Information about K5QE
This site preserves the amateur radio legacy of Marshall Williams, who held the K5QE callsign and built the station documented here. The K5QE callsign now belongs to Randy, and a new K5QE team is carrying the callsign forward. The historical material on this site remains a memorial archive for Marshall and the original K5QE station.
First licensed as WN4BUQ in 1965 when living at Ft. Belvior, VA, Marshall passed the General and became WB4BUQ. When he left the Army Corps of Engineers, he returned to Lubbock, TX to begin work on his Ph.D. in Mathematics/Computer Science. At that time he received WA5UNL as his call.
He graduated from Texas Tech in 1972. He became interested in weak signal VHF while in Lubbock, but became real serious when he moved to Jonesboro, Arkansas. He gave Arkansas to many a VHFer that needed that state. In Jonesboro, with the help of Bob Sutherland, W6PO, he built a KW amplifier for 2M using a 3CX1000A7 and an EME array of 16 5-element yagis.
He made the first EME contact from the 5th call district when he worked Bob, W6PO, on 2M. He then moved to Oklahoma to work for K5JL and K5GL. There, he erected a 240 element 2M EME array and worked W6PO and many others. While in Oklahoma, he was able to change his call to K5MB. In 1976, he made a 2M EME DXpedition to Hawaii which was hosted by Bert, KH6HI. They worked many stations that only needed Hawaii for WAS.
He moved to Pasadena in 1980, and ended up teaching Computer Science at San Jacinto College. He also started a computer networking company, Alpha Networks, that completely absorbed all his time. So much so, that he was off the air for many years and foolishly allowed K5MB to lapse. He re-tested and gained the Extra Class, but was a few days too late requesting his former call; it had been given to someone else.
Marshall later lived outside Hemphill, TX in EM31 right on the Texas/Louisiana border. The K5QE station had 6M, 2M, 222, 432, 902, 1296, 2304 and 3456 stations on the air.
Original source: https://www.k5qe.com/