In this issue you will find:
- Thank you, thank you!
- At headquarters: Holiday closings, magazine digest for December
- Volunteer hours needed - now you can send them direct!
- Avery's QTH: New kid on the block
- Another opportunity to confess to being a ham
- SKYWARN recognition day coming up soon
- Elmer: Finding a CW Decoder program
- CQ web update and link to W2VU column - read it!
- Consumer Vision published by a ham
- Free screenreader
Greetings from my work-at-home office and ham shack.
Photo: Diane, WD9DNQ, has her Extra Class license and enjoys being a net control station. Volunteers help to make it possible.
Here in North America, we have a tradition of celebrating a day of thanksgiving in the autumn season. Thanksgiving Day comes at the end of the harvest season, when all of the crops have been brought in from the fields. It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada. What that means, of course, is that this Thursday, November 22, the Handiham offices will be closed for the holiday. We will remain closed through the Friday and the weekend so that staff and volunteers can enjoy a long weekend with their families and friends. That doesn't mean that we are going to stay away from the ham radio stations, though! Please feel free to check into the daily EchoLink net as time and family commitments allow. I am hoping to sneak into the basement and turn on the rig a few times myself!
Harvest festivals are common in many cultures around the world, but thankfulness should be a year-around thing. We are thankful for our wonderful Handiham volunteers each and every day. They remain the core of the Handiham program, doing the organizing, building, designing, reading, tape production, teaching, and so much more throughout the entire year. Where would we be without them? "Hams helping hams" has long been our motto, and it represents the very best in amateur radio.
In the upcoming print edition of the Handiham World, which comes out next month, we will tell you about a cooperative project to help Diane, WD9DNQ, to operate her HF rig. The story is one in which volunteers come together to make a station accessible by voice command. Getting hams with disabilities on the air, making friends, helping others... we are truly thankful for our volunteers!
Patrick Tice
wa0tda@arrl.net
Handiham Manager
