Michael,

I sure understand your situation based upon my own personal experiences of 
hamming in these last 47 years.  I started out with a 15 dollar transmitter 
and 40 dollar receiver and both had to be repaired before I could even put 
them on the air.  I was 14 then.  After passing my general 6 months later, 
my mom purchased me a bran new Drake TR4 for a Christmas present and it cost 
495 dollars; the first new radio I own after many years had passed.  When I 
was working full time, with my income tax return, I hope the IRS isn't 
reading my mail, I purchased a bran new, and very popular, FT101B and was in 
hog heaven since I had to sell my Drake TR4 when I got married for money to 
pay bills with.  From then on, I ran nothing but used gear, including a 1 
watt HW7 CW triple band radio, which I used for 18 months.  I paid 40 
dollars for it and worked over 600 stations with my 1 watter rig.  I had 
super fun like I never thought possible running QRP like that.  About 4 
years ago, I was able to buy a whole new stations through money that came to 
my wife and I that we didn't know about.  She told me, "Why don't you buy a 
whole new station with the money?"  I had nothing but a 30 year old radio at 
the time.  The ham radio creed used to be, buy the least expensive radio and 
just get on the air no matter what.  The hobby has become something totally 
different and hams to help has changed to a big zero factor here in Denver 
compared to what it was back in Omaha but that was 40 years ago so it has 
probably diminished, too.  Still, there is used gear, or even gear that is 
borrowed from another ham, if the word is put out.  I went for several years 
off air when I first got married but a friend I made in Denver loaned me his 
HW100 and I had a blast playing with it.  He rarely used it.  Unfortunately, 
there aren't many of those hams around these days so I sure know your 
feelings.  It sometimes helps to be on 2 meters because you can meet more 
guys who might, that is a big, if, might help in some way.  There are 
organizations that help hams get their own station, too.  Is Handy Hams 
still doing that or not?

Phil.
K0NX




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Thurman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 3:04 PM
Subject: Re: The Sin of Omission: A Re buttal of Goodwill's Policy Statement 
on Subminimum Wage Payments to Workers with Disabilities


> how about the ability to not get fed over  by multi millionaires, and be =
> able to actually afford to live  let alone buy ham radio stuff? if you =
> can't afford to put food on the table or liv independently, it would be =
> rather hard to have radios wouldn't it?  To be honest I am surprised at =
> how many seemingly well to do blind hams there are on this list. =
> constantly talking about getting new radios, towers ext, and i am going =
> to assume you are one of those who have and always have had plenty of =
> money. I know what it is like to not have food on the table to pay rent =
> and wonder if you will be abe to have a place to live by the time you =
> get money to pay the rent.  There are a lot of disabled people with =
> nothing who depend on  sometimes unsafe unsanitary disgusting government =
> housing. You can't put up antennas in government housing.  so What does =
> this have to do with ham radio? a great deal.
> If you can't have antennas and can't live somewhere decent, and have to =
> struggle to just exist, ham radio isn't exactly  easy, as it is not a =
> cheap hobby. I am currently off the air because I  have to wait to get =
> money to fix up my antennas in fact, and I am lucky enough to live in a =
> home with my girlfriend