What use is an F-call?

Last week I talked about computers and the Foundation License.

There is a blanket perception being perpetuated that computers, radios and your Foundation License don't mix, are not allowed and if you were to be so foolhardy as to connect your computer to your radio, you'd be subject to all manner of retribution from the ACMA. Most of this is based on hear-say and misunderstanding.

There's nothing stopping you from connecting your computer to your radio and for example have it read the current frequency and mode and store that in your logging software. There's also nothing wrong with using the computer to change the frequency and mode on your radio, when you click on a DX cluster entry and it changes the settings on your radio, or if you were to use it to deal with the Doppler shift to match an overflying satellite.

Computers can also be used to set-up memories, CTCSS codes, preferences and other settings supported by your radio. It can be used to show waterfall displays and to decode signals as they come in. You can use a computer to do audio filtering, digital signal processing and all manner of CPU intensive activities. You can run a CW skimmer, to decode Morse as it comes past, connect it to a wide-band receiver and listen to many frequencies at once. None of this has anything to do with your Foundation License restrictions, or with the LCD for that matter.

Onto other things. The LCD states that:

"if the emission mode is 200HA1A (or 200 Hertz, Amplitude Modulated, Single Channel, Telegraphy for aural reception - i.e. Morse Code or CW), the information to be transmitted is sent by the use of a manually operated Morse key;"

This is stopping you from using your license to send out an automatic beacon. The aim is to have you as a human, still in the loop. A manually operated Morse key means that you have to actually push it with your hand. There's nothing preventing you from using an Iambic Paddle mechanical, or electronic. As long as you're still punching out the code.

With the advent of Software Defined Radios, the separation between computer and radio is becoming even more diffuse. If your radio is a computer, another myth does the rounds.

"A Foundation Call cannot use  Software Defined Radio."

This is untrue.

If your SDR was manufactured commercially then you're good to go. Seriously.

You still have the same restrictions on modes and bands, power output and the like. You cannot send computer generated digital modes, though you can decode them. The computer in this equation is no different from the previous examples.


Being an F-call is fun, you should try it sometime.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB.