About K4FMH

Frank M. Howell is Professor Emeritus at Mississippi State University and Adjunct Professor at Emory University. He has been an SWL, avid BCB DXer, and antenna builder since he was 8 years old. At age 20, he led the construction of two radio stations; one FMer at Georgia College (WXGC, now WGUR) and the other a commercial AMer (WXLX) in Milledgeville, holding a Third Class FCC Radiotelephone License. The WGUR broadcast team recently published a commemorative history and interview with Frank and his former college roommate who was the succeeding Manager of the station. Frank produced a congratulatory promo for the 45th anniversary of the station’s founding available here. He continues his research program as a sociologist and statistician, collaborating with colleagues around the U.S. on problems involving spatial demography.

Frank served as News Director and AP Bureau Chief at WXLX before attending graduate school and pursuing a career as a college professor, teaching at Texas Christian University, North Carolina State University, Mississippi State University and Emory University. He served on the Secretary of Agriculture’s Advisory Board on Agricultural Statistics for six years and coordinated a $60M Mississippi Space Commerce Initiative with high-level security clearances at NASA’s Commercial Remote Sensing Program. He held the Civil Service Rank of GS-15 for the USDA and was offered entrance into the Senior Executive Service at the end of that service to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Frank was in the 2nd graduating class of the USDA Administrative Leadership Program. He was Editor for scientific journals published by Taylor & Francis and Springer Media and on editorial boards of several other journals in his field, co-founding the Social Science Computer Review (Sage) and Spatial Demography (Springer). After retiring from Mississippi State, Frank served as Senior Policy Analyst at the Board of Regents Office for the University System of Georgia in Atlanta, finishing his career as Editor-in-Chief at Springer Media, a large scientific publisher based in The Netherlands.

Frank obtained his amateur radio license at 58 in 2010. Originally assigned KJ4QJZ, his call sign is K4FMH. He now lives in Ridgeland, a northern suburb of Jackson, MS, on the Barnett Reservoir.

Here’s an audio clip from him featured by Jim Heath W6LG in his Youtube Channel about what amateur radio means to me:

After being licensed at the Georgia Tech club, he joined the Atlanta Radio Club. Frank has been active in ham radio organizations, first assisting the ARC with club programs. He is a Life Member of the ARRL and on his second stint as Assistant Director of the ARRL Delta Division, having previously served as ARES Emergency Coordinator in Starkville MS. He is a Life Member (provisional) of AMSAT and a member of Radio Amateurs of Canada and the RSGB. Frank has been Vice President of the Central Mississippi Amateur Radio Association in Brandon, Board of Directors Member of the Jackson Amateur Radio Club. He was President of the Magnolia Amateur Radio Club in Starkville and revived the club from having only five members. He is also a former member of the Vicksburg Amateur Radio Club and the Scott County Amateur Radio Club, assisting the latter in its formation and growth. A few years ago, Frank launched the Magnolia Intertie Inc. non-profit organization with attorney Mike McKay N5DU. He is the Trustee for the KG5FCI call sign for that group of repeaters and serves as President of the corporation.

Frank is a Presenter on the ICQ Podcast since 2012 and has been co-Host of the QSO Radio Show on WTWW with Ted Randall and of the Amateur Radio Roundtable on WBCQ and w5kub.com with Tom Medlin. He frequently gives talks in person and virtually to amateur radio groups. Frank blogs at k4fmh.com, sometimes with a focus on the sociological aspects of the past time that is amateur radio and posts research and his Social Circuits column at a companion website, foxmikehotel.com.

Frank enjoys most aspects of ham radio, especially tests and measurements on his workbench, rag chewing on HF, portable operations, digital modes via repeaters (DSTAR, Fusion, DMR), and the occasional DX or contest. But K4FMH looks forward to learning that next new thing…