I was first licensed as KN0GWD in April 1961 in Great Bend, Kansas. I upgraded to Conditional before my Novice year was up and became K0GWD. We moved to Moore, Oklahoma in the fall of 1962 and I was issued my present call, W5LXS. In the summer of 1963 we again moved, this time to Midland, Texas where I now reside.
As a result of incentive licensing, I was grandfathered into a General, held an Advanced for 2 weeks, and became an Extra in 1983.
I spent 15 years totally QRP with a TenTec Argonaut 515 running 1.7 watts out to a Mosley TA-33 @ 50 feet and stored solar power. With that setup I worked 135 countries and was NCS of the QRP ARCI 20 meter net.
Work-wise, I spent a little over 35½ years with Southwestern Bell Telephone Company working in carrier maintenance, microwave radio, and fiber optics / digital equipment. I retired in August of 2001, came out of retirement in 2002, and served 10 years maintaining computers for the City of Midland, Texas.
CW has always been ham radio to me and it’s great to see so many people taking an interest in learning this wonderful facet of our hobby. I hope they will take up ragchewing as it seems like most of that is being done by old timers like myself. I enjoy contesting with our local club for Field Day and in the Texas and Kansas QSO Parties. I won first place in the Low Power / Single Op / CW Only category of the Texas party in 2020.
My current station consists of an Elecraft K3 running 100 watts to an inverted vee doublet @ 30 feet. I look forward to taking part in CWops activities and I thank John Wilder, WA5PFJ for the nomination and those who sponsored me.
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.