Disability question...

[JDKelley]

I really should have gotten my ham ticket years ago, but one thing being another, I never got the opportunity to sit for the exam.

Then, I suffered a TBI in 2005, and it's screwing with my memory. The ham know-how I have is ca. 1999/2000, and my basic electronics and maths are solid. But, I can't seem to retain on the new tech.

I'm studying like mad trying to get this drilled into my thick skull (don't laugh -it saved my life!) but I have a bear of a time managing to retain it I know a lot of disabled people go into amateur radio - is there any way I can get a consideration for memory dysfunction when sitting for my exam? No-Code Tech is about as far as I intend to go - I just want to get my feet good & wet and chew the fat with people every now & again (like when I'm on the road, for instance.) And not get any nattering from anyone when I go into an uncivilised state that is going to whine about my having a radio scanner in my truck...

Please advise. (I'm also trying to get my wife to get her ham ticket - her memory dysfunction isn't as bad as mine, but hers is due to being in an induced coma for two months with COVID in '21. It's uphill work for us...)

Lucky

 

[kb1fua]

Your best bet is to contact a local club VE (volunteer examiner).
They are best suited to answer your question, and receive advice for your situation.
Good Luck!

 

[trentbob]

I could offer some opinions and advice and the first thing I would do is exactly what the above poster recommended about joining a club. There are club members who are qualified to administer the exams. Go to the meetings and work with the examiners and members to study and prepare, often a club will have scheduled classes. It is not unusual for someone to sit for the exam twice in one session if they fail the first time.

I'm a retired newspaper man but I am a RN with my Nursing degree and degree in Public Health. I am familiar with traumatic brain injury and the challenges. My guess is you are on SSDI and after 20 years don't receive regular reviews and it is a permanent disability not expected to improve.

Your disability does not prevent you from getting a amateur radio operator's license on any level. You have the the rights of the ADA but there is no consideration for the fact that you have cognitive issues. It's a 35 question multiple choice exam you have to pass to get your license.

Again the examiners in your club certainly can work with you how they see fit to help you pass the test.

Once you get into the swing you're going to know whether or not it's going to be a task you are capable of doing. All you can do is try.

If your wife wants to take the journey with you then you can work together on it. Details of your personal and your wife's personal cognitive issues that you deal with aren't the focus here, having the ability to study and sit for the exam and pass is your focus.

Judging by your nickname, you are glad to be here and feel lucky that it wasn't worse😉.

So Google a local amateur radio club in your area and look at their websites. There might be a annual fee of 25 to $50 and you would be an associate member because you don't have your license. Pay your dues, attend the meetings, and seek their advice.

Hope you get lucky and achieve your goal.

 

[AK9R]

You can find ARRL-affiliated clubs by using the search tool here: Search for ARRL Affiliated Clubs

You can find ARRL VEC exam sessions by using the search tool here: Find an Amateur Radio License Exam in Your Area

You can find resources for getting an amateur radio license while disabled here: Resources for the Disabled

 

[JDKelley]

I could offer some opinions and advice and the first thing I would do is exactly what the above poster recommended about joining a club. There are club members who are qualified to administer the exams. Go to the meetings and work with the examiners and members to study and prepare, often a club will have scheduled classes. It is not unusual for someone to sit for the exam twice in one session if they fail the first time.

I'm a retired newspaper man but I am a RN with my Nursing degree and degree in Public Health. I am familiar with traumatic brain injury and the challenges. My guess is you are on SSDI and after 20 years don't receive regular reviews and it is a permanent disability not expected to improve.

Your disability does not prevent you from getting a amateur radio operator's license on any level. You have the the rights of the ADA but there is no consideration for the fact that you have cognitive issues. It's a 35 question multiple choice exam you have to pass to get your license.

Again the examiners in your club certainly can work with you how they see fit to help you pass the test.

Once you get into the swing you're going to know whether or not it's going to be a task you are capable of doing. All you can do is try.

If your wife wants to take the journey with you then you can work together on it. Details of your personal and your wife's personal cognitive issues that you deal with aren't the focus here, having the ability to study and sit for the exam and pass is your focus.

Judging by your nickname, you are glad to be here and feel lucky that it wasn't worse😉.

So Google a local amateur radio club in your area and look at their websites. There might be a annual fee of 25 to $50 and you would be an associate member because you don't have your license. Pay your dues, attend the meetings, and seek their advice.

Hope you get lucky and achieve your goal.

I'll have to look about, then - just didn't know if there were any VECs around here who could give me some info and possible opinions.

And "Lucky" has nothing to do with fortune, good or ill. I used to smoke Luckies, and reported to Basic with a pack in my shirt pocket. DIs have remarkable memories for things like that, and I was an incorrigible smart###, always "getting smoked." So, our black hat started calling me "Lucky," and it stuck rather rapidly. That name followed me all over the world - even when I went to Antarctica, I got to McMurdo, and was greeted with "Hey, Lucky!"

I still use it from time to time. "Lucky." "Sparks." "Revenant." "Lazarus." Various unprintable appellations. I have many monikers...

 

[trentbob]

Well hope our advice was helpful to you, you have some pretty good contact information given to you by the moderator so you can find a local Club who will have information and support regarding obtaining your license and preparing to take the exam.

 

[WA0CBW]

Lucky

I am a VE for our radio club. PM me and I will try to answer any questions you may have.
Bill

 

[JDKelley]

Lucky

I am a VE for our radio club. PM me and I will try to answer any questions you may have.
Bill

Thank you - got your message, and answered it.

 

[bharvey2]

I'm a little north of you but am familiar with this group:

SBARA South Bay Amateur Radio Association, KU6S

KU6S SBARA South Bay Amateur Radio Association,SBARA is a non-profit corporation which was formed October 29, 1976, to serve the amateur radio community in the Tri-city area of (Fremont, Newark, and Union City) California.

www.sbara.org

They are close enough to you that you could test with them. Contact them and see what kind of help they can provide for you and your wife.

 

[JDKelley]

I'm a little north of you but am familiar with this group:

SBARA South Bay Amateur Radio Association, KU6S

KU6S SBARA South Bay Amateur Radio Association,SBARA is a non-profit corporation which was formed October 29, 1976, to serve the amateur radio community in the Tri-city area of (Fremont, Newark, and Union City) California.

www.sbara.org

They are close enough to you that you could test with them. Contact them and see what kind of help they can provide for you and your wife.

Not that far north, if you're in Fremont/Newark! I'm in Milpitas, 237/880. (Literally. I could throw a baseball right into the middle of the intersection from the roof of my apartment building...)

 

[bharvey2]

I'm in San Leandro but figured that would be close enough to you. While I'm not a member of the club, I've heard that they're a pretty good group. I hope they can help you out. Maybe once you get you're license we can have a chat on the radio. There are a number of repeaters that are within our area. We may even be able to do a simplex (radio to radio, no repeater involved) QSO (contact between stations) if conditions are right.

 

[JDKelley]

Thank you - I'm checking them out, and I may have to attend a meeting or two to "get my feet wet," as it were. I doubt they'll mind that I'm just South of Fremont... So what I'm only a scannist and SWL'er?

 

[trentbob]

So what I'm only a scannist and SWL'er?

They will not label you as anything other than someone who's interested in becoming a ham radio operator and wanting to join and contribute to their Club.

Clubs are always looking for active members, there are so many activities that go on with a club such as annual hamfest, Online Auctions, field days, holiday parties, specific Nets, contests and open houses. The more participation by the members, the better.

 

[bharvey2]

So what I'm only a scannist and SWL'er?

The radio hobby has a variety of interests and they don't all include ham radio.There are members on this site that are only scanner and SWL enthusiasts. Why heck, once you get to know them, they're just like real people or so I'm told.

 

[RichM]

The advice to visit/join your local club and work with a VE (volunteer examiner) is probably going to help you the most.

I just took my Technician exam this weekend and one of the tricks that helped me pass was to use ”association” on some (not all!) questions that were giving me trouble. For instance, question T8A08 What is the approximate bandwidth of a Single Side Band (SSB) voice signal? Answer: 3kHz. My method was 3 letters in SSB = 3kHz, much easier to remember than the technical explanation. Another example question T5C02 What is the unit of Capacitance? Answer: the Farad. My method was 3 A’s in capacitance, farad is the only answer with any A’s in the word. Again, difficult to understand the theory and memorize foreign words but fairly easy using association.

Of course this won’t work with every question but for a handful that give you trouble it may help with your comprehension. Remember you only need 74%, I bet you already have enough incidental knowledge to get 50% so you really only need to work on a small percentage of your weaker subjects.

Another piece of good advice that was given to me was to read a study book. I used The No Nonsense Technician Class License Study Guide (free download). Instead of trying to memorize it, just read it through once at your own pace without worrying about retention. When you finish it, then read it again. You will be surprised at how much you remember from your first go through and you will recognize what areas are giving you trouble.

Hope this helps. When I started studying a month ago I could barely get 50%, to my surprise I passed with a score of 100%.

 

[JDKelley]

The advice to visit/join your local club and work with a VE (volunteer examiner) is probably going to help you the most.

I just took my Technician exam this weekend and one of the tricks that helped me pass was to use ”association” on some (not all!) questions that were giving me trouble. For instance, question T8A08 What is the approximate bandwidth of a Single Side Band (SSB) voice signal? Answer: 3kHz. My method was 3 letters in SSB = 3kHz, much easier to remember than the technical explanation. Another example question T5C02 What is the unit of Capacitance? Answer: the Farad. My method was 3 A’s in capacitance, farad is the only answer with any A’s in the word. Again, difficult to understand the theory and memorize foreign words but fairly easy using association.

Of course this won’t work with every question but for a handful that give you trouble it may help with your comprehension. Remember you only need 74%, I bet you already have enough incidental knowledge to get 50% so you really only need to work on a small percentage of your weaker subjects.

Another piece of good advice that was given to me was to read a study book. I used The No Nonsense Technician Class License Study Guide (free download). Instead of trying to memorize it, just read it through once at your own pace without worrying about retention. When you finish it, then read it again. You will be surprised at how much you remember from your first go through and you will recognize what areas are giving you trouble.

Hope this helps. When I started studying a month ago I could barely get 50%, to my surprise I passed with a score of 100%.

As I said, I'm pretty strong on the electronic and radio theory, that's no real problem. It's just all the new technology involved that throws me. I need to get out the flashcards and start drilling again (wife needs to revise anyhow, and that usually means I'm involved in revising with her, so we both learn more. But, the electronics and radio theory I can probably teach her from memory, although I still sometimes have to make the shift into metric, and remember that light travels 300,000 km/s, not 186,282 mi/s... I'm old, okeh? ) The association as a mnemonic is helpful - that was how I passed my medic test 'way back when. You'd be amazed how many word-association mnemonics ther are in the medical field (stuff similar to how you remembered the names of the Great Lakes - HOMES=Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. But that was 35 years and a dozen concussions ago...

As I said, I do have the Dummies book, but I may grab that one that you mention as well, and see how well I can retain it. I figure if I can get to where I'm consistently scoring 85% or higher on each section, I'll be ready for the test. How long that takes? Quien sabe? Depends on how well I can soak up the new stuff.

I really should have done this 30 years ago...

 

[Coffeemug]

I really should have gotten my ham ticket years ago, but one thing being another, I never got the opportunity to sit for the exam.

Then, I suffered a TBI in 2005, and it's screwing with my memory. The ham know-how I have is ca. 1999/2000, and my basic electronics and maths are solid. But, I can't seem to retain on the new tech.

I'm studying like mad trying to get this drilled into my thick skull (don't laugh -it saved my life!) but I have a bear of a time managing to retain it I know a lot of disabled people go into amateur radio - is there any way I can get a consideration for memory dysfunction when sitting for my exam? No-Code Tech is about as far as I intend to go - I just want to get my feet good & wet and chew the fat with people every now & again (like when I'm on the road, for instance.) And not get any nattering from anyone when I go into an uncivilised state that is going to whine about my having a radio scanner in my truck...

Please advise. (I'm also trying to get my wife to get her ham ticket - her memory dysfunction isn't as bad as mine, but hers is due to being in an induced coma for two months with COVID in '21. It's uphill work for us...)

Lucky

I maybe a little here, but yeah there's plenty of resources out for individuals that require extra help. I would take advice of those who already given you, their advice. You could look Courage Handi Ham and they have programs that go beyond Amateur Radio as a Hobby. But their primary goal, is to help anyone with a disability obtain the necessary equipment to get their license and get on the air.