What Use Is An F-call?

What use is an F-call? Having been an amateur for a number of years and having participated in many outings, camp-outs, field days, public events and private portable operations, you'd think that the art of packing is something that I have down to a tee. If only it were so. Personal adventures included forgetting the little connection cable that joins the head of my radio with the body, forgetting to pack an N-type to PL259 adapter, forgetting to pack an antenna for DX operation, forgetting a log book, forgetting the power cable and I'm sure there are more things that I've forgotten. You might take away from this that I'm a forgetful person. I'm not sure that I am. I think what happens is that I become complacent. I've been mobile so many times and I've had to pack my gear for each outing, that I think that I've got it all. This complacency sneaks into other aspects of the hobby also. I participate in a weekly net from my home, also known as my QTH, where I use the same radio, plugged into the same aeri

What use is an F-call? Having a call sign is a personal identity. For some, much thought has gone into the combination of letters, for others, like myself, it was assigned randomly. The letters that make up your call sign conform to specific requirements. The first part of the call, the prefix is the country and state identifier. In my case, VK6 means Western Australia. The rest of the call, the suffix, follows rules as well. The foundation license has four letters and starts with the letter F, followed by three letters, making up what is often referred to as the F-call. If you have a standard license, the suffix is three letters, of which the first letter is a H, L, M, N, P or V. The letter R is reserved for Beacons and Repeaters. The advanced license has either two or three letters and uses the remaining letters. So with that information you can figure out what license class a station can operate under when you hear a call sign on air. If you're a holder of an advanced license, you can choose to st

What use is an F-call? If you've had a license for a while it becomes harder to remember what it was like just after you received it. Fortunately I get to speak with new comers to the hobby on a regular basis, so my memory of my own experience gets refreshed regularly. Getting on air is as simple as getting a radio, right? I've talked about the process of purchasing a radio in the past, and while it's important, I'll skip past that step today and look at what else needs to happen. There is an assumption that your radio works, that you have an antenna and that you've got it all set-up and working. I realise that this in itself is not a trivial process, but all the puzzle pieces need to be there for this Amateur Radio magic to actually happen. Getting on air is simple, press the push to talk and open your mouth, right? If you have a VHF or UHF radio, the likely spot where you'll do that is a local repeater, a place that will over time attract other Amateurs who use it to talk to each other, to get in touc

What use is an F-call? Amateur Radio is everywhere, sometimes in surprising places. You might recall that a while ago I mentioned that I was looking into space communications, specifically I was interested in the communications coming from the Voyager probes. In 2006 a group of AMSAT-DL Amateurs in Germany used a 20m dish at Bochum to track and receive data from Voyager 1. In case you're wondering, that transmission was on 8.415 GHz, so not something you might achieve with your hand-held, unless you build a transverter in your spare time. Closer to home in time, ISEE-3, or currently known as the International Cometary Explorer ICE will be visiting Earth on its heliocentric orbit in August 2014. It's using two 5 Watt S-band transponders and NASA cannot talk to it any more because the equipment that was part of the Deep Space Network that was able to, was decommissioned in 1999. If you're interested, you can have a go, in fact, all the specifications are published online, and if you're curious, AMSAT-DL has

What use is an F-call? As you might know, I'm a great fan of contesting. I know that you may think that this is not for you and I respect that, but I'd like to share why I think contesting is a fantastic way to learn about operating in difficult conditions. If you're an athlete, you try and expose yourself to different environments, you subject yourself to harsh weather, adverse conditions, strong competition, as much as you can, so when you actually compete, you'll be prepared. We like to think of Amateur Radio as a hobby, that in case of emergency is able to step in and help out. It's true, Amateurs have been helping in emergencies for a century, it's one of the conditions of your licence, it's a given that this is something that you need to know about. We do portable field days, we test our kit in field conditions with batteries, temporary antennas, weather and other non-standard environments. Sometimes we even do a contest and get extra points for portable operation. That's all well and good, but con

What use is an F-call? Recently there was a contest that looked interesting. I participate in contests as a way to speak to many stations, to add countries to my DX list and to learn about how other people run their station. It's a great opportunity to have access to a large number of stations in a short period of time. As part of my preparation for this particular contest, I spent some time reading the rules, so that when I got on air, I'd know what to expect as the exchange, what the other station would say and what they expected in return, to learn what the point scoring system was and what I could expect during the contest. The points were allocated in such a way that contacts were only scored between me and the country that originated the contest, in this case, if I made a contact with a station in Canada or the United States, there'd be a point to be made, but if I made a contact with Venezuela, or with Kenya, or the United Arab Emirates, there'd be no points. Just so I'm not mistaken, this is not a

What use is an F-call? When you first start as an Amateur, you get on air, you have a wander up and down the bands and you have access to so many frequencies that you don't know where to start. If you talk to other Amateurs you'll learn that the bands have more and lesser levels of activity at different parts of the band. For example, the 10m band SSB runs from 28.3 until 29.1, a wide range to play in. When you play around longer you'll notice that most of the activity is around 28.5. Of course as contests hit the airwaves, you'll find the band full of people all over the place, but normally on a day-to-day basis, you'll find them clustered around various frequencies. As you start, you're likely to start calling CQ. As an F-call with low power this can be rewarding, but only for the very lucky and patient. More success happens if you find yourself on or around QRP calling frequencies, but overall, if you're like me, you're likely to spend less time calling CQ. After a while I found myself hunting for stro

What use is an F-call? During the week I was spending a little time with an experienced amateur and I lamented that getting ferrite cores locally was a trial in futility. I'd spent hours attempting to find a reliable supplier and as of yet have not actually succeeded. I want to experiment with ferrite cores to build some antennas and to test different balun designs, seeing that the Internet is full of them, each with different opinions on what is good and bad, what works best and how to magically make something work with a balun. Of course I can read all I want, but actually getting your hands dirty is generally a better way to get a feel for what happens and what's needed. It was suggested that I could make an equivalent solution, creating a choke using coax cable, 6 inches, 6 windings was the suggestion. Since then I've also found 4 and 4 and 8 and 8 and other variations. I should note that I've not yet built one with all the other distractions in my life, but I'm feeling much less worried about locati

What use is an F-call? Curiosity is a wonderful attribute to have. While sometimes it kills cats, amateurs are better off using curiosity to learn new skills. Recently I had the opportunity to discuss in detail the differences between two radios which I thought I knew intimately, a Yaesu 857D which I own and a Yaesu 817ND, which a friend owned and until then I thought I knew just as well. Not so. We discussed in detail what the differences between these radios were from a functionality perspective and from a user experience angle. It's not the first time I've looked from my radio to that of a fellow amateur. I've looked at other brands, other models, other installations, even of the same radio, and each time I come away having learnt a little more about their set-up and often in passing I learn a little about my own gear. While you're likely to have a fair share of Holden vs. Ford type discussions, often it's simple to get beyond that by asking the other person what it was that decided for them to acqui

What use is an F-call? Over the past few months I've had the opportunity to operate several special event calls commemorating or celebrating several different activities, from anniversaries to special one-off events, all with the aim to get on air and make some contacts. Making contacts is a pretty straight forward affair. It's exactly the same as making contacts with your own callsign with one notable difference, logging or the making a record of the time, band and mode of a contact. As everything in Amateur Radio, there is a multitude of solutions to be had, from logging on paper, to logging in special books, to logging on a computer using a variety of software, through to automatic logging. Each has their benefits and hindrances. Logging is an activity that is used for a range of activities, so some solutions are catered specifically to those activities, from making casual contacts through to keeping track of which countries you've worked, operating in a competition or operating a DXpedition. This mean

What use is an F-call? During the week I had the opportunity to work a rare DX-station using the antenna farm of one of the clubs I'm a member of. The 10m, 6 element beam at a height of about 10m or so worked great with my radio and the contact was made within a couple of minutes. I then got the idea to try a different antenna, a friend has a 10m, 5 element beam in storage in his shed. We went to a local lake, put the beam together and strapped it to a 3m mast and guyed the contraption with some rope. Using the Arm-Strong rotator, we managed to pick up the same DX station and made another contact. Both contacts were done with 5 Watts SSB, using my 857d and a battery. The second set-up was on a grassed area, the car was parked under a Morton Bay Fig tree, nice and shady, with little local interference, except that all of a sudden, around 3:30pm, we found ourselves surrounded by mothers and children. Turns out that there was a local school, not 200m from our location. Wide-eyed children plucked up the cou

What use is an F-call? Last week I talked about computers and the Foundation License. There is a blanket perception being perpetuated that computers, radios and your Foundation License don't mix, are not allowed and if you were to be so foolhardy as to connect your computer to your radio, you'd be subject to all manner of retribution from the ACMA. Most of this is based on hear-say and misunderstanding. There's nothing stopping you from connecting your computer to your radio and for example have it read the current frequency and mode and store that in your logging software. There's also nothing wrong with using the computer to change the frequency and mode on your radio, when you click on a DX cluster entry and it changes the settings on your radio, or if you were to use it to deal with the Doppler shift to match an overflying satellite. Computers can also be used to set-up memories, CTCSS codes, preferences and other settings supported by your radio. It can be used to show waterfall displays and to decod

What use is an F-call? The Amateur Foundation License in Australia has a range of obligations and restrictions that differentiate it from the other Amateur Licenses. The most visible of those is a limit on power of 10 Watts, the bands that are allowed, 80m, 40m, 15m, 10m, 2m and 70cm. Another restriction is related to the use of a computer and your radio. The interpretation is often made along the lines of: "You cannot use a computer connected to your radio." ... and that's simply not the case. The current LCD, as of January 2014, says: "The licensee [..] must not operate an amateur station using automatic mode or computer controlled mode." And it says: "The licensee [..] must not operate an amateur station that is directly connected to a public telecommunications network. It adds in italics a note: "An amateur foundation station may be indirectly connected to a public communications network through a gateway operated by another licensee." This means that you can

What use is an F-call? Nobody works in isolation, and neither do I. This weekly segment has now been running for 130 or so episodes and in that time I've received a variety of feedback about my attempt at making a contribution to Amateur Radio. I remember when a random stranger walked up to me when I attended the WIA Mildura conference in 2012. He told me that he used my segment in training new F-calls and that he was most impressed. Last week, another random member of the HAM community told me that this segment made him return to Amateur Radio and upgrade his license. I've received cards and unexpected Christmas gifts, emails, phone-calls and other amazing acts of generosity which leave me quite at a loss for words. Thank you. On the other end of the spectrum, an anonymous group of our community uses web-forms to write all manner of interesting comments. Let me quote verbatim one of the tamer ones: "When is Onno going to upgrade to Standard or Advanced licence and get rid of his awful callsign. He

What use is an F-call? In passing a few weeks ago I mentioned listening 10-up. It's also a slogan I have on a t-shirt, it says: "I'm not ignoring you, I'm listening 10 up." So what does that mean and what do you do when a station tells you that they are listening "up", or "down"? If you're a DX station and you've got a desirable call, it's likely that you'll generate a pile-up, that is, lots of different stations all calling at the same time, trying to get the attention of the single DX station. As more and more stations join in the fray, the remote station will get drowned out by eager hunters who try to call early, or try to call late in an attempt to get the attention of the DX station. The impact of this is cumulative. Over time, the DX station will get buried entirely in spurious transmissions, so making a contact becomes harder and harder, sometimes impossible. I've talked about the rhythm of a contact. If it's all working as expected, the rhythm will help you synchro

What use is an F-call? There are many different ways that you can make contacts using HF. Over the past weeks I've talked about picking your band and frequency, about matching the rhythm of the other station, about setting up next to a big station, about picking and choosing, rather than sitting on one frequency calling CQ. Another technique you can use to make contacts is to listen for local stations, to hear whom they're talking to and at the end of their QSO with a distant station, which you must also be able to hear, otherwise it just defeats the purpose, asking for a QSO with the same remote station. It's likely that the local station will hear you much louder than the remote station and many locals will help you out with the contact. Don't expect them to help, they're having fun, just like you, but be gracious when they do help. In this Internet connected world of impersonal email, it's easy to slip into the same mindset, anonymous communication, but the Amateur Radio community is small. You're like

What use is an F-call? Making contacts on HF is a challenge. Over the past few weeks I've talked about some of the things you can do to make your HF life simpler. At no time have I advocated sitting on a frequency calling CQ. You could do that if you liked, but there are times and places to be more successful in that endeavour also. If you feel the need to call CQ, then pick a frequency that'll be visited by others. Make sure you're not at the end of the band where no-one goes, rather pick a spot next to another big fish. Leave a gap and set up shop next door. Think of it as fishing with bait. The big station is the bait, you're the little minnow on the side, easy to pick off if you're heard, ignored if not. The nice thing about being next to a big station is that people are slowing down to hear it and in doing so might also hear you, which of course is the aim of the game. If I look back at the contacts I've made so far, calling CQ is the least effective way of making a contact. It's not a waste of time

What use is an F-call? I recently talked about making contact with a station on HF. Getting a feel for the other station is very important because it will make you understand when the other person is listening and when they're not. It will let you know to what kind of station they're responding to, and when they do respond, how they respond. I recently made a contact with T33A. I used 5 Watts on a rotatable dipole, 15m. I listened to the station for a good 10 minutes before I made my first call. They gave me lots of information about the contact long before I opened my mouth. It was one of the last days they were operating and it was bedlam on the frequency, lots of stations wanting to make this contact. The station told me that they were listening 10 up, so I configured my radio to deal with that. Then I worked out what the rhythm of the operator was, got a feel for how they replied and when I was ready, I called my callsign. I was floored that they came back with "the VK6 QRP station" on my fir

What use is an F-call? Recently I talked about making contacts on HF. Picking the band, the time of day, the right location on the band and looking for a nice loud station are part of the equation, but there are other considerations to be had. If you consider a station transmitting with 1.5 kilowatt on a 5 element Yagi and you're at home with your radio, you tune around and you find this station to be the loudest on the band, you're likely to try to talk to them. Sometimes this even works. However, many times, in fact, most of the time, this is pretty hard to do for a number of reasons. The first reason that this is hard is because their strength is a combination of lots of power and lots of antenna gain. If you transmit back, the only thing going for you is their antenna gain, but their power will likely distort your perception of how well they'll hear you. If you find a station that tells someone else that they're running high power, then make sure that their signal to you is banging the S-meter agains

What use is an F-call? I've heard it expressed that working on HF using an F-call is hard graft. No-one hears you, they don't talk to you, they ignore you, nothing works, it's all too hard. I've heard F-calls tell me that they've called CQ for hours and no-one wants to play. I understand that HF is challenging, but it's not impossible. There are a number of things going on that make that a HF contact requires more effort than talking on a 2m repeater. Making contacts on HF requires that you understand what's going on, that some of the things that you're thinking are likely not true and some of your expectations are wrong. I'm not the oracle of amateur radio, that would be a sorry state of affairs, but I can share some of the things I've learnt. Finding someone to talk to on-air is the simplest way to make a contact. That is, you scan up and down the bands, nice and slowly, to find a station that's nice and loud. If they're not moving your S-meter, it's unlikely that you're going to move theirs, or even ma