What use is an F-call?

For most of us Amateur Radio is a hobby. It might not be your only one, but if your time allocation is anything like mine, this one seems to grow in its scope and reach every day.

During the week I was talking to a friend who had no idea about Amateur Radio, no notion, other than: "Isn't that the Ham Radio thing that did Morse and has been superseded by the Internet?" she asked.

That was a pretty loaded question, but I pointed at recent natural disasters where radio amateurs acted as the local back-bone, the glue that makes it possible for information to travel great distance when all other services are gone, no roads, no phones, no nothing.

Of course as an Amateur you already know this, but it seems that the general public has no idea what so ever.

I pointed out that even the most basic license helped me understand antennas, know when a TV antenna is pointing in the wrong direction and why, know how to make an indoor Wi-Fi connection work better, and best of all, it keeps challenging me into learning new things.

I mentioned that for a radio connection to work, two devices are required, my radio and their radio. Compare and contrast this with an Internet connection, or a mobile phone connection which requires many different devices, all of which must work.

I'm sure I've talked about this phenomenon before, but somehow every time I bump into someone who doesn't know about Amateur Radio, I get surprised all over again.

In case you're wondering, my hand is looking better, stitches are out, skin is pink, now all I need is some common sense .. wonder where I can find that.

What kind of things take you by surprise?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB