Ken Harker WM5R
2002 N5TW ARRL International DX Contest, Phone

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.

These photos are copyright © 2002-2003 Kenneth E. Harker. All rights reserved.

	Around 0300 UTC on Friday night, radio "B," a Kenwood TS-850SAT, died. Phil NA4M was dispatched to retrieve his Yaesu FT-1000MP from home. In this photo, Tom N5TW is climbing on the table trying to disconnect band decoder interface cables to extract the Kenwood from the desk.
	The dead Kenwood TS-850SAT and an Alinco IC-706MkIIG pulled out from Gary KM5TY's truck and pressed into temporary service while awaiting the Yaesu FT-1000MP.
	Gary KM5TY, around 0000 UTC on Saturday, calling CQ on 20 meters.
	Ken WM5R, hanging out at "command central." This station was equipped with an Elecraft K2 that could use the beverages when they weren't being used by the transmitting stations.
	Gary KM5TY in the 0000 UTC hour the first night. Gary would have to leave on Sunday to give himself enough time to recover for his midterms on Monday.
	This was the spotting radio, used by operators to hunt for mults or unworked stations on new bands.
	Tom Dewitt W5TD on radio B.