The Philip B. Petersen Collection Broadcast August 1, 1990

     Since she was a teenager, radio amateur Gayle Sabonaitis, WA1OPN, has lived in total darkness and silence.  But she talks with her fingers to a world that knows nothing of her handicap.
     Each evening she crawls to a corner of her apartment where she sends international Morse code.  There she has the world of amateur radio in her hand, even though she cannot see, cannot hear and cannot walk.  Gayle has a full time job, reads Braille magazines and holds the highest grade, Extra Class license granted by the Federal Communications Commission.  She has been blind since she was one and a half years old, deaf since 15.  Progressively she has lost her equilibrium so she must crawl or glide in a wheelchair.  Her senses have been taken away by a relentless nervous disorder that has baffled doctors.
     "I have a keen sense of smell, taste and touch," she says.  "They take the place of my sight and hearing."  Since she cannot hear, Gayle uses a transducer to understand the dot and dashes of the Morse code.  This is small loudspeaker that was modified by Bud Overtheim, KV2U to accommodate the Morse code vibrations. She places her hand on it and reads the incoming code by feeling the vibrations.  She is an expert radio amateur sending and receiving at least 28 words per minute.  "I hear every word people say with my fingers," she says.  "I hear through my hands; without amateur radio I would be psychologically dead."
     Gayle speaks normally, but communicating without her Morse code is painstaking.  She can understand the spoken word by holding her fingers to the person's lips.  Her mother talks to her by tracing letters on the palm of her hand.  She spent most of her childhood at the Perkins School for the Blind near Boston.  There she completed three years of college through correspondence with the University of Wisconsin.  Gayle wanted to become a teacher.  Even though it became clear that she could never teach in a public school, she helps other handicapped people in her spare time to read Braille and operate amateur radio sets.
     Previously Gayle was told she could not become a radio amateur.  But she persevered and is enjoying getting on the air using Morse code with thousands of radio amateurs, most of whom know nothing of her handicaps.

August 1, 1990

** Broadcasts recordings preserved and presented here by Mr. Robert Buss and Mr. Bernie Ricciardi, Phil's friends and fellow Marconi Chapter 138 QCWA members **

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