KC5YKX

Reid Hill   1042 Burkshire Dr   Corpus Christi   Texas   78412

Nueces County   EL17HR   CQ Zone 04   ITU Zone 07

kc5ykx at swbell.net

ARRL International DX Phone Contest 2003

Ah what a wonderful contest it was. I operated from the world class station of N5TW, Tom Whiteside, in Georgetown, Texas. Tom invited me to operate from his QTH while he was in Corpus at the 2002 Ham Fest. I could not say no to this opertonity. I entered the Single Band Single Operator catagory. I made my effort on 15 meters. A good choice to as it was full of activity. 

The 15 meter part of Tom's station consist of 6/6/6 element stacked mono band yagis on 45' booms. Plus a fixed 4 element yagi to the SE for SA and Carib contacts. The other 3 antennas rotate independently of each other. I used Tom's Yaesu FT-1000D and his Alpha 87A. 

I started the contest with a huge JA run Friday night. I have never heard so many under 50 watt stations in my life. I worked lots of the JAs who where using 10 watts or less. 15 meters QRP must be popular in Japan. The next morning was the EU. I had to make a hole in the band a start running. Not as easy as it sounds as the east coast has a 1 hour advantage and has the band full by the time we start hearing the EU stations here in Texas. I did well in this one. I am sure I could have done better but the way I look at it, it was my first REAL contest. All the others have been warm ups for this. 

For more info on N5TW's station please follow this link:

http://www.ctdxcc.org/n5tw/ or http://www.qrz.com/callsign/N5TW

1044 QSOs     99 DXCC Mults

310,068 Final Score

4th place W/VE (US and Canada)

Not to bad for someone wuth a KC5 prefix.

Tom's 15 meter tower

KC5YKX operating N5TW to a 4th place W/VE finish