NF4L

Background

Greetings, NF4L here. My name is Nathan, and I live in Chamblee with my wife Lauren, daughter Eva, and son Lucas. I’ve been a ham for almost 20 years now. I started out as KI4YHI in 2007 when I earned my Technician class license while in college. I upgraded to General in 2012 and changed my callsign to W4GOP.

I became a Volunteer Examiner for the ARRL around that time as well, and I had planned on upgrading to Extra so I could tune around the ham bands and not have to worry too much about whether I was “maintaining my lane,” so to speak. Ham radio took a back seat for a while when I married my first wife, but I decided to get back on the air after we divorced in 2018.

The pandemic gave incentive to work on earning my Extra ticket. I was able to upgrade in July 2020 after the new pool went into effect, and I got to test via telepresence. That’s a bit of an interesting experience. I decided to try to get an Extra class callsign. In 2024, I was able to and granted NF4L.

Interests

I think I have a pretty diverse amount of interests. I like to talk around on the local repeaters, enjoy operating SSB on HF, have fun on digital modes–I really do enjoy RTTY and PSK-31, but those have given way to FT-8–and try different things with radio and electronics.

Gear

I’ve tended to collect things over the years–used gear, new gear, homemade gear, etc.

HF Radio: Yaesu FT-450D

VHF/UHF Radios:

  • Yaesu FT-7800R (My first radio)
  • Yaesu FT-2800M
  • Retevis RT-95 (Current mobile unit)
  • Various other Chinese radios used for experiments, APRS, etc.

Clubs

Life Member, American Radio Relay League

DeKalb Amateur Radio Emergency Services

Tri-States Amateur Radio Club

Georgia Tech Amateur Radio Club

Atlanta Radio Club

Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society

Alford Memorial Amateur Radio Club

OMISS Member: #14799

NF4L - Ham Shack