Remember to stop fiddling every now and then...

What use is an F-call? I've now been an amateur since December 2010. In the time that I've been part of this hobby I've come to understand that a large part of the experience is to tinker. We tinker with radios, batteries, antennas, coax, connectors, mobile set-ups and software. We fiddle with circuits, with antenna designs, with locations, with anything and everything. Of course the fiddling is all about improvement, or sometimes, it's just about getting on-air. The more you fiddle, the more you learn and the more experience you gain. So there is good to be had from doing these things. Yesterday I was at a fellow amateur where he had his radio scanning 15m. It was just sitting in the background and as we finished lunch and went into the afternoon, we could hear signals picking up. Eventually the signals became strong enough to work. I managed to add another DX country to my list with his gear and it reminded me that fiddling is only one part of the hobby that I love. I've been so busy getting my station to work and getting more and more frustrated by my inability to get it going that I lost track of the other side of the fence, the actual operating of the radio. So, tinker and fiddle all you like, but remember, sometimes you need to lift your head up from the soldering iron and actually get on air. I'm Onno VK6FLAB