect we communicate.

Phil.