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 things and you will need to learn the NATO standard phonetic alphabet. In terms of electronics, there is a little maths, but nothing more sophisticated than a few fractions and some simple addition and subtraction.

There is no requirement for morse code - though I suspect once you find yourself with a license, you might want to start investigating that - I know I am.

In terms of time, depending on how you do it, as a Scout it will take a long weekend, you can do it online, or get a book and teach yourself, or you can go to your local Amateur Radio Assessor who can teach you, generally a weekend of theory and practice, followed by an exam on the next weekend.

You should budget for around $200 bucks for course materials, exam, license application fee and coffee.

Of course that’s the beginning of the journey. The Wireless Institute of Australia has much of this information available and there are several other amateur organisations in Australia who will happily help you out.

As promised, If you already have a license, then perhaps it might be helpful to go to a local science teacher, or the local yacht club or community radio station and introduce the concept of Amateur Radio to their midst.

I’m Onno VK6FLAB