What use is an F-call?

The joys of Amateur Radio involve the mystical ability of a piece of wire to resonate and transmit our voice or other data across the radio air-waves. It's a tricky business which involves the length of the wire, it's proximity to other objects and the difference in impedance between the wire and the radio. Having all the information in one place seems to be a challenge and each amateur you speak to has a whole set of personal experience which may or may not contradict the experience of the next amateur you speak with.

I just spent a very enjoyable hour and a half speaking with several other amateurs in a group discussion about the challenge one amateur was having with their multi-band HF antenna.

It goes a little like this:

You have a multi-band antenna and you pull it out of its packaging, only to find that you need to tune the thing. So you read the instructions which say that you should start with the shortest length, tune that, then work your way up. It even tells you how to set-up your antenna while you're doing this. Of course, nothing is ever that simple. Once you've tuned it, you climb on your roof, bolt the contraption in place and find that nothing is the same. Worse still, you really need to be in two places at the same time, at your antenna analyser on the ground and at your antenna on the roof.

Simple, you just get two people, only, the person on the roof and the aluminium antenna that got them there affect the antenna. So, you need an RF invisible person and a wooden ladder, or you just need more help, more calculations, or more patience.

So, now you've got this magic gadget pretty close, but you still have more hair to loose. The antenna rusts, conductivity changes, you name it.

This to me is what the thrill of Amateur Radio is all about, experimentation and learning, interacting with others and trying stuff. My recommendation if you're ever pulling out your hair, remember, Amateur Radio is older than you. There are many people around who have gone this path before, so don't re-invent the wheel, ask another amateur, you're likely to find someone who has done what you're trying and has solved the problem before.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB