Propagation is everywhere you care to listen. Rather than work the DX station, what about listening to the pile-up? Foundations of Amateur Radio is a weekly podcast about anything ham radio and can be downloaded from http://podcasts.itmaze.com.au/ and found on iTunes by searching for VK6FLAB. If you've run out of episodes to listen to, check out the previous series: "What use is an F-call?" which looks at Amateur Radio from the perspective as a beginning member of the community holding an Australian Foundation license. Also, yes, in VK we have legal call-signs with a four letter suffix! Onno VK6FLAB
Very true Onno. Well I have had my F call for 12 months now and it really is as much use as any class license, it really depends on how much you want from such a hobby, I am upgrading to advanced soon but only because I have some projects in mind for the 5.8Ghz band and I need advanced to do this in a nice legally publishable manner. All that aside for many people an F call is they need to talk to the world. You can and I do use the APRS service via 3G and an android app, this is very handy at times if you are into off road as I am and other outdoor activities. Listening is one of the greatest pleasures I get TBH and them cheap SDR receiver dongles with an up converter hooked up to 30 meters of speaker wire with the BALUN or UNUN of your choice are great fun, with just an F call you can still spot DX you hear on any band and there are DX competitions that take this into account. you can do all this without any license at all of course and there are many SWL out there but if you have just an F call license you will also have listening station identity that you can use for any band and any mode. 73 Mark VK2FMEH
