Inducted May 2026
Tom Lee has been an extraordinary station builder, a successful contester, and a great team leader for more than three decades from his four-tower station in Chesterland, OH.
Tom has been extremely active and an integral contributor to contest clubs. He was an early and active member of the Mad River Radio Club in the 1970’s. The beginning of MRRC created a new type of contest club to challenge the seemingly unbeatable “Old Guard” clubs, such as FRC and PVRC. Modern ARRL club competition rules and the concept of a “regional contest club” can be traced back to the “sea change” created by the founding of MRRC.
A founding member of the North Coast Contesters in 1987, Tom served as President and Vice President of NCC numerous times. He hosts an annual K8AZ Open House/NCC meeting in early January that has become a fixture of the Ohio mid-winter contest social calendar for more than 30 years.
Tom was a founding director of the World Wide Radio Operators Foundation (WWROF). He did all of the founding paperwork at the inception of the WWROF in 2008 and continues to serve as its secretary. He devotes significant time to the organization, which has supported major contest infrastructure and worked to preserve assets important to contesting.
Since 1985, when he acquired his current station location on five acres in the far eastern suburbs of Cleveland, Tom has attracted a team of more than 70 hams. This group is amazing, not only in their individual operating talents and accomplishments but also in their dedication to the K8AZ station. In the early years of the station, any given Saturday would find many people working on various projects to build, maintain, or improve K8AZ. Putting sweat equity into station building was always rewarded with “chair time” in any contest in which the Team entered. This dedication and loyalty are directly attributable to Tom and his belief that contesting and station-building should be an enjoyable and cooperative effort.
The K8AZ station, with operating crews spanning many skill levels, has won high honors in every major DX contest for over three decades and consistently finishes “in the box” in either the Multi-Single or Multi-Two category each year. This high level of achievement has continued uninterrupted since the late 1980’s and is a testament to Tom’s leadership.
During his active professional career, Tom was a litigation partner and Assistant General Counsel of a large midwestern law firm.