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What use is an F-call?\n\nTechnologies come and go, some more quickly than others. Valves have been around since the 19th century, the first diode valve was developed in 1904, by John Ambrose Fleming. Despite ongoing urgings to kill them off in favour of solid state technology, they survive, much like shellac records vs mp3 files, fond tools that do their job in their own inimitable way.\n\nSome technologies become obsolete, sometimes really quickly, audio-cassettes, DAT tape and VHS are things of the past, no doubt an mp3 of the future will look nothing like what we use today.\n\nNew technology happens all the time. Software Defined Radios are bringing a whole new dimension to Amateur Radio, the ability to see a whole band in real-time makes for an exciting place to make contacts and monitor a band, seeing activity, rather than just waiting to hear something on the frequency that you happen to be tuned to.\n\nIn Amateur Radio this development happens because people get excited about something and run with it. Sometimes nothing comes of it, other times it's a whole new ballgame.\n\nThe thing I like most about Amateur Radio is that the new and old happen simultaneously. A modern radio combined with a 1900's antenna, a Morse key attached to an SDR, using the Internet and combining it with Radio, inventing new digital modes and playing with propagation tools.\n\nAll of this is within your own grasp. Your license isn't the limiting factor in any of this, it's your imagination that makes it happen.\n\nAmateur Radio, the magic between your ears.\n\nI'm Onno VK6FLAB