My name is Bobby (Joel) I go by Joel. A new blind ham, got my

Tech ticket in Apr of 2016 and upgrated to General in Dec. 2016. I

studied with a Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/merryviking/playlists I took a lot of

practice test at https://hamexam.org/exam/12-Technician

I operate a Kenwood TS-590sg with a speach mod also a

TMV71A. My antennas are a Diamond Tri band 70cm, 2m and

6m. My Elmer (N4DC) and I just hung an off center fed diapole

80-10m. I have a mobile BTech UV25X2 for our car I also use it in

the shack for power outages plugged into a battery booster pack

with a mag mount antenna on a ammo can. My HT is a Baofeng

BF-8HP. My PC uses NVDA screen reader. It also has the free

version of HRD and JJRadio that I use to control my radio. I also

have Kenwood software MCP-2000 to store and write menory

channels and to change other functions. If you are or a friend are

blind you are welcome to contact me for help.

With the Kenwood TS-590sg and WSJT-X software doing FT8. I

know what you think, how is a blind ham doing this? I am not

totally blind. I have a vary little vision in one eye. With a 32in.

monitor using Windows 10 magnifier at 400%, setup with black

background with yellow or white text for high contrast. and a 4x

hand magnifier. I am able to read the software I also use the free

screen reader NVDA. The paid screen reader software, JAWS

which I don't use but a lot of blind hams use would cost $800 to

$1000. It was a long month my elmer N4DC and I had trying to

get me doing digital modes. We tried to use my KenwoodTs-2000

but had something wrong and I gave up and got the yeasu. Which

I keep setup just for WSJT-X and HRD. I wish the WSJT-X

software were more blind accessable. Their is a couple of places

on it it will not let me change the background to black. Which is

hard to see when your text is yellow.

Myself and a couple of friends have started the DMR talk group

31679 Blind Hams talk group and The Blind Hams DMR Net.

The net is on Saturdays on the talk group 31679 at 9am central

US. 1400 UTC.

We have a group of modes bridged together plus a YouTube

channel and podcast called CQ Blind Hams. Here is a link to find out more information.