Been away from Ham radio for a long time!

[K5EVR]

I have been away for a long time.  The reason I left (but kept my license up) was because I have great difficulity in hearing all the letters in a call sign.  Granted some folks talk very fast and that is a problem as well.  I would get some of the call sign but not all.  You feel pretty stupid having to as for a repeat several times.  I just thought I would ask if any device is available that could display the call sign.  Conversation was never a problem....thanks for any help...chuck

[N5LRZ]

You might try a google for HandiHams...an organization that helps handicapped amateurs.  Perhaps they know of device somewhere that will do what you are looking for.

AND you might try MFJ Enterprises as well as other comapnies that market vocal Enhancement Devices.  Perhaps someone in the amateur club near you has used such a device and can give you some first hand experience--AND PERHAPS a little personal demonstration accompanied by a cup of good coffee, and of course some past memorable contacts enhanced with selected emblishments (of course )

[WB2WIK]

Chuck, you're not unusual at all.

I'm pretty active and hardly a day goes by that I don't work somebody who asks me for my callsign about ten times before they get it.  And it's not because of weak signals or static, it's because they just don't hear that well.  I never think anything of it.

Most people will be happy to work with you on this.

WB2WIK/6

[AA4PB]

Ask stations to repeat their call sign phonetically. Once you become familiar with the phonetic alphabet that should help a good deal. Most hams are pretty understanding and willing to cooperate if you let them know what is happening.

Another idea might be to get into PSK31 or other digital modes where everything is printed on the screen.

I think you'll have a hard time finding a machine that can reliably copy the spoken voice and print out the call sign given the different accents, band noise, and QRM (and tuning if running SSB). Your hearing is probably still better than most machines :-)

Don't give up on ham radio yet :-)

[WS4E]

I would suggest PSK31.


Its a computer/digital mode that is hugely popular and I would imagine that it would be not very difficult for a hearing impaired person to use.

[KE4DRN]

hi chuck,

here is an intro to psk31 digital mode

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQpBGh9RMEQ&feature=channel

welcome back !

73 james

[WY3X]

I DEFINITELY sympathize with you! My wife made me go to a hearing specialist because she claimed I didn't hear her well enough. Lucky me- the hearing doc said I had a "notch filter" right at the frequencies my wife speaks at! How lucky could a guy possibly be???

On the other side of the coin, I do have some issues hearing certain frequencies, but all in all I don't consider it much of a handicap. I do have one of those MFJ speech intelligibility enhancers, and some day I'm going to hook it up and see if it makes a difference.

To answer your question- D-Star (I think) is the only voice mode that gives you a readout of the callsign of the station you're talking to, but it's not a very common mode. It's VHF/FM/Digital only. Also, if you get involved in SSTV, when you receive a photo from someone, their callsign will be stamped across it in some manner. Other than that, you're probably looking at keyboard-to-keyboard comms, particularly on HF. PSK-31, RTTY, AMTOR, Hellschreiber (a form of FAX), and Olivia come to mind.

-KR4WM

[N2UGB]

At age 70 my hearing is also somewhat deminished. Essentially tinnitis. I find that cw works well for me. The incoming signal pitch can be controlled at the rig allowing it to fall into my own frequency range. Right where that darn ringing ain't.

GL

[KI4YHE]

I'm often asked from various people to give my sign phonetically, I think nothing of it personally.

We all speak and hear diffrently there are people that for the life of me I just do not understand when everybody around me looks as me as if I'm deaf. Its got to be the tone or accents or maybe ADHD, who knows... but I'm only 26 (it may be 27 now I'm actually confused on this... happens every year... I'll say 26/7 )

There are also times when I'm asked to slowly relate my call phonetically oops. I generally do it phonetically anways even on FM...

73 Kilo India 4 Yankee Hotel Echo

Just music to my ears

I would  suggest looking into changing the pitch of the transmission as that has helped me alot, as well as speaker placment/angle.

[WW5AA]

I'm deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other. I found that a GOOD quality head set worked wonders for me. Now I can almost tell what the Hi Fi gang is saying (:-)

73 de Lindy

[N8UZE]

I have excellent hearing and still sometimes have to ask for a repeat several times even when they use phonetics.  It depends on conditions and the other person's enunciation.  So don't feel bad.  Tell them to slow down and use phonetics.