Welcome to Ham Radio – Now what?

On this page, NFARL hopes to answer your questions by referring to one of our resources or pointing you to other pages on the web.

Josh Nass, KI6NAZ

First off, welcome to the greatest hobby of all!  You probably already know that you can get a lot of your specific questions answered using YOUTUBE videos and searching for your subject.  Here is one for Ham Radio in general.  But we also have more answers for you.

Intro to the North Fulton club.  We are a club of over 300 members serving the area north of I-285 to the top of Fulton county Georgia but we also have many members in nearby counties and actually across the country.  Check out this page describing the many interesting things about NFARL.  This is a very comprehensive document and will answer lots of your questions about our very active club.

Brian Cleary, K4BBL

Neat way to get into ham radio.  You might want to get started by using the method described by NFARL member Brian, K4BBL, in his video Getting started in the simplest way possible.  While it is certainly an interim way to plug into ham radio, it should NOT be a long term solution.

First purchase. Want to know what radio you should buy?  Well, that is a rather complicated question that follows such as “How much do you want to spend?”, “What would you like to do in ham radio?”  We suggest that you watch this video before buying your first radio.  We also recommend checking out the series of useful videos from our friends in the RSGB: "Useful practical skills".

ares_logoPublic service.  We know that many new hams want to check out public service work or how to help your community using ham radio.  You can do that by exploring our Amateur Radio Emergency Service group starting here.

Loaners? If you have joined the NFARL club, you may not know that it is possible to borrow test equipment and even HF transceivers.  Check out our Equipment Loaner program here.  To borrow a transceiver, you must already have an HF antenna installed.  For that we have some “Elmers” (mentors) who can help.  To look into this resource, go to our Elmers web page.

Personalized help.  If you would like some “one on one” time to answer your questions, we might suggest you go on the NFARL repeater (if you have a 2M radio) 145.470, PL100 but if you don't know what this is or ask other questions, text us at this telephone number 404-281-8185 to set a ZOOM call.  You'll be going to our NFARL help ZOOM at this location.  Don't know what a ZOOM call is?  Go to this ZOOM conferencing video.  

ARRL. We would be remiss if we did not mention American Radio Relay League, the national organization for amateur radio.  There you will find loads of info which might be helpful to the new ham.  We particularly recommend 2009 HamJam speaker Joel Hallas, W1ZR's "The Doctor is in" podcasts.  ARRL has reconfigured its podcast offerings as described on the web page at http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-reshapes-its-podcast-offerings-for-2020.

Other helpful pages....  Some may seem like overload but you'll find some good stuff on these pages.