Overall the information is accessible and the site navigates logically and smoothly. An outstanding educational site from a gifted and eloquent individual. I have found that the use of graphics in an educational presentation, or in any presentation of a large amount of material, the use of graphics is essential or you will lose the reader. This is especially true with the Amateur Radio subjects. People do not want to read about it if they cannot see and visualize it as well.
Visualization is a very important part of learning.
But I guess the most important reason for using graphics on our web site is that it is supposed to be fun. On a professional note, as an experienced and professional web designer, I found your site rather hard to navigate and hard to follow. In my opinion the text causes your eyes to dart around the graphics quite a bit. But as you said, to each his own and not everyone feels the same way - which is good, because it makes for an excellent variety of web pages. Also, with the vast array of connection speeds that are out there, it is impossible to set a loading time standard for a page, because what loads in 15 seconds one day may take 3 minutes on another, depending on your connection.