...   
      
    BB> He was racking up the contacts. :)   
      
    RW> I'd bet so!  The Bahamas is pretty rare for the west coast   
    RW> guys who don't have big gun stations, where I work 'em all   
    RW> the time on 20m.   
      
   Your a bit closer.  :)   
      
    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>    
    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. :)   
      
    RW> YEp, it was an interesting discussion.  Some blind guys use   
    RW> a brass tube which has other applications to feed the solder to the   
    RW> work, they feel for the joint with the tip of the   
    RW> iron, and feed the solder through this tube to the work   
    RW> which they've found with the other.  sort of same principle   
    RW> as walking down the street feeling for obstacles in front of you with   
    RW> your long cane.   
      
    RW> I do fair when I"ve got a jig rigged up with common   
    RW> connector types, example a pl259.  INsert the center of the   
    RW> 259 into an so239 on the bench stable, have the sleeve   
    RW> already on the cable but not yet attached, solder the   
    RW> center, then the braid.  I used to have before Katrina a   
    RW> bench jig with all sorts of common connector types I use   
    RW> that made it somewhat easier.   
      
      
   My hat's off to ya. :)     
      
      
      
       
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