Hi Bob,   
      
   On Sun 2012-Mar-04 08:55, BOB BREED (1:123/140) wrote to RICHARD WEBB:   
      
      
      
    RW> Probably so, but it's still imho the best way to do it.  I   
    RW> think it was Wrangell out of NEw YOrk state that was one of   
    RW> the few congressors I ever heard advocate for such a thing.   
      
   BB> Does he have draft age kids?  :)   
      
   Iirc he did at the time, this has been about a decade ago   
   iirc.   
      
      
    BB> Really?  He was sure pouring in here, would have swore he was in CA.   
    BB> :) (C6AKQ was the call.)   
      
    RW> YEp, that'd be the Bahamas.   
      
      
    BB> Yup, some contest thing going on last Saturday.   
      
    RW> OH yeah, the arrl cw dx contest.  YEp, iirc you would have   
    RW> probably heard BAhamas real well last weekend on cw from out your way.   
    RW> I think I was working boats off Hawaii last   
    RW> weekend pretty easily with my hundred watts and a dipole   
    RW> looking east/west.   
      
   BB> He was racking up the contacts. :)   
      
   I'd bet so!  The Bahamas is pretty rare for the west coast   
   guys who don't have big gun stations, where I work 'em all   
   the time on 20m.   
      
    RW> YEah it's a different world these days.  When I heard an   
    RW> extra class the other day asking how to figure the length of a dipole,   
      
    RW> YEah I know, and i kinda resemble that remark, I'm the   
    RW> world's biggest klutz with a soldering iron, but I can do   
    RW> alright with the theory, and guiding the guy with the iron   
    RW> at least .   
      
    BB>  By any standards, you have a valid excuse for not swinging a   
    BB> soldering iron around. :)   
      
    RW> YEah but I know some blind guys that are actually pretty   
    RW> good.  there are alternative techniques.  some guys rig up a foot   
    RW> switch to control a regular iron instead of the   
    RW> trigger.  In fact, a guy who wrote an article telling blind   
    RW> folks adaptations for soldering talked to an eye surgeon who said he   
    RW> could understand why even sighted techs might want   
    RW> to do such  a thing.  HIs logic was that by squeezing the   
    RW> trigger you mess with that whole mechanism that is your   
    RW> arm/wrist/shoulder thing.  Where if you support the iron   
    RW> with you arm and wrist stable and just move the hand, making the tip an   
    RW> extension of your hand then you've got a stable   
    RW> base to work from.  hE was talking about the whole   
    RW> mechanical linkage between hand wrist arm and shoulder.   
    RW> Kidn of interesting.   
      
      
   BB> Learn something everyday. :)   
      
   YEp, it was an interesting discussion.  Some blind guys use   
   a brass tube which has other applications to feed the solder to the work, they   
   feel for the joint with the tip of the   
   iron, and feed the solder through this tube to the work   
   which they've found with the other.  sort of same principle   
   as walking down the street feeling for obstacles in front of you with your   
   long cane.   
      
   I do fair when I"ve got a jig rigged up with common   
   connector types, example a pl259.  INsert the center of the   
   259 into an so239 on the bench stable, have the sleeve   
   already on the cable but not yet attached, solder the   
   center, then the braid.  I used to have before Katrina a   
   bench jig with all sorts of common connector types I use   
   that made it somewhat easier.   
      
   Regards,   
      
              Richard   
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    * Origin:  (1:116/901)