George, K4GVT has been an engineer for years and recently retired from Cisco. George found himself bored and took on some part time work from a Fortune 500 company that we can not name. This company manufactures chips. These chips start out as silicon wafers and then are processed into chips. The manufacturing process is quite delicate and the wafers are never touched by humans as they process down the assembly line – moved by a track system. George was told that track system was often stopping at one point in the plant. The unintended stopping point was near machines that generate plasma. George knew that the plasma was generated in a chamber using kilowatts of RF. The company has a RF sniffer and it was not registering a problem. … Read more >>

On January 29th and 30th, OVH operated winter field day at Shenandoah River state park. The operators were Don, WA2SWX;  Ron, K3FR; Gil, KM4OZH and John, KG4NXT. Several OVH members were on the air to work us as the contest started. We worked George, K4GVT and Al, KB4BHB. Butch, W4HJL and Wayne, N7QLK gave us calls but we were unable to hear them although they could hear us. We made phone, CW and digital contacts. The winter field day rules prohibit FT8 so we used PSK31 for over 40 digital contacts. OVH member Elizabeth, KG4NXV and her family flew in from Washington state. Baby Ben was a big hit with all. The Washington area had a snow event, but the roads remained passable. Don and John put up a 134 … Read more >>

In January 2021, Mark Baker was not a ham. In December 2021, Mark is KO4MBN with a General ticket and has worked all 50 states and over 100 countries. Mark got his Tech ticket in February 2021. He joined the OVH in April 2021 and passed his General exam at an OVH VE session in October 2021. Zero to sixty in ham radio. Mark lives in Bristow, VA and is a Captain and Paramedic with the DC Fire Department. He has a number of other hobbies. He is an amateur astronomer. He does astrophotography and also landscape and nature photography. He is a pistol and rifle target shooter. He has three sets of dusty golf clubs as well as some bowling ball in the closet. Mark’s first exposure to radio … Read more >>

On Sunday December 12, we had our annual OVH Holiday party organized by Theresa, KG4TVM at the Yorkshire Restaurant. We had an excellent Club turnout with over 35 attendees. No tables were empty in our section of the restaurant. We had a renewed emphasis on the potluck part of the dinner with many wonderful dishes. Al, KB4BHB and Wayne, N7QLK worried that they would not be able to provide venison for the dinner. However, they suddenly were lucky and harvested two deer and then there was plenty of venison for the chili. Gil, KM4OZH made lemon cake which was so popular that Gil did not get a taste. Gil has previously made lemon cake for the Fauquier Club’s party and did not get to taste his own cake there either. … Read more >>