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, now defunct) in Milledgeville, holding a Third Class FCC Radiotelephone License. He continues his research program as a sociologist and statistician, collaborating with colleagues around the U.S. on problems involving spatial demography. Frank also applies these skills to amateur radio with results published at FoxMikeHotel.com and in various ham radio media.

Frank working out a GIS problem at a marker board in his office at Mississippi State University. This work led to his research team’s concept and measurement of the “non-place territory” featured in Recapturing Space: New Middle-Range Theory in Spatial Demography.

The WGUR broadcast team recently published a commemorative history based on an 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. It’s being updated for the 50th anniversary now by WGUR.

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 is a past member of the Investigative Reporters and Editors organization, assisting numerous investigative reporting teams such as those the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

Frank at a preliminary control board for WXGC in the Foreign Language Lab at Ga College used for training.

Frank was appointed to serve on the Secretary of Agriculture’s Advisory Committee on Agricultural Statistics for six years. This Committee gives oversight to the Census of Agriculture as well as defining what a farm operation is in the United States. He held credentials at NASA, coordinating a $60M Mississippi Space Commerce Initiative with high-level security clearances at NASA’s Commercial Remote Sensing Program. Frank was in the 2nd graduating class of the USDA Administrative Leadership Program. He served at the highest Civil Service Rank of GS-15 for the USDA and offered entrance into the Senior Executive Service at the end of that stint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Frank has served as Chair of the Starkville Capital Improvement Committee for the Board of Aldermen. For two years, he was Chair of the Mississippi State Legislature’s Scientific Task Force on commercial hog farm permits.

Frank served as a consulting advisor for the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago on data security. He was also a consultant to the ICPSR data archive at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor on human subjects protection in archival databases. Frank 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 journal and book series (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, later finishing his career as Editor-in-Chief at Springer Media.

Frank obtained his amateur radio license at 58 in 2010, a full fifty years after starting a love affair with radio. Mike Holmes WB4MWU gave him his earliest experience with ham radio during that famous Solar Cycle of the late 1960s. His original Elmers include Arnold Solomon KC4ZUA and Bill Perkins KB4KFT in Atlanta and Martin Jue K5FLU in Starkville, MS. 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. He previously served as ARES Emergency Coordinator in Starkville MS. K4FMH is a Life Member of AMSAT and a member of Radio Amateurs of Canada and the Radio Society of Great Britain.

He was President of the Magnolia Amateur Radio Club in Starkville and revived the group from having only five members to 25. Frank has been Vice President of the Central Mississippi Amateur Radio Association in Brandon, and Board of Directors Member of the Jackson Amateur Radio Club. He is also a former member and Vice President of the Vicksburg Amateur Radio Club and a member of 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. The Intertie was recently closed. He was the Trustee for the KG5FCI call sign for that group of repeaters and served as President of the corporation during its tenure.

Frank is a Presenter on the ICQ Podcast since 2012. He was 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 on HF and via repeaters (DSTAR, Fusion, DMR), and the occasional DX or contest. But K4FMH looks forward to learning that next new thing…