What Use Is An F-call?

What use is an F-call? In 1905 George Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." If you're new to Amateur Radio like me, you don't remember the past because you don't know it. While I could dig up the history going back to 1900 or so, I'll encourage you instead to let your fingers do that walking and read that on the Internet yourself. One particularly interesting document I stumbled on is called "History of Radio call-signs in Australia", a must read. Having just received my foundation license, I was unaware how recent the development of an f-call actually is. In May 2004 the ACMA published a report on the "Outcomes of the Review of Amateur Service Regulation" which among many outcomes recommended the introduction of an entry-level licensing option in Australia, similar to the foundation license in the UK. The submissions at the time, over two-thirds in favour of a foundation licensing option, cited the need to make the amateur service m