Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Handiham World for 21 July 2010

Welcome to Handiham World:
A volunteer summer continues as Larry Huggins, KA0LSG, makes the cover of Worldradio

Screenshot of Worldradio website showing Larry on the cover.

Larry Huggins, KA0LSG, is right there on the cover of the latest Worldradio magazine. Way to go, Larry!

The photo is from Handiham Radio Camp, where Larry volunteered as an instructor. In the Worldradio article, you can read about the blind-accessible HT that Larry demonstrated to our Operating Skills group. The article is my annual accessible radio roundup, a quick overview of radios and their accessibility features. It is entitled "What’s New for the Operator With Disabilities", and is a feature of my regular "With the Handihams" column.

"Regular readers know that from time to time I devote a column to what’s new in amateur radio equipment and software that is accessible to people with disabilities. Most of the questions I get have to do with what is blind-accessible, both for radio hardware and computing. Our largest single accessible technology user group is amateur radio operators who have some kind of reading disability, usually blindness or some degree of vision loss. I think this is probably a long-term trend as more baby boomers encounter age-related deterioration of their eyesight. Macular degeneration is relatively common in older folks and because of its onset late in life can catch them off guard and leave them wondering if they can still use a computer or even get on the air effectively anymore."

There are always questions about accessible handheld radios, so this part of the article is timely:

"Handiham volunteers Larry Huggins, KA0LSG, and Ken Silberman, KB3LLA, both found the new Wouxun 2m/70cm KG-UVD1P HT at Dayton, and Larry actually had his radio along to demonstrate to us at Handiham Radio Camp."

Read more on the Worldradio website.

Our thanks to CQ Publications for helping us get the word out about accessible technology.

For Handiham World, I'm...

Patrick Tice
wa0tda@arrl.net