[TenTec] The Left-handed VI+

[DAVID HELLER]

The saga of KlSRR is one more reason for all hams to learn CW - before it's 
too late!   And when we hear one whose sending is a bit fuzzy at times we 
have to learn to bear with it until we KNOW it's a real lid and not someone 
disabled.  We probably have all known more than one like that.  I remember 
K3KTH (SK) on the traffic nets.  Sending a bit slow and often just plain out 
of control.  Finally met him.  Wheelchair-bound, arms restrained, cerebral 
palsy;  speech almost intelligible; sending by foot.  Super-intelligent and 
we learned to send QRQ to him, no problem.  KA2ZOR, passed his extra with no 
accomodation (back in the 20 wpm era).  Was way over 70 then, I believe. 
Totally blind, totally deaf.  CW only, of course, and you'd never know it 
unless someone told you.  The famous K9EAB (SK), confined to iron lung, 
fantastic sending and receiving on CW.    When you hear someone who's hard 
to copy for whatever reason, remember the radio might well be his/her only 
contact with the outside world, and, it could well happen to any of us. 
Dave,K3TX
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Close" <rclose at nhwisp.com>
To: "'Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment'" <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 5:27 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] The Left-handed VI+


> [Bob] I had an accident where my right hand was in a cast for six months
> while tendons healed, and spent another six months learning how to pick up 
> a
> bottle of Budweiser again.  I found it only took a moment to learn cw left
> hand style, and now, in fact, I find my timing is better with the left 
> than
> the right hand, probably due to the scars on the tendons sort of 
> "snagging"
> if my hand is in an awkward position. I think I could send code with my
> ears.
>     CW is a Godsend to some people. My father in the advanced stages of
> Parkinson's could hardly speak, but he could rip off a conversation with 
> his
> one "good" hand, (his left, not his right hand, his preferred fist, was so
> full of tremors that he sounded rather unusual, to say the least) (sort of
> like a CW opp with a stutter)I would translate to Mom and she would just
> talk to him. It was so much easier for him to tell us something he wanted 
> to
> say, as opposed to working hard to get a sound croaked out.  Mom never
> learned the code, but she could pick up certain phrases (tell Mom 88, hw 
> abt
> ice cream? (Mom would be on the way to the freezer before I said a thing,
> asking "what flavor").
> His Omni-VI+, the only rig he ever really wanted, had to be set to a
> frequency and mode, antenna matched and aimed, so all he had to do was 
> point
> at the power switch for Mom, and off DX chasing he was.  His logs, so
> precise and neat until the last two years, turned into batches of wrinkled
> paper with almost unintelligible handwriting , one qso per page. But there
> were contacts, many of them, and each one had the same "Thanks for your
> patience and understanding" paragraph he sent when he thought his fist was
> going bad.(posted on a card in front of him, so he would remember to ask 
> for
> the understanding)  No one ever complained about his fist, only his
> repeating the entire qso because he forgot he had just had it.  So, to any
> of you guys who worked K1SRR, thanks from his son, for your patience and
> understanding, for his left-hand, no computer logging, not-so-bad cw.  The
> rig still kicks butt! And, now I will never have any rig as my primary CW
> radio other than a Ten-Tec of some sort.  Not because of nostalgia, but
> because the dang things just work so well, without fuss or bother, no 
> matter
> what hand I tune it with.  I wish they made the VII in the old-school TT
> colors.  Maybe a VII CLASSIC ! Put my order in.  73
>
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