[NFB-Hams] Question

[Travis Siegel]

NLS won't help me.  I lost my access to NLS many years ago, and despite 
my attempts to get it back, (My doctor seems to loose the form every 
time I send it to them), I'm still without NLS access. I was very 
disappointed when they discontinued webbraille, because I still had 
access to that, even though they weren't recognizing me on any other 
fronts. <sigh>

On the other hand, I did use bookshare when they were relatively new.  I 
even brokered a deal where I could give them quite a few collections of 
books from a particular science fiction publisher. At the time, 
uploading of multiple books wasn't permitted, but the site did say if 
you have lots of books to upload, then you could contact them, and 
they'd work out something.  Their solution was to have me continue using 
the process of uploading a single book at a time.

Needless to say, I bailed on that project too, uploading hundreds of 
books one at a time would have been unreasonable by anybody's standards.

I did see several years ago though, that someone else negotiated the 
same upload permissions, only that time, bookshare actually took an 
active hand in making it happen, so now that publisher does have all of 
their books on the platform.  But, as a result of that experience, I no 
longer support or use bookshare either.

If it's available in another resale outlet, I'd be happy to purchase a 
copy for myself.  I'll go check various places now, and see if I can 
find it.

Thanks for the pointer, though this is hardly a comprehensive guide to 
how to obtain a license.

At least it's a start.

On 7/10/2021 9:02 PM, Gary Lee via NFB-Hams wrote:
> Other than the specific blindness aspects, there is such a book.
>
> It is called the ARRL ham radio license manual.
>
> It is available through NLS.
> An earlier incarnation is also available via bookshare.
>
> I have taught license classes for the past 15 years.  And, little has changed.
> Some additions relating to digital transmission modes, and some rules and regs changes. But, basic physics and electronics and the original purpose for amateur radio have not changed since the introduction of solid state electronics.
>
> I’ll be happy to try and help you.
> Perhaps some more detail on precisely what you are having trouble with getting  started will help us.
>
> I have helped license folks from 13 to 75. so help us help you.
>
>
>> On Jul 10, 2021, at 7:35 PM, Travis Siegel via NFB-Hams <nfb-hams at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> What would be most uplifting is to see more blind hams.
>>
>> This could be made easier by someone (I don't care who) creating a book, website, blog post, email, podcast, or anything else that actually contains information folks who are unfamiliar with the hobby need to know to not only get online, but to get licensed, and gain the knowledge they need to know where/who/when to ask for help for things they don't understand/need additional assistance to complete/understand.  I'm (now) on two ham lists for the blind, and I have not seen a comprehensive plan for new hams *ever*. Even when I made an attempt to get licensed back around the 2K timeframe, all there was, was handihams, who sent me a book called Now Your Talking, then left me to figure out the rest on my own. Needless to say, I did not manage to get licensed back then, and to this day, although I've been interested in ham radio since the late 1980s, I am still unlicensed, largely due to the fact that there just isn't a single source of info a blind user can access for everything one needs to accomplish the whole licensing process.
>>
>> Generally, I'm a self starter, and I have no problem learning things.  I'm self taught for nearly all of the 2 dozen plus programming languages I know, and I can generally pick up new operating systems, (I'm familiar with MacOS, Linux, Windows, Dos, Android, FreeBSD, and various versions of said operating systems, all learned on my own with no trouble.  But, for what it's worth, I just *can't* wrap my mind around the whole licensing test material, and I haven't a clue why that is.  Maybe I've just not found a format that works for me yet, or perhaps I've not found someone who can explain it all in a way I can grasp, but regardless, despite more than 20 years of trying, I've just plain not managed to accomplish the whole amateur license task thing, and that's a major disappointment for me.
>>
>> Having something that could walk someone through the process, with all the reference materials one might need to accomplish the task would be beneficial to all kinds of folks, not just me I'm sure.
>>
>>
>>
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