Getting started on HF, with hearing problems.
This may not be a normal post for HF as these aren't really technical questions.
I have had a technician class license for about 4 years. I got started in radio when about 10-11 years ago on CB as way to talk to my friends while driving, and I have been playing with radio off and ever since. I feel like I have a solid foundational knowledge of radio and I am interested in getting my general or higher license and exploring HF. I have no problem contacting repeaters or running DMR on VHF, UHF, I have designed custom antenna mounts and done the proper grounding. I deal with radio sometimes in my work as well configuring and playing with P25 and other systems.
I really would like to get into HF and experiment with antenna setups and long range contacts and maybe even trying some CW. But I have 2 big problems, as I see them.
My only friends who are interested in radio live 5k miles away, and aren't licensed. I am encouraging one to get licensed but he probably wont be able to do that anytime soon.
I have a hearing disorder that makes radios very hard for me to use. I love the science and I love listening but I have a short auditory memory about 5-6 numbers or words. I can hold and understand conversations but long strings of commands, instructions, or things like call-signs take me a while to process. This means most of my radio is very experimental I do communications tests with my self either in simplex on .1 watt so i don't disturb others (still transmitting call sign mind you) or if I do contact a repeater I am talking to one of my other radios to see if I can go to the repeater and back essentially. I cannot decode Morse code at all. My disorder means that if you spell a word out (longer than 4-5 letters) i cant understand it as forget the first part by the time the last letter is read.
I live in a good area for POTA and SOTA and I'm interested in this but I'm worried people with be frustrated with me as an activator if I cant understand/copy their call sign and communicate well. On the other hand I want to get over this fear and work on my auditory communication skills. In my years as a HAM I have only spoken to another person once and I had to ask them for their call sign 3 times as they told me their name and call sign and I couldn't remember them long enough to right it down in one go.
Any advice? Maybe a packet mode or how to be courteous on the air so I can actually start making contacts?
P.S. poor audio quality makes this so much harder.