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 Previous: David Clark, KB6TAM, is Back on the High Seas |  Next: The K7VVV Solar Update |
By Bob Mauro, KZ2G
April 19, 2001
Being a ham with a disability isn't much different from being a ham without one. Disabled or not, hams love to communicate. With a little help from his friends, Bob Mauro, KZ2G, progressed from SWL to CBer to Extra class ham.
The seeds of Amateur Radio were planted in me back in the 1950s. As a kid, I watched Captain Midnight on TV. I always wanted to make a communicator device as he did--from a piece of wire, a spoon and some tape. In 1960 I bought a National NC-60 communication receiver and listened to broadcasts from countries as far away as Russia.
 Bob Mauro, KZ2G, with 2-meter rig in hand, departs his van mobile to operate wheelchair mobile. |
By 1961 everyone was talking about Citizens Band radio. You could talk to friends in your town and beyond! That year I was 14 and flat on my back for nine months, thanks to childhood polio and two spinal fusions. I was homebound, and I needed friends. I paid my $4 license fee to the FCC and became KBI-1409. Then I bought a CB transceiver--with a horrible regenerative receiver--and one crystal for channel 15.
At first I used an indoor whip antenna, but later I got a ground-plane and then a Super Magnum antenna up on my roof, in Queens, New York. I also had a number of great CB buddies.
In 1963 I was still pretty much homebound. Father Joe O'Brien, our parish's priest, came to visit and talked to me about the wonders of Amateur Radio. Father Joe had a three-element beam on a 30-foot tower behind the church rectory. He operated Collins equipment and loved CW. Like me, he was left-handed. So he let me borrow his left-handed, chrome-plated Vibroplex bug and a tone oscillator. He gave me a few code records, and I began to study CW. I also listened to the W1AW code practice sessions from the ARRL on 20 meters and earned my 20-WPM Code Proficiency Certificate. At the same time, I studied radio theory and earned my Novice license, WN2UHY, and soon my General Class, becoming WB2UHY.
My first transmitter as a General Class ham was a 40-meter, 15-W crystal-controlled CW rig that I built in my basement. I had a 40-meter dipole on the roof. It was exciting contacting people as far away as Arizona, but I still enjoyed talking to my local CB friends.
Later I bought a used Heathkit Apache transmitter. It drifted and chirped like crazy. I then built a Heathkit 6-meter "Sixer" transceiver. These units (there was a "Tener," a "Sixer" and a "Twoer"--Ed) were called Benton Harbor lunch boxes because of the lunch-box style handle on top and the fact that Heath was headquartered in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
Finally, my New York City Board of Education home instruction teacher told me he had a friend who could get me a new, rock-steady ham receiver at cost. Still, I wasn't making very many local ham friends.
 KZ2G's home operating position. His respirator, similar to Christopher Reeve's, is always at hand. |
In 1967 my homebound days ended when I entered Hofstra University on Long Island. The following year I helped start the Hofstra University disability advocacy group--People United in Support of the Handicapped, or PUSH. At one of our PUSH meetings, in 1973, I met Armand Bakalian, WB2ZEI, a blind ham. By the mid-1970s, CB radio was so polluted by jammers and jerks that I sold my final CB rig. Thanks to WB2ZEI, I had discovered 2 meters.
Bakalian mentioned The Long Island Mobile Amateur Radio Club (LIMARC) and other repeater groups like WB2ROL/R. The repeater traffic sounded like CB's better days--when there was civility and camaraderie on the band. In late 1973, I bought my first 2-meter rig, a crystal-controlled transceiver. Hams I met on the LIMARC repeaters helped me when my van broke down and when my motorized wheelchair ran out of juice. They even put up antennas for me. Today, my many ham friends are never far away. All I have to do is reach out and hit the push-to-talk button.
There is a 2-meter transceiver in my van. I also have a dualband H-T on my motorized wheelchair and a dualband antenna up about 30 feet at home. Just below it is what's left of my three-element beam. I use the radiator element as my 20, 15, and 10-meter antenna. There is no rotor, and the "dipole" is positioned to work Europe and the southwest. I also use a mobile whip on 30 meters. On the low bands I've used all sorts of rigs, including Drake Twins and a Kenwood 540.
 KZ2G dressed as his favorite real and imaginary hero. |
In 1983 I decided to study for my Advanced and Extra-class licenses. I got the Extra in July 1983 and became KZ2G. Then I got interested in computers. So in 1984 I sold the Kenwood to buy my first computer, a Tandy 64K Color Computer. However, I missed the HF bands, and soon after, around 1985, I borrowed a Ten-Tec OMNI A from the HandiHams organization. The following year I bought the rig, using it for years until replacing it with a Scout and the OMNI VI Plus. I send code with an iambic paddle and my "left-handed" VibroPlex Deluxe Original Bug. Have you guessed that my favorite band is 2 meters? But I like CW a lot.
If you're disabled and want to become a ham, or need manuals, study guides or tapes, adaptive equipment or gear, contact Handi Hams. Visit their Web site or write to Courage Handi Hams, COURAGE CENTER, 3915 Golden Valley Rd., Golden Valley, Minnesota 55422.
Give me a call on 146.85 MHz. if you're ever in the Levittown, New York, area. I often monitor the LIMARC repeater. If you'd like to set up a schedule, send me an e-mail. Perhaps we can meet on 20-meter SSB. Pick a frequency and time.
Editor's note: Bob Mauro, KZ2G, lives in Levittown, New York and has been a ham for 36 years. Mauro is a self-employed artist and writer. He has also written plays for student actors. Check his web site for a complete list of his work and his ham activities.
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