Welcome to the W5WMU Tour

These pictures were taken during my visit to Pat Sonnier's station for the 1996 ARRL SS CW contest. I think you will see why this station performs as well as it does.

Here are the two people that keep this station on the air. On the left is Stephanie Moore, N5SYF and on the right is the Doctor himself, W5WMU. Stephanie is married to James Moore, WU3V, who has been very helpful with getting the computers squared away. He also runs a node on the megacluster. The station is setup for the 1996 ARRL SS Contest. My TS-850S is on the right, and a FT-1000D is on the left. I use 850 for my run radio and the FT-1000 as the second radio. Just above the FT-1000 and below the coax switch is a panel with all of the amplifier inputs on it (RF and PTT). This gives me great flexibility as I can put either radio on any band. I was even able to put both radios on the same band usina a KT-34 that was far enough away from the other antennas that I could operate within 10 kHz of my transmitted signal without much QRM. I only made one QSO with this setup - N7NG - because most of the people I found CQing on Sunday were dupes. Bet WD0T wished he made that QSO instead (Todd missed Wyoming for a sweep).

Here I am, all ready to go. There are a lot of antennas at this station and part of the reason I made this page is so I could remember them next year. Each one of the coax switches selects the various antennas for each band. Mostly I transmit on two antenna systems tee'd together - one to the NorthEast and one to the West. If I have a weak station call, I can switch to a single antenna pointed at the station to complete the QSO. During SS SSB, I worked W5WMU with Q power from Oregon. I knew I was weak and I commented to the operator that they must have switched to the 6 element KLM to work me (on 20 meters). They seemed surprised that I knew this - I was using my new K7RAT club call.

It is almost impossible to capture this station with pictures - but I will try. This is a shot looking almost west from the shack. I say shack - because this is not Pat's home, but a QTH dedicated to radio. The "shack" is a little bigger than the one you may have seen on the KM9P tour. It is probably about 3000 square feet, broken into 3 sections: the radio room, the sleeping room and the kitchen/storage room. There is running water AND a water heater (TI4CF could use one of them). This is a comfortable place to spend a weekend. I typically arrive direct from the airport and except for going out to dinner once, I like to just hang out and relax.

If you use your imagination, the KT-34 is on a 50 foot tower in the distance. This is where you enter the property from the road. The only real antenna you can see in this picture is a quad pointed SouthEast. All of the other antennas are too high. Just to the left of the coax is a mud puddle - showing you that the water table here is about 2 inches below the ground (in the high places). This is a SWAMP!

On the right tower at the top is a full sized 3 element 40 meter beam (DX Engineering). This is pointed to the NorthEast and is paired up with a 4 element KLM 40 on the West coast for my main transmitting antenna. This combination of antennas really saved the day for me in 1996. I ended up with over 1,000 QSOs on 40 meters in the contest.

Below the 40, there is a 5 element 20 pointing west. This antenna is paired up with the 204BA on the left tower (pointing NorthEast). These two antennas have worked well together for me in both the '95 and '96 SS CW contests. However, we did have problems in the shack which prevented them from working well until Sunday morning when I found a bad elbow connector on the coax switch. This failure cost me 30 minutes in the first hour and limited my 20 meter production significantly. I had fewer than 35 QSOs on 20 meters as late as 1500Z on Sunday morning!

Here you can see the shack. The tower on the left is the tallest tower on the property - 200 feet. There is a 6 element KLM 15 at the top which I have only made one QSO with in two SSs: KP2 for my clean sweep in '95. The 2 element 40 down the tower is pointed North and sometimes gets used to copy weak signals coming from the north. However, I didn't find this antenna too useful. The next tower to the right is the one with the 3 element 40 on it. The next one after that is the 204BA previously shown. Next comes a tower with a 6 element 20(?) on it pointing to the East. I think I used this antenna very seldom. Finally, there is a tower with a 6 element 15 pointing East which was never used. This shot shows about a third of the antennas at W5WMU.

This is another big tower on the left with a KLM six element 20 on the ring rotator near the top. The stack is a pair of 6 element KLM's on the West coast. These get paired up with a stack of 4 element beams pointing to the northeast for the main 15 meter antenna. Just to the right of the tower, near the bottom, there is another tower which is the reflector of a 3 element vertical array on 80 meters to the NorthEast. This antenna works very well into W1/W2/W3 land.

This is the 10 meter stack to the NorthEast.

This is another view of the tallest tower on the left, a short tower with some VHF/UHF antennas on it, a 6 element KLM something pointing east (Pat - I need help identifying all these antennas!), the 204BA to the NorthEast, and the 3 element 40 pointing North.

These quads may look funky, but they work. When you switch to them on 15 meters, suddenly the KP2 and KP4 stations are loud and everyone else is weak. I used this to finish my clean sweep by finding KP4. The driven element of the three element vertical array on 80 is just to the righ of the quad tower. On the right hand side of the picture, you can see the boom supporting a 2 element 80 meter wire quad to the west. Below that boom is the low 4 element KLM 40 which is used by itself to listen only in one direction.

The two larger 4 element beams make up the 15 meter stack pointed to the NorthEast. They are typically tee'd with the two six element KLM's pointed to the West to make up the primary antenna for 15 meters. The smaller beams make up the ten meter stack to the West.

At the top of the tower holding the two previously described stacks is a 4 element 20 meter beam pointing North. I rarely use this antenna, but sometimes a weak W0 will be better on this antenna.

The two four element antennas are 10 meter beams pointing to the NorthEast. These get phased with a similar set of antennas pointing to the West. However, I have not even made a QSO on 10 meters yet in the SS due to the low sunspots. The antennas at the top are pointing East and I don't remember what they are (more beams which I have never used).

You are looking at two 4 element KLM 40 meter beams, both pointing at the West coast. The top antenna (at 160 feet) is normally working with the 3 element DX Engineering beam pointing at the NorthEast. Together, these two antennas really cover the country. The lower KLM gets used when I want to hear a weak West coast station without the QRM coming from Europe or the East coast.

The boom in between the two beams supports a 2 element wire Quad for 80 meters, pointed at the west coast. This antenna really works well into Texas and California. However, there is a 80 meter dipole somewhere which seems to be the best all alround transmit antenna. Maybe someday we will tee the 3 element vertical array with this Quad for better performance. There is also a 2 element vertical beam pointed to the West that might need furthur testing.