For Blind and Vision-Impaired
Ham Radio Operators

 

   This HamRadioAndVision Web-site has practical information for blind and vision-impaired amateur radio operators. Subjects include accessible transceivers, speech synthesizers, CW, digital modes, rig monitoring, VOIP, product reviews, VHF/UHF radio programming, RF power and SWR meters, and how to make a ham station computer more accessible.

Web-Site Contents


Advances in Usability

                    Accessible Transceivers

Speech Synthesizers for Transceivers—Announce the
      operating frequency and other information.
                    Kenwood
                    Icom
                    Yaesu
                    Elecraft K3
                    Wouxun HT
                    TYT Electronics HT

Rig Monitoring—Using a computer to display transceiver
     settings in a more easily readable form.
             • Rig Monitoring Basics
             • Kenwood ARCP Remote Programs
             • Icom RS-BA1 Remote Program
             • Elecraft
             • FlexRadio
             • Yaesu Data Mangement Unit
             • DXLab Commander

Elecraft Portable HF Transceivers—Audible reports of settings.
             • KX1 CW Transceiver
             • KX3 All-Mode Transceiver

CW—Operating and Practicing
             • A Morse Decoder With High Visibility Text  
             • Configuring and Using CwGet
             • Elecraft KX1—CW transceiver gives audio CW feedback
                       about frequency and settings.

DXing
             • DXLab—voice announcements of DX spots

HF Digital Radio—About digital modes (PSK31, RTTY, etc.)
             • Digital Mode Text-to-Speech
             • cocoaModem and Mac OS X Text-to-Speech
             • High Visibility Digital Mode Text
             • MultiPSK Accessibility
             • cocoaModem Accessibility (Mac OS X)
             • Setting Up TrueTTY Vision-Related Features

VOIP—Reviews of three VOIP programs for hams.
                    Introduction
                    EchoLink
                    EchoShack
                    CQ100
                    Conclusions

Programming Tools for UHF/VHF Radios
        • Chirp Channel Editing Software—for multiple radios.
                • Using Chirp with a Screen Reader
        • KG-UV Commander—for programming Wouxun radios.
        • Wouxun Company Programming Software
                • AntiVirus Alerts with Wouxun Software
        • Kenwood Memory Control Programs

Meters and Indicators—RF Power, SWR, etc.
        • Large MFJ SWR/Wattmeters—High visibility analog meter.
        • Wavenode2 Monitor—Large display and spoken reports.
        • Coaxial Dynamics USB Wattmeter—High visibility display.
        • Elecraft W2 Meter—High-brightness LED bargraphs.
        • MFJ AutoTuners with Audio-SWR Meter—Audible reports of
               tuned SWR range.
        • Audible Transmitter Output Monitor

Transceiver Multi-Meters
        • How to use an ALC meter—Avoid distortion and interference.
        • Kenwood TS-590 Transceiver—Voice announcements of
               RF power and SWR.
        • Icom Transceiver Multi-Meter Monitor—Large-display meter.
        • LDG Meters—Large external meters for Icom & Yaesu radios.

Accessible Ham Radio Handbooks

Net for blind and vision-impaired hams.

Ham Station Computer

Magnifying ham radio program displays.
High Contrast color schemes in Windows.
WebbIE Browser for blind and vision-impaired hams.
DPI Scaling for larger text.

 

Author Information

   Peter DeNeef, AE7PD, is an Extra Class amateur radio operator in the U.S. This website has no ads or conflicts of interest.

rev. 2/3/2012