Hi all,

I am new to this list since Monday Aug 1.

I have been listening to all the comments and find them all interesting.

I thought I would give you all a little history about me.

I have been visually impaired all my life, however I had pretty good vision, I thought, even though I was legally blind.  I read large print and did not use braille.

I am now 58 years old and I lost almost all of the vision I had about 13 years ago.

I was employed at one of our local hospitals for about 20 years repairing medical electronics until my loss of vision forced me to quit.

I received my novice license in eighth grade in 1968, my general about nine months later, my advanced as a junior in high school and my extra last year.

While I was in college studying electronics I received my second class radio telephone license.

My first station was a Knight Kit T-60 CW transmitter that was rock bound.  The receiver was a Drake 2A.  A couple of years later I picked up a Hallicrafters HT-37 transmitter.

In the middle 70's, I worked at Heath Company in Benton Harbor, MI in the service department, and picked up their first 2 meter synthesized rig, the HW-2036 I believe.  
In the early 80's I picked up a pair of Drake twins the T4XB and R4B.  I still have all of this equipment except the Heath 2 meter radio.

By the early 90's my beam antennas had pretty much deteriated and I was off the air, except for 2 meters.  Also at that time my children were born and there didn't seem to be enough time for ham radio and to get the antennas replaced.

Now my sons are in college and I am working on getting back on the air.  I just purchased an 11 element beam that covers  20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters, a 2 element beam for 40 meters and a 5 element beam for 6 meters.
The antennas will be at 70, 80 and 90 feet. All three antennas came from Opti-Beam in Germany.

I will be using a Kenwood TS-570 rig.

The antennas are all assembled, I just need to get them on the tower, hopefully in the next few weeks.

I can't wait to get back on the air.

I consider myself to be  one of the old timers, and I have been listening to all the comments about how ham radio has changed, however, I realize we need to change with the technology or our hobby will die.  There is enough out there for all interests.  I am fortunate to live in a house and to have room for a tower and the antennas, however, I realize that many of you live in apartments or places where there are restrictions on antennas and some of the new ways to communicate is the only choice you have.

I don't know much about all the new digital modes and how the internet can be used in conjunction with them, so I hope I will be able to learn from many of you.

I will be looking for help from many of you as to how my computer may aid me as a blind ham in today's ham radio.

I am sorry for the long winded message, isn't this the way it is supposed to be with us hams?

73's,

Howard, W A 9 Y B W, Springfield, Illinois