Ken Harker WM5R
2002 ARRL International DX Contest, Phone, N5TW M/2

Ken Harker WM5R (click for more photos.)

I was invited to operate the 2002 ARRL International DX Contest, Phone with the multi-two team at N5TW. Tom Whiteside N5TW lives in suburban Georgetown, TX, about fifty kilometers due north of Austin, TX.

The team this year was NA4M, WM5R, KM5TY, N5DUW, WS4G, W5TD, and N5TW. This was my third multi-op contest from the N5TW station. It was very cold that weekend, with high winds. We suffered from severe line noise. We also lost one radio early in the contest, which took nearly an hour to work aorund. The N5TW station has four towers, one each for 10M, 15M, 20M, and 40M, a K8UR phased wire direction array for 80M, a four square for 160M, and eight directions of beverage antennas. Inside the shack, two transceivers and two high power amplifiers gave us the punch we needed to run up the QSO totals.

I had fun.