Sunshine Corner

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SUNSHINE CORNER – March 2025 Happy Birthday wishes to the following club members: Harry KC9TXL, Harry KN4IJY, Brian KK4CBS, Gene KN4JMB, Gil KM4OZH, Paul N4PD, Joe KI4OHR, Lillian KK4MXY, David KI4AZX, Everett KJ4OLF, Paul W4ZB, David KD4DEE, Mark KN4OGC and Paul KO4UOO. Hope you have a great year ahead!         Condolences to the family of Ken WB4ZOH. Ken passed away at the beginning of April after being in hospice care for some time. Ken was a long time member of the OVH and was the net control of the Thursday Night Net for several years. Per Ken’s wishes there will not be a service. Thawfest III is Saturday, April 12th at the Madison High School off of Rt 29 about an hour south of Manassas. John KG4NXT … Read more >>

YOU can help with Meteor scatter experiments

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Our own Bruce KN4GDX is supporting the effort and has an article published in hamSCI ( Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation). You can help with a HF or 6M radio with wsjt-x. You can help even without transmitting. Here is an excerpt : hamSCI is preparing for a series of meteor scatter (MS) experiments later this year. The target storms will be peaking on August 11-12 (Perseids) and December 12-13 (Geminids). Preparation and testing are underway now. This is a combination ‘special event’ and a contest to generate contact data during meteor scatter events using 10 meters and 6 meters. Operating Guidelines are under development. This month’s Lyrids shower (peaking April 21-22) is an excellent time to set up your equipment and join with other operators preparing for the events … Read more >>

OVH Parks on the air or POTA

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Both spring and Don, WA2SWX, arrived recently. Don retired and moved to Ecuador last year with his wife Edith. He was back here for a brief visit. It was time to POTA again and the OVH was invited. We set up at Conway Robinson State Park, which has a shelter and lots of tall trees for antennas. We had a nice pile up on 20 Meters on FT8 despite Conway Robinson having been activated 216 times. OVH members attending were: Theresa, KG4TVM; Gene, N4HFW; James, KQ4CAX; Ken, KE2N and John, KG4NXT. Al, KB4BHB, contacted us as a Hunter on 2 meters. Heritage Hunt and Woodbridge Wireless have expressed interest in doing club POTA events. Say tuned.

President’s Letter for April 2025

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Greetings to all. I would like to start this month’s letter off with the 2024 September VHF Contest results. This contest ran September 14 – 16, 2024. I’d like to recognize OVH’s own Vice President, Gil, KM4OZH, for placing second in his category, “Limited Rover” with 13,986 points. He is now “Officially Famous” with his listing in the current issue (April, 2025) of QST, pages 76 & 77. Next up is last month’s VAQP back on March 15th and 16th. Gil had plenty of (mis) adventures with this one, including a deer vs. car contest. If you can get him to tell the story, it is a good one and he tells it well. I am not sure I would have been as sanguine as he was. I do hope … Read more >>

Sunshine Corner

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SUNSHINE CORNER – March 2025 Happy Birthday wishes to the following club members: Fred, N3KVV; Noel, NW5N; Scott, KM4FTD; Gary, K4MRL; Jeff, N1SN; Michael, KO4BCN; David, KO4HIR and Michael, KO4HBU. Hope you have a great year ahead! Condolences to Al, KB4BHB – his younger brother passed away in February. Get well wishes to Vicki, YL of Wayne, N7QLK, who had to spend some time in the hospital in February. John, KG4NXT and I attended the Vienna Winterfest on March 9th. Handed out a bunch of flyers for our Tailgate Party event. They had a great turnout for this hamfest! On Saturday, March 8th, the Heritage Hunt Hams had their very first VE Session. This was held after sponsoring classes for interested individuals. The turnout for the classes was incredible; people … Read more >>

Heritage Hunt has first VE session

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On Saturday March 8, 2025, our sister club, the Heritage Hunt Hams, had their first VE session. They had conducted an in-person class for Technician Class operator license with 15 people finishing. Some of them tested immediately but some did not. The Heritage Hunt Hams decided to hold their first VE session and asked for some OVH assistance. John, KG4NXT and Theresa, KG4TVM helped register the session and helped run the session. The Heritage Hunt VEs were Chris, K4XMS; Allen, KC4ZA; Tim, K6SLK and Stephen, KI4SA. Don, W2SBI helped although he is not a VE. The session went smoothly, however one candidate left his jacket and his study book at the test site. The book did not have his name on it but it has his FRN, so we matched … Read more >>

President’s Letter for March 2025

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Greetings All, In February, we held our annual club officer elections during our monthly meeting. I’d like to thank everyone who braved the bad weather to participate. In a clean sweep, your entire officer cadre was reelected. John, KG4NXT; Jeff, K9VEG; Gil, KM4OZH and I (Ken, KN4DD) were returned to our positions as Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President and President, respectively, Because of that bad weather, our featured speaker, Gordon, NQ4K, was not able to give his Virginia QSO party briefing. In his stead, John, KG4NXT was able to find us a video last minute. His video was “Parachuting into POTA”. While interesting, I don’t think many of our OVH members will be rushing out to try this one. The most common comment, and thus the lesson learned from this video, … Read more >>

OVH goes to Vienna Winterfest

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Gil KM4OZH looking at Ken KE2N 's KS3 which was for sale

On March 9, 2025, the OVH had a table at the Vienna Wireless Club’s Winterfest. They gave us a table for free with the understanding that the OVH would give them a free space at the OVH Tailgate Party. The table was manned by Theresa, KG4TVM and John, KG4NXT. The main purpose of our table was to distribute flyers for our June 7th Tailgate Party. We also had an Elecraft KS3 for sale, which generated a lot of interest but did not sell in the end. Winterfest was well attended and all inside tables were sold, although a few vendors did not show up. Woodbridge Wireless had a table with lots of things for sale. Also, there was some respectable tailgating outside despite the somewhat brisk temperatures. Theresa distributed tailgate … Read more >>