But to those who have friends and loved ones far away, hams have always offered a way to keep in touch -- for free.
An electronic device called a "phone patch" enables a ham rig to connect to a telephone line. With a phone patch you could arrange for hams in two locations to connect to non-ham citizens via a local phone call. Back in the days before people had free long distance, this was a real boon. And, even today, with family located in foreign lands, the phone patch is a very nice service that hams can offer the public.
Here's a graphic representation of the way it works. The dotted blue lines represent a standard telephone line and the red line with arrows represents a radio signal:
