So You Think Sunspots Are LOW, Listen to This …

By Tim Lemmon, WK4U Article 1 in a series of 5 In the morning, after you eat breakfast, how far can you communicate on 40 meters? How far can you HEAR signals on 7 MHz from Atlanta? 500 miles? 1000 miles?? California maybe??? Probably not that far – right? What if I said you CAN hear signals from thousands of miles away on 7 MHz. Would you believe me? Tune your radio to 7575 in the AM mode (8-10am Atlanta time) and you’ll hear the Voice Of America (VOA) broadcasting to the Far East in their evening hours from … […]

Continue reading

What NFARL Accomplished in 2014

By Neil, N4FN and the Executive Committee Satellite SIG – 10 to 12 folks participated – built handheld satellite antennas CW SIG – 17 folks participated – several learned CW – SIG met 3 times a week CW on repeater + CW tests. GA QSO Party – About 25 members participated and we won gavel for 5th time! Field Day – many hard working leaders – 256 participants, #1 nationally – highest NFARL score ever – every bonus point available was earned this year for the first time – 12,300 points! 5th place nationally out of 316 entries – 1st place in SE Division. […]

Continue reading

ECHOLINK

Getting Started Work the world on 2 meters using NFARL’s EchoLink Node! EchoLink is a great system for communications between Amateurs.  It combines VoIP technology with RF Gateways to enable global links between computer users and 2 meter radio operators. All a computer user needs is an amateur radio license and a copy of EchoLink on his internet connected personal computer. 2 meter radio operators need a transceiver (mobile, base, or handheld) with a DTMF keypad, and the ability to key up a repeater linked to EchoLink — such as our N4CLA repeater. Node Numbers & Station IDs Node Numbers […]

Continue reading

A Brief History of the North Fulton Amateur Radio League for 2010

by Chuck Catledge, AE4CW NFARL kicked off the year at the GARS TechFest with a demonstration of Surface Mount Technology (SMT) soldering techniques led by Mack, W4AX.  TechFest attendees were able to try it for themselves and discovered that it’s not so hard after all! Special Interest Groups (SIGS) played a big role for NFARL in 2010.   The CW SIG led by Jim, W4QO, the Antenna SIG lead by Wes, W3WL and Chuck, AE4CW and the Kit Building SIG led by Mack, W4AX all gathered a large and eager group of Hams ready to expand their technical skills. The monthly […]

Continue reading

Mack’s Thank You for 2009

By Mack, W4AX This has been a phenomenal year for the North Fulton Amateur Radio League.  The club’s continued success is due to our great members.  We’re now at over 260 active members, our treasury has grown 16 fold in the past three years, and we’re a Federally recognized 501(c)3 charity.  All of these accomplishments are due to the hard work and dedication you bring to the club.  The club’s board members, Walt KJ4HE, Fred N4CLA, Shelia KD4NKE, Mike W5JR, Ian AK4IK, Jim W4QO, and Tom W4UOC have all brought exceptional leadership and guidance to the club.  The path charted […]

Continue reading

The 40M Extended Double Zepp

By Jim Streible, K4DLI  SK There were many new and somewhat unfamiliar antennas used at this year’s NFARL Field Day. One of these was the one for the CW station. This antenna is basically two 5/8 wave antennas end to end. It can be fed with ladder line from the center insulator to tuner or it can use an impedance transforming length of ladder line to take the impedance to 50 ohms and fed from there to the rig with 50 ohm coax. That would limit it use (without a tuner) to a single band – 40 meters. To make […]

Continue reading
Joule Thief Kit

Joule Thief Project

Click here to download a PDF file containing instructions for building your Joule Thief. A dozen youth and twenty+ “older youth” participated in our March Mid-Month Madness event. Our warm-up act was kitting 175 Joule Thieves (GT IE students would’ve been proud of our production line balancing techniques); we then advanced to the building phase. Chief kit-builders Mack, W4AX; Jim, W4QO & Wes, W3WL guided us through the realities of kit construction & malfunction diagnosis. In the end, all kit builders successfully created a working Joule Thief. Click here to see pictures of the crew at work.  We hope to see you […]

Continue reading