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 it. The reason that's possible is because there is a large group of people across the world making it happen.

You could stop there and leave it at that, but if you did, you'd loose the point I'm making.

The edge that I'm talking about is for example, one single person is responsible for broadcasting the produced news file on my local repeater. Similarly, one single person is responsible for doing the same on 160m. Across the country, and across the world for that matter, are single individuals who are providing an essential service. Each individual representing a single point of failure.

I know that I am one of those single points of failure - not a critical one by any stretch of the imagination, but none the less. I didn't plan to be, in-fact, the opposite is true - I offered to help another amateur with the aim of sharing the load and found myself holding the baby. This is not a unique story, in fact, it's played out all over the hobby every day.

You could construct a list of all of those individuals and laud them with accolades, but I know for myself, that's not what I want - and I doubt others do either - of course, it's not for me to say, so instead, I'll ask this question:

What things in Amateur Radio are you taking for granted, and what could you do to contribute to them?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB