Sunshine Corner

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SUNSHINE CORNER – July  2024 Happy Birthday wishes to these club members: Jack, KN4HHQ; Ken, WB4ZOH; Philip, KI4WGC; Jeff, KM4FTK; Bruce, KN4TS; George, K4GVT; Sandy, KM4JUS; Rosalie, KN4ZLY; Dwight, N4GSD; Mary, KK4GOW; Jeff, K9VEG; Richard, KJ4ZIH; Luther, WA4FMO; Tony, KK4YZK; Stephen, KO4GQR; William, WB4KLC and Barbara, (no call) – Enjoy your day! Belated birthday wishes to Daniela, KQ4IKQ, she celebrated a milestone birthday in June! Condolences to Bill, AF4LL, on the passing of his Grandmother, who lived in Kentucky. Bill was one of our top operators at Field Day in previous years and had to miss it this year to be in Kentucky. POTA – Parks on the Air – Congratulations to Jeff, K9VEG, for obtaining his KILO award. This was for working a single POTA location with 1,000 QSOs. … Read more >>

President’s Letter for July 2024

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Hello Again Everyone, Once again, our busy season is winding down, and it’s been a whirlwind for some time now. On June 22nd & 23rd the OVH took part in ARRL Field Day 2024. Under the guidance of returning Field Day Chairwoman Cat, KM4PBD, we had another good Field Day weekend. We had 15 participants and a preliminary total score of: 3,336. I look forward to reading our official stats. Despite the heat & humidity, preparation started the day before, on Friday. Antenna lines were shot into the trees Friday afternoon. Gil, KM4OZH, handed off the OVH Trailer to James, KQ4CAX, who delivered it safely to Nokesville Park. Participants started showing up early Saturday, and we were ready to go long before the official start time. We also had our … Read more >>

Sunshine Corner

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SUNSHINE CORNER – JUNE 2024   Happy Birthday wishes to these club members:  Jan, KE4TMW; Edward, KQ4DPP; Jim, KM4SXM; Robert, W4PHX; Wayne, AG4ZZ; Gene, N4HFW; Bob, K4HJF; Robert, N0DGN; David, KQ4BDS; Dana, KM4TTP; Ron, K3FR; William, KO4QDL; Sean, KO4ZTO and Seth, WA0FZY – Enjoy your day! Happy Father’s Day to all our dads! Congratulations to all the kids for making it thru another school year, let the summer begin! Tailgate – Congratulations to Don, WA2SWX, our Tailgate Chairman and all the other club members who helped to make this event a success. Great job by everyone, even Mother Nature, the weather was the best we could have had. On to Field Day, June 22nd & 23rd, Cat, KM4PBD, is our Chairperson for this and just chaired the last planning meeting … Read more >>

President’s Letter for June 2024

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Hello Everyone, I’d like to start with our 2024 Tailgate Party (in lieu of Hamfest) on June 1st. Most importantly to me, a Big Thank You to all of our volunteers. Along with the good weather, you are the reason this event was so successful. And what a great capstone to Don’s career as Hamfest Chairman. After 5 straight Saturdays of rain, we had a 75° day with no rain and no humidity. We beat last year’s vendors & spenders headcount. Don’s XYL, Edith, ran the bake sale & it did quite well. Best of all, we cleared ~$1,500.00, after expenses. Way to go, Don! Last year we officially opened at 8 AM and many showed up 7-ish. So, this year we moved it up an hour earlier, and of … Read more >>

A Really BIG Antenna

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By Steve Mollman – KD9HL As a teenager and adult living in the shadow of the US Navy Radio Station NSS-Annapolis, I was able to watch much of the development of this gargantuan antenna system. Such things as 800 and 1200-foot towers with supporting 600-foot towers.  A sight for an amateur operator to behold and drool over! NSS-Annapolis first came operational in 1918 with two 350 KW arc transmitters.  Annapolis was strictly a transmitting site-the receivers were originally located at the Navy Yard Annex in Washington, DC. Later the receiver site was relocated to Cheltenham, MD, about 30 miles from Annapolis.  Portions of the site, including some of the log periodic antennas mounted on wooden utility poles, were visible to motorists traveling on US 301. Over the years improvements were … Read more >>

Sunshine Corner

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SUNSHINE CORNER – May 2024   Happy Birthday wishes to these club members:  John, KM4VCJ; David, KG4GIY; Bill, WA4FIC; Steve, N0DWB; Jack, N4YIC; Carl, KK4ZYX; Craig, WA3UFY; Roberto, KM4RIE; Dick, KM4UXE; Susan, K3SSP; Bruce, KN4GDX; Don, WA2SWX; Robert, KJ4EOR; John, KG4NXT; Kenneth, KI4EOH and Lynn, KX4HR.  Enjoy your day! Hard to believe our Tailgate event is only a few weeks away on June 1st.   Don’t forget the award ceremony for the Virginia QSO Party will be held during Tailgate. If you get an award, please make sure we get your photo for the next newsletter!   Also, this will be the last ham event that Don, WA2SWX, will chair, as he is moving with his YL Edith to Ecuador.  Edith has been running the bake sale table for the last several … Read more >>

President’s Letter for May 2024

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Hello Everyone, Well, with regard to the beginning of May, it sure looked like we were going to go directly into summer. While I don’t mind the warm days, I do like it cooler in the evenings. I sleep better in the cooler evenings, and I tend to think of it as “free air conditioning”. Thankfully, we seem to have returned to seasonal weather.   Theresa, KG4TVM, is once again proving herself to be a force of nature. As if May and June aren’t already the busiest months of our club’s year, she has acquired a cache of very old OVH Newsletters, and has been scanning them into her computer and uploading them into our website’s Newsletter Archive. With John, KG4NXT, assisting with the scanning, our website now has issues … Read more >>

New OVH Warthog

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On April 26, James, KQ4CAX, received the POTA Rover Warthog award from Parks on the Air. He earned this by activating 5 parks in a single UTC day.   His Parks were:   Prince William Forest Park, VA (U.S. National Park Service) Leesylvania State Park, VA Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail (U.S. National Park Service – VA, MD, DE, DC, PA, NY) Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail, MD (U.S. National Park Service) and lastly, The Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail (U.S. National Park Service – RI, MA, CT, NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD, DC, VA – A 680-mile series of roads used in 1781 by the Continental Army from Newport, Rhode Island, to Yorktown, Virginia.). Some of these parks were co-located.  John, KG4NXT, is also a POTA … Read more >>