Welcome to W4QXL's Ham Radio Homepage!

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Quick Bio / About Me:

Where to start?! Well, let's get the basics... My name is Logan Carmichael (Fredrick, if you're seeing the official stuff from the FCC via QRZ or a call-lookup) and I've been active in the hobby of Ham Radio since I was in my single digits in age. My late father, Fred (KD4ATW), was a ham, and I guess the bug bit me somewhere as a small child while Dad was practicing and studying to take his ham license in the late 80s and early 90s -- something he'd always wanted to do since childhood however was limited because of a slight hearing impairment that prevented him from passing a code test. He got his license as one of the early "No Code Techs" just after the code requirement was abolished in the early 1990s. While I was very interested in the hobby, I just didn't apply myself to study and actually pass the test as a kid...then other hobbies came along as well as girls, cars, school, dating, girls, radio broadcasting, girls, teenage hijinks and mainly girls and dating got in the way of me getting my license until I was about 19.  :-)

I grew up in a small rural and former coal mining town in the foothills of Appalachia at the base of the Cumberland Plateau called Whitwell, TN.  It's a mere dot on the map and not famous for much other than it's coal mining history, love of the heavily caffeinated soft drink "Sun Drop", and a little documentary-style movie called "Paperclips", which was a life-changing experience for many in our hometown that started from a spark of genius to teach local middle-school children about the horrors of the World War II Holocaust and expanded to the Whitwell Middle Paperclip Project that garnered the docu-movie. Beyond that, the highlights of living in Whitwell are mainly the beautiful mountain scenery and regularly seeing neighbors, friends, and family at church, school events and ballgames, or while running errands in town or dining at one of the small restaurants around the area. After my time in high school, I moved around a bit along the way including stops in nearby Chattanooga, TN and Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, but I eventually made my way back to my beloved Marion County and the Sequatchie Valley and to my present lakeside home in Haletown (Guild, TN) along the banks of the beautiful Tennessee River at Nickajack Lake.

I have worked in broadcasting for the past 30 years, only making the career change to a full-time position in Education Technology and I.T. back in 2011 when I began working for the local school system's Exceptional Education department as an Assistive Tech Coordinator and I.T. Director. Even after leaving broadcasting full-time, I didn't give it up completely...I've remained on the air at a local radio station in one form or fashion since leaving the job on the daily basis and I remain an active SBE Certified Broadcast Engineer, serving as a contract engineer for several stations around my local area with their tech and other needs with everything from the studio and computers to the RF side of things. 

I caught the broadcast radio "bug" at age 7 or 8, I suppose, while watching the disc jockeys of the time spin records (yes, vinyl records) and play 'carts' (cartridge style audio tapes similar to an 8-track) inside the "fishbowl studios" at our local shopping mall in Chattanooga. "Magic 102.7" was the station's name, and I remember watching through the glass very intently--interested in everything they were doing. I managed to get a radio gig by age 11 as I may have been a bit dishonest about my age at the time trying to get on-the-air somewhere...and I even owned my own station "Mixx 96" for a short time. We covered the tri-house area with all of the music of the time, modulating a Mr. Microphone transmitter I'd modified to the the maximum until it burnt up. Later we had a "Ramsey Kit" FM transmitter and then some homebrew stuff that I'll plead the 5th on...and be happy the statute of limitations has passed and my licenses are all safe! HA!

I grew up listening to every type of music imaginable, which paid-off given my early choice of profession. I've played everything from 50s & 60s Oldies to Classic Rock, Country, Alternative, CHR (Top 40 Pop), to Classic Hits and even Gospel. I didn't move around a lot, but I have traveled up-and-down the dial. From my teenage years at WEPG-AM 910 in nearby South Pittsburg, TN to WDOD-FM (96.5 The Mountain) and WDEF-FM (Sunny 92.3) in Chattanooga by age 17 (where I also had the chance to work with the legendary Luther Masingill).  By 18 or so, I landed my then dream job when I went across town to the 100kW heritage Classic Rock station, WSKZ-FM (KZ106),  where I stayed for about 6 years before spending what seemed like a lifetime at Brewer Broadcasting in Cleveland and Chattanooga on several incarnations of their stations while working for a WONDERFUL family-owned company for 12 years.

In 2018, I was given the opportunity to work with some old friends at Chattanooga's former legendary Top 40 AM powerhouse -- the 50,000 watt JET FLI Radio, WFLI-AM 1070. Along with the opportunity to be on air at a station that I long regarded as one of the MOST legendary around came the opportunity to help bring the station back to life in the sound, music, and feeling of the 1960s and 1970s -- an era where Top 40 radio ruled! And while I wasn't around for that era myself...I grew up listening to all the music, hearing all the airchecks, living in a household with Baby Boomer parents who both grew up listening to WFLI...not to mention later having a stepfather who was one of the "FLI Guys" (the name given to their disc jockeys) back in the early 1960s. I would work for WFLI until January of 2023 when I resigned.

Now you can find me "back home" playing new Country on WEPG-AM 910 or 104.9 FM (The River 104.9)... I'm one-half of "Logan & Kaitlyn Mornings" which can be heard on the station weekdays from 5am-8am Central Time. I never really left WEPG, officially. I've been around there in some form or fashion continuously since 1996. I've been serving as their engineer for the past few years, even rebuilding pretty much the whole station following a direct hit from lightning back in the summer of 2020. This is just a return to on-air for me on the station, and it's been exciting to do...working alongside one of my best friends for the past 25 years and now co-hosting a morning show with another friend of that many years...it's just a blast!

In my spare time, I like to play around with my 1969 Mercury Monterey (Lucy), spend time with "my kids" (I'm helping raise a nephew and niece, who live with me), listening to music, dreaming of model railroad plans and how to finance the building of a model train layout, watching actual trains go by, playing on the ham bands, and other various things. I'm an associate member of the Chattanooga Amateur Radio Club (W4AM), President of the Marion County Amateur Radio Club (KD4ATW), life member of K2BSA (Radio Scouting), I'm active when possible with the Nickajack ARC, along with participation as an ARES member, ARRL member, ARRL VE, and I'm active in SKYWARN in my local area.

That's all for now... Hopefully we can make QSO sometime soon! I prefer hanging out on HF on 40m at or near 7.200, or on 75m at 3980 for SSB phone. I also monitor our local VHF/UHF repeaters -- KD4ATW (443.100 / T88.5) in Marion County, W4AM (146.610 / T107.2) in Chattanooga. I have a D-Star radio and I'm on there from time to time, but not often. It's a neat part of ham radio, but I like nitty-gritty RF side of things and making signals fly!  I'm also very much into FT8, so you may have wound up here after working me on there...or maybe you will work me there soon as I'm chasing the elusive DX digitally trying to achieve whatever LoTW or QRZ award is available next!

73,

Logan / W4QXL

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