Blind Glasgow Pensioner Broadcast to Mark 150th Year of RNIB
/Blind Radio operator Terry Robinson, a 68 year old pensioner from Glasgow is marking the 150th anniversary of the RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) using the special event callsign GR150NIB.
Terry has been a radio enthusiast since childhood, and hasn’t allowed his blindness to stop him pursuing his love of communicating over the airwaves. The pensioner’s main interest is to contact others using special call signs, and he has already logged more than 2,000 contacts.
His passion for all things technical provided the oppotunity to be introduced to Amateur Radio at school, and he quickly gained his full licence in 1967 and started making contacts in America.
“What amateur radio did for me as a teenager was liberate me from stigma, being seen as blind and different by people I didn’t know.
I could go on air and talk to people and, unless they asked a question which I couldn’t answer without declaring that I was blind, nobody needed to know or care. And that helped me a lot as a teenager. In recognition of RNIB’s 150th anniversary, I thought it would be fun to get a special call-sign, so I sought GR150NIB. Ofcom doesn’t like issuing these call-signs unless we can persuade them that they’re for an event of national significance and are likely to broaden interest in the hobby.”
The RNIB, founded in 1868, has improved the lives of countless blind Scots.
