About Us
Club Officers
President - Jim Stafford - W4QO
w4qo@nfarl.org, 770-993-9500
Vice President - Mack McCormick- WB4MAK
wb4mak@nfarl.org
Secretary / Treasurer - Fred Moore - N4CLA
n4cla@nfarl.org, 404-434-4499
Program Chairman - Walt Woren - KJ4HE
kj4he@nfarl.org
Other Executive Committee Members
Emergency Coordinator - Tom Koch - W4UOC
w4uoc@nfarl.org, 404-314-6109
Past President - Steve Mays - KS4KJ
ks4kj@nfarl.org
Hamfest Coordinator - Lee Juckett - AF4IA
af4ia@nfarl.org
Field Day Captain - Steve Knittel - KC4YBO
kc4ybo@nfarl.org
Electronic Mail
General Information: info@nfarl.org
Webmaster: webmaster@nfarl.org
Beginnings
The North Fulton Amateur Radio League was formed in 1975. The founding fathers of the club were Dan Turner, WA4BRO and Terry Joyner, W4YBV.
The purpose of the club was to further the Amateur Radio hobby, as well as to have a social club and provide some form of emergency services to the local community.
Today’s North Fulton Amateur Radio League
The NFARL has gone through a major transformation since mid 2006. At that time the club had seen a dwindling of interest and was basically a dinner meeting with anywhere from 6 to 10 members in attendance. There was very little usage on the repeaters and not many other activities.
At the August 2006 meeting with 12 in attendance, it was decided to make an effort to change things. Susan Swiderski, AF4FO, the GA section manager was invited to the next meeting to give us some ideas and suggestions on what it takes to be a vibrant club. At the September meeting, she challenged us to think big, try to build excitement, and above all abandon the dinner meetings and go to a traditional club format with very strong programs. At that time there were 56 dues paying members of the club, and most were not participating.
A team of 4 chose to take on the task of making this happen. The four became the executive team for the club and included KC4YBO, N4CLA, KJ4HE, and W4QO. This team met and laid out a plan for the remainder of 2006.
They found a meeting place, set up meetings, and recruited speakers. At the October meeting, there was a program on Winlink and 26 attended. The following month K4UEE presented his talk on the Peter I DXpediton. By the end of the year over 30 were attending the meetings and about that number attended the Christmas party.
By early 2007, there was interest in extra activities and a program called Mid-Month Madness was begun. This included setting up a tables at local hamfests, field trips to local electronic stores, a strong Field Day effort (the club missed the previous FD entirely), shack tours, and a fund raising effort.
By mid-2007, the exec team had grown to 6 and word was spreading that the NFARL was on the move. Meeting attendance was running in the high 30s. For fund raising, the club members prepared a CD of ham material with contributions from all over the world. It was called the NFARL Nuggets 2007 with over 400 megs of information. These were being sold at meetings and at hamfests including a table at the Huntsville AL hamfest in August. To date the club has raised over $1000 with the CD sales.
By the end of 2007 meeting attendance had reached 45, the club had hosted a “build-a-thon”, the newly appointed EC for North Fulton W4UOC had developed strong contacts with agencies and managed a very successful SET, and there were over 100 members in the club. Meetings with programs such as D-star, QRP, DXpeditions, historical recaps, and technical tips/techniques really drew crowds. Almost 60 attended the Christmas party. Club clothing was being sported by several dozen members and 12 issues of the club eNEWS began to catch a lot of attention.
Other 2007 activities included a 3 month Techs on Ten net for newly privileged technician licensees and Hungry Hams lunches on Wednesday. Both saw a lot of new faces.
Couple this with strong mentoring of prospective hams and you can see NFARL is on a roll.
During 2007 all 3 club repeaters were restored to full service and there is a joint venture with a nearby club on a 4th repeater. Activity has picked up on the repeaters so that you can find someone there if you call at about any hour.
2008 promises even more excitement with recruitment breakfasts, a return to the GARS Techfest, more shack tours, more build-a-thons, more hamfests, more fund raisers, more programs and of course more members.
In mid-January 2008, the club that almost folded was elevated to the status of Special Service Club by the ARRL Board of Directors. We fully intend be the example for radio clubs with our activities and support for Emergency Communications, mentoring and the initiation of VE testing sessions.
If you like ham radio, we are sure you will find the NFARL has something for you and above all we want to help you realize your ham radio dreams.
