Mike:

This is o so telling, and shows so much the importance of attitudes on the 
part of all concerned.

Thanks for sharing.

73 from Tom Behler: KB8TYJ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Duke, K5XU" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2013 3:06 PM
Subject: What Doesn't Matter on the Radio Part 1


> Howard's comment about no one knowing we are blind on the radio unless
> we tell them brings to mind two memorable individuals from my SWL and
> early ham days as a teenager.
>
> One was a local blind individual who, I promise you, couldn't make two
> consecutive transmissions without making some statement about being
> blind, or about what he couldn't do because he could not see.
> Naturally, a few people felt sorry for him, but most thought of him as
> a big nuisance. The irony was that he had enough useable vision to
> walk out in his yard, and tell the people who came to help him with
> antennas something like, "You need to straighten that mast up a little
> bit, don't you think?"
>
> He never caught on to why many of his would-be helpers disappeared
> after he would make statements like that the entire time they were
> with him.
>
> One day I got up the courage to ask my adult blind friend and role
> model, who was also a ham, what he thought of this gentleman's
> behavior.
>
> As I recall it now, over 40 years later, my friend said: "It's
> disgusting. And don't you ever let me catch you acting that way, on or
> off the radio."
>
> He meant it too.
>
> Stay tuned for part 2.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Mike Duke, K5XU
> American Council of Blind Radio Amateurs
>