What Use Is An F-call?

What use is an F-call? Recently I was spending some time with a group of amateurs and we got the urge to fix a local repeater. In the past I'd seen things called cavities, but how they really worked or how you might tune them seemed like a mystery. I can report that it's less of a mystery today than it was last week. I'm yet to understand the full implications, but I learnt something. A repeater is a transmitter and a receiver working on two frequencies. The repeater receiver listens for input on one frequency and transmits it on a different frequency. The frequencies are generally on the same band, a 600 KHz for 2m or 5 MHz for 70cm apart. When the transmitter is sending, some of the signal leaks back into the receiver, making it less able to hear your signal. A cavity acts like a filter. You have a gadget, that looks like a big Pringles can, that filters out the transmit frequency and you connect that to the receiver, in effect making the receiver less able to receive the transmit frequency. The cavit

What use is an F-call? This morning I made three QSO's, that is, three contacts with new stations. People who keyed their microphone for the very first time. The thing is, there is nothing to distinguish them from other amateurs, they sound alike, their call-sign comes out the way you expect it. The only challenge for one of the stations was that they were having some minor issues with their transceiver - they were able to hear me, but I wasn't quite able to catch them. I'd forgotten what the thrill was like to have such a contact and it reminded me of my first on-air interaction. Unfortunately I forgot to write down, actually more accurately, I didn't know to, write down the details. All I can say is that it was on the National Field Day in 2011. I'd put together my first HF antenna - in fact, it's my current HF antenna - it works very well for me - and I was sitting in a park with other amateurs and I made my first contact. I spoke with a Japanese station on 15m. We exchanged a signal report and everyth

What use is an F-call? When you get introduced to Amateur Radio, your likely first step is to get a Foundation License. That's not always been the case. The Foundation License has only been in existence since October 2005. I say only, because Amateur Radio has been around for over a hundred years. For example, the Wireless Institute of Australia, the WIA celebrated its centenary in 2010. There are currently more than 2300 Foundation Licenses active, said in another way over 14% of Amateur Licences are Foundation Licenses. My question is this. If there are more Foundation Licenses as there are Standard Licenses, why don't we hear more of them on-air? Recently I participated in a contest as a QRP station. That means I halved my allowable power from 10 Watts down to 5 Watts to participate to see what the impact might be - given that I'm aiming to contact 100 countries using my F-call and 5 Watts. During the 16 hours I participated in the contest I made contacts with 45 different stations. 80% of those were

What use is an F-call? In the last few minutes I've spoken with an Amateur in Kansas, a couple in Port Pirie and a few in Perth, all within the same conversation. That sums up Amateur Radio for me in a nutshell. Where else can you speak, real-time, with people across the planet, hear their voice, listen to their story and react as it occurs to you? Amateur Radio is many things for different people. It is that way because there is no barrier to entry. If you can pass your test, you can become an Amateur. It means that people come at this hobby with different experiences, different expectations, different skills and different languages. If you've had your license for a little while, you might have gotten to a stage where you wonder, "What Next?" - is this hobby really for me, or is it just another one that I started all excitedly and then got bored with? I cannot stop your boredom, but I can encourage you to have a look around in the vast expanse that represents Amateur Radio. From making contact

What use is an F-call? Having a license, or rather, getting a license is an activity that is relatively simple. I've heard it said that people fear public speaking more than death and zombies. Keying your microphone is about as public as you can get, but compared to public speaking, there is a pay-off. You don't actually have to look at your audience and you can do it from the safety of your bedroom if you so desire. As I've said in the past, I've keyed my microphone many, many times. When you listen to me you might not realise that every time I key my microphone is a first time of sorts all over again. When I talk on air, for example, to start this segment today, I had to take a breath, compose myself and key my microphone and start talking. As an added bonus, I'm reading from a script, so I know when I've made a mistake, even if you don't. As I'm speaking to you now, I have butterflies fluttering through my stomach, I'm wired, and if I'm not careful, I'll sound like a speeding train, talking at a mill

What use is an F-call? Experimentation is what amateur radio is all about, for some amateurs more than for others. For me, it's an integral part of what makes this hobby exciting for me. It may not be your particular cup of tea, but then, amateur radio is different things for different people. As one amateur put it, there are many walks of life represented in the collective known as amateur radio. Back to experimentation. As you may know, I am part of a team of people who put together the news in Western Australia. Last year during HAMfest we put the news to air live, using a bit of kit from here, some kit from there, and bits from everywhere. This year we're working on making the list a little less broad and making our planning experience a little less hectic. One of the biggest issues we had was our microphone set-up. We had some hand-held microphones that worked pretty well, but from a logistics perspective, we had some issues to deal with. One is that a hand-held microphone sort of makes it hard to us

What use is an F-call? Over the past few weeks I've been playing with an Amateur Radio technology that links my work-life and my hobby together. For some, that might be a boon, for me, I have been trying to get out of the office - I work from home - to have a life and Amateur Radio is my escape from the world of Information Technology. Little did I realise at the start that the two go hand in hand. You win some, you lose some. Anyway, the technology I've been playing with is called Echolink. It's a way of linking radios across the Internet which allows you to communicate with Hams across the world, without needing HF, or even a radio for that matter. Before I get too far into this, I should point out that there is a common held misconception that Foundation Licence holders are not allowed to use this technology. This is not true. You are not allowed to hook your computer to your radio, but there's no license condition that prevents you using the set-up that another Ham is running. This means that you canno

What use is an F-call? In my travels across the country, I come in touch with new amateurs on a regular basis. It's an exciting way to find out what brings people to Amateur Radio and it regularly provides brand new insights and ideas about things that people are doing and trying. Often their passionate explanation is accompanied by photocopies of articles, or a website, or a magazine, or a library of information that holds the key to some insight they experienced and went on to expand on. As you might know, I'm a member of the Wireless Institute of Australia. It's an organisation that's been around for over a hundred years and is the oldest Amateur Radio Society in the world. I became a member because I was broadcasting the news in VK6 to help out another amateur who was going on leave and I figured that it would behove me to become a member. Until then I'd asked around about the WIA and was given mixed messages about the benefits of becoming a member. I'm telling you this, not because I want you to become

What use is an F-call? Recently I went looking for a place to set-up my radio during lunch time. The location I've been looking for needs a couple of things. Most importantly, it needs to be reachable within my lunch break - being self-employed, that's a little more flexible for me than for some, but it shouldn't be a 30 minute drive there and another 30 minutes back. For me, the location needs to be near water, accessible by car; I should be able to park next to the water, so my antenna ground-plane can reach the water and it needs to be away from houses with plasma screens. In case you're wondering how my antenna system has been constructed, it's quite simple. I use a 12m squid-pole, think fishing rod on steroids, it's called a Spider-Beam. A local manufacturer made me a steel-plate with a pipe welded to it. I park a wheel of my car on the steel plate, put the squid-pole over the welded pipe and run a piece of wire to the top. At the bottom I have an SGC tuner, an SG-237, which plugs into the wire going

What use is an F-call? In the Amateur Radio Licensing regime before the current one where we have a Foundation License, a Standard License and an Advanced one, there was a requirement to know Morse Code before you could obtain some Amateur Licenses. I don't have the exact details, but suffice to say that Morse Code is no longer a licensing requirement to be able to enjoy Amateur Radio. You'll note that I said that it's no longer a Licencing Requirement, but that doesn't mean that your use of Amateur Radio and your participation within the community wouldn't benefit from knowing the dits and dahs that make up letters, combined making words or codes. For example, when you key a local repeater, not for all, but the majority of them, you'll hear a series of beeps. If you spoke morse, you'd be able to discern what call-sign is being transmitted and you'd know what repeater you were keying up. Across the globe is a network, in-fact multiple networks, of beacons which transmit a series of beeps at different powe

What use is an F-call? Often I talk to fellow amateurs and ask what they've been up in Amateur Radio since I last spoke with them. I'm surprised to report that regularly the response is "nothing much". Digging deeper, it's not that the person hasn't got time, or even a project to do, but more often than not it seems that they're not sure where to start with their idea. Let me give you some examples. One amateur I speak with regularly wants to put a single-person erect-able mast on the back of their ute. Another wants to make a multi-band dipole kit for field-days. Another wants to set-up an ATV repeater and another wants to get on air with HF at home. These examples are real. I'm not naming the amateurs involved - this is not intended to embarrass them. I could list many more, but I won't. Just to make sure. These projects have not been started because of lack of money, or lack of expertise, or time. They have not started because people are not sure where to start. So, riddle me this. In the

What use is an F-call? In the past I've talked about experimentation. It's an activity that lies at the heart of Amateur Radio. In essence, Amateur Radio is a license to experiment. On the face of it, our license is permission to operate radio equipment on certain frequencies and using certain transmission modes, but that's an outcome that came after the experimentation. As an author on Wikipedia puts it, "Throughout the history of amateur radio, we have made significant contributions to science, engineering, industry, and social services. Research by amateur radio operators has founded new industries, built economies, empowered nations, and saved lives in times of emergency." Over the past little while I've heard some Amateurs exclaim that doing something was not allowed, or not done. I've heard people claim exclusive use of a frequency or heard them say that a proposal being made was not suitable for some or other reason. For example, there is nothing saying that a slow-scan 'net cannot be run

What use is an F-call? I've just had a browse through the latest Amateur Radio magazine, read a few stories, looked at a couple of photos and it struck me that there are two types of activities that Amateurs get up to. There's the social activities, where several amateurs, even groups or hordes - hmm is that the word, a horde of amateurs - get together and have a party. They build a station, either on the back of a trailer, a ute, a tent, a mountain, a boat, you name it. They erect, generally more than one, antenna structure, some go over the top and set-up about 15 different antennas - but the passion that underlies all that is held together by the social glue that makes up this hobby. Generally a station built like that has some or other purpose, be it to activate some long lost atoll, or a special event call-sign, a particular day, or event, to memorialise some past history. Any number of different reasons to get together, build stuff and get on-air. The other type of activity is much more insular. Sit

What use is an F-call? You may have noticed over the past little while that I've been talking about off-air activities more than the ones achieved whilst actually sitting behind a radio. It's not because I'm no longer interested in talking about that, it's because of late I've had little opportunity to actually be on-air. Suffice to say, I'm working on it - hi hi. Until now I've only really used my Amateur Radio for making QSO's, that is, making contact with stations and having a quick exchange of signal report, sometimes a description of our respective equipment and perhaps the local weather. Recently I had the opportunity to use it for a slightly different purpose, which gave me a hands-on feel for why we have the protocols we do. Several Amateurs were all gathered in a 50 square km area, all well within VHF range, but out of sight of each other. Within 10 minutes each Amateur on frequency knew where everyone else was and each was heading for the same location. That in itself doesn't sound that remarka

What use is an F-call? It occurred to me recently that there are people listening who don’t yet have a license of any kind. They may be listening with a shortwave receiver, a handheld, on a local CB repeater who relays the news, or they might have downloaded the news from one of the many places that it’s available. I’ve been talking about having an F-call, or Foundation Call, that is, having passed a foundation licence and applied for an amateur radio call-sign. It’s a simple step to take and one that is easy to achieve once you know how. So, if you’re in a position to hear what I’m talking about, but you don’t have a license, this is for you. And if you do have a license, then I have something for you shortly. Let me start off with the notion that getting an Amateur Radio License is hard. It’s not. Let me say that again. It’s not hard to get an Amateur Radio License. You need access to basic learning skills, the ability to understand and follow discussions. You’ll need to be able to remember a couple of

What use is an F-call? Over time I've spoken with lots of different people with varying levels of experience and confidence. Some of those people see everything as an opportunity where others are hesitant because they fear that what they're about to attempt might fail. Obviously in real-life outside amateur radio these same kinds of differences appear, but what I find fascinating in my experience is that this is not true for the same people. Someone who is confident in amateur radio might not be outside the hobby and vice versa. The thing that struck me about amateur radio early on is that it's all about people. Sure the level of technical competence is on average higher among amateurs than it is in the general population, but among my peers in this hobby are people from all walks of life, both young and old, unskilled and highly experienced, fun and serious. The more I meet people in this hobby, the more I find to learn and enjoy. If you're listening to this and you've got a project in mind, but you're

What use is an F-call? Over the past year I've come to see and experience some of the different achievements that amateurs have made in this hobby. It's not immediately obvious what the scale or range of those things are. Just scratching the surface reveals that the amateur radio news is broadcast every week, there's likely a repeater within range, if not several, there are clubs and associations, contests, training services, websites, magazines, on-air nets, technical talks and seminars, educational activities, promotions, sponsorships and emergency services. I've had the opportunity to participate in most of those activities, some as a receiver of services and others where I was an active contributor. Recently I was struck by the invisibility of the edge. What I mean by that is that there are single points of failure in many of those services. The news that you're listening to right now for example is put together by amateurs like you. The news has been here every week and you've been able to listen to

What use is an F-call? When I was a lad, which for me was in the 1970's, I had a big tub of LEGO. I used it to learn about the mechanics of things. I built a diff with Yellow, Blue and Red cogs - long before LEGO Technic came along with a pre-made diff. I built trucks and steering linkages, suspension arms and when I had the opportunity to build a V8 engine with several kits from friends, I did that. My electronics building followed a similar path. I had a Commodore VIC-20 - which reminds me, Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore Business Machines passed away aged 83 - read up on his story when you have a moment. Anyway, I had a Commodore VIC-20. My experimentation with that was at a TTL level, rather than at a component level. I plugged in switches and connectors, made a serial port between an Apple ][ and my VIC-20 and did all manner of software and hardware experiments. Other amateurs I have spoken with have experienced a similar journey, some with LEGO, others with Meccano, or Valves, Leiden Jars or a

What use is an F-call? I'm about to go on a couple of trips and thought that it might be a good idea to have a radio with me, if nothing else, a great opportunity to talk to some locals on their local repeater. I have a portable kit, that is a Yaesu 857d with 2 x 26Ah batteries which goes forever using 10 Watts. My back of napkin calculation says that on 2m I can transmit continuously for over 12 hours with that - more realistically, if I transmit 10 minutes out of every hour, over 40 hours, though I've never tested it and likely the numbers will be different for HF using SSB with my Antenna Tuner plugged in. This amazing battery life comes at a cost, namely size and weight. The batteries fit in a medium size tool-box, and each battery uses more than 8kg from my luggage allowance, so, if I was keen, I could stick my radio and 16 kg of battery in my suitcase and take my toothbrush but I'm pretty sure my hosts would prefer I packed some clean clothes as well. I've been shopping around for a hand-held and I

What use is an F-call? A little while ago I made a commitment to myself to achieve the DXCC. Since then I've received a few questions asking what it's all about. It's an award for the DX Century Club, or said in another way, it's a recognition of making long distance contact with one hundred countries. This achievement award has a long history. The DXCC was first awarded in 1937. Before then, in 1932 discussions started on how to determine what constitutes a country. For example, are Tasmania and Australia separate or together, what about Scotland and England, or Alaska and the United States. Suffice to say that a definition was arrived at after much discussion and you can read up on it on the ARRL web-site. In case you're wondering, things change all the time. In 1935 Tasmania and Australia were separate because of geographical division, Scotland and England are two countries and Alaska and the USA are separate also because of geographical division. Most of that is the same today, except that Tasmania is