It’s time I speak out regarding a couple of GROUPS I belong to (Formal and informally)
VFW post 3115 Amateur Radio Club, WØVFW, Wichita, KS the 1st & oldest VFW post sponsored Amateur Radio Station in the US. Our mission is to provide communications, and training for Veterans, Disabled Veterans, Military, and their Families, plus the General Public with regard to enhancing Amateur Radio Services. We have a complete HF station at the post with a 50 ft freestanding tower, tribander and KW. We also have 2 repeaters to serve both the post, and the community. One VHF one UHF both on ALLSTAR, one on the SKYWARN KANSAS statewide Network, K-LINK. our Second repeater is 24x7 on the Blind Hams Talk Group ALLSTAR #50631. It’s not unusual during our Blind Ham nets to have over 100 check-ins. Allstar is our recommended means to link as many of our members are Disabled Veterans and also Visually impaired. many live on disability. During my 54 years of ham radio, I have met numerous disabled Amateurs, and understand what they have to overcome. I work very closely with the Visually Inconvenienced Hams, who operate a net on WØVFW/R 145.27 Saturday Nights 7PM CST, that is simualcasted on ALLSTAR #50631.
Unfortunately most hams do not understand these handi-hams want to enjoy the hobby just like you. I’ve seen blind vietnam veteran hams, dig their own tower bases, put up a 70 foot tower and tribander. I know- he still has my climbing belt. I’ve seen him solder and repair rigs too. HERE IN LIES THE PROBLEM… NO ONE CONSIDERS WHAT THEY ARE UP AGAINST IN OUR SITED WORLD.
WE NEED TO MODIFY the ALLSTAR LINK NODE LIST… Ever hear of Jaws?
Jaws is a Text reader blind people use to read a computer screen.
I found out the ALLSTAR LINK NODE LIST has an important feature Blind Hams using Text Readers miss out on… That is:
ACTIVE NODES on the ALLSTAR LINK NODE LIST - are assigned Green Backgrounds!
BLIND HAMS Text READERS DO NOT recognize Background Colors!!!
I SUGGEST PERHAPS a STAR prefix or suffix be added to a NODE number to indicate -GREEN- the node is active.
A side advantage for the rest of us could be we could search on the STAR and obtain a list of active nodes.
This certainly would make the site ADA compliant…
Regards,
Larry W8LM
ARRL Life member Licensed 54 years
Technical & VE team leader 11+ years VFW post 3115 Amateur Radio Club WØVFW
Wichita, KANSAS USA.