What use is an F-call?

As I've said many times before, Amateur Radio blows me away. Every week I see new and imaginative things that this community achieves through trial and error, from contacts across new bands, coordination of new activities such as fox-hunts and SOTA activations.

We are a fool hardy lot, climbing up hills to "activate" them, or doing the same thing for light-houses, or museums. There's a surfing contest where you collect callsigns to spell the locations of surfing beaches as outlined in the Beach Boy's "Surfin USA" song, which includes an Australian beach as well.

It's wonderful to hear about Amateurs talking to other Amateurs, both using portable gear, both standing on top of a summit and exchanging reports across the country.

Recently an F-call decided that he wanted to try to build a cavity from bits purchased at a hardware store. Complete with video of the achievement, testing and SWR measurements, a $15 experiment to see if he could do it. Wanting to learn more about his build he sought and found assistance from other Amateurs offering suggestions and equipment to help out.

There's a group of Amateurs who are experimenting with a new Internet linking protocol, AllStarLink. Using single board computers like the BeagleBone Black to run copies of embedded Linux with a full dynamic switching system on board to deal with nodes dropping in and joining. Think telephone exchange with roaming handsets.

There are amateurs experimenting with different types of antennas, made from Horse Tape, advanced calls learning about tuning up 40m dipoles on 80m, antenna manufacturers building 80m single frequency dipoles in the space of a 40m dipole, repeaters being built, control systems being updated, new services being invented and masts being erected.

Don't for a minute think that Amateur Radio is just about sitting in a shack with a microphone, talking to another Amateur in a similar shack somewhere else, doing the same thing.

Having an F-call is being part of this community, warts and all, it's an amazing place to hang out and do stuff. So get off your terminator and go to it.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB