What use is an F-call?

When you first start as an Amateur, you get on air, you have a wander up and down the bands and you have access to so many frequencies that you don't know where to start. If you talk to other Amateurs you'll learn that the bands have more and lesser levels of activity at different parts of the band.

For example, the 10m band SSB runs from 28.3 until 29.1, a wide range to play in. When you play around longer you'll notice that most of the activity is around 28.5. Of course as contests hit the airwaves, you'll find the band full of people all over the place, but normally on a day-to-day basis, you'll find them clustered around various frequencies.

As you start, you're likely to start calling CQ. As an F-call with low power this can be rewarding, but only for the very lucky and patient. More success happens if you find yourself on or around QRP calling frequencies, but overall, if you're like me, you're likely to spend less time calling CQ.

After a while I found myself hunting for strong stations and calling my callsign when they asked for it. That is, strong stations calling CQ or CQ DX.

Initially, I'd find a strong station and call back. I'd spend quite a bit of time doing that, sometimes making a contact, often giving up in frustration.

I'm learning as time goes by that I spend more time listening and less time calling. This is a good thing, for your voice, for your battery and for the bands.

What I'm now doing is locating strong stations and listening to their QSOs. If you hear a station 5/9 and they tell the other station they're talking to that they're running 2 kW, you're unlikely to be able to get to them. It's not impossible, just not probable. If on the other hand you hear a station saying that they're running 100 Watt, you're much more likely to talk to them if they're 5/9 at your station.

The more you listen, the more you're going to hear rude and silly behaviour, calling partial calls indiscriminately, tuning up on the calling frequency, asking for the DX station's callsign, you name it, I've heard it all.

My observation is that the more experienced you are, the less you'll transmit and the more you'll listen.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB