As we commemorate both Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day this month, lets take a moment to recognize some of the contributions made by our fellow hams in uniform. For this month’s vicarious escape from cabin fever, we’ll explore a fascinating but little covered corner of radio history – the role of Joan and Eleanor in WWII OSS secret agent communications. OSS (Office of Strategic Services) entered service as America’s national intelligence agency during the dark days of WWII on 13 June 1942. In addition to its traditional collection and analysis missions, OSS was responsible for covert action against Axis forces. That meant inserting agents behind the lines in Axis occupied territory to link up with partisan resistance groups. Reliable and secure communications with these groups was essential for receiving their reports, scheduling supply drops, and coordinating their tasking. Deployed… Read more »

As we hunker down in isolation during the current health crisis, many of us are finding our hobby a welcome way to connect with others. Not surprisingly, the press has reported increased public interest in amateur radio.  And OVH is receiving new membership applications. Looks like some opportunities for online Elmering may be on the way. How about some other activities to distract from cabin fever? Antennas. A traditional spring sport for hams in keeping with that classic quote “If your antenna stayed up last winter, it wasn’t big enough”. Tell us about your latest design, how well it worked and how you managed to hide it from your HOA. Or, how about your wackiest encounter with an HOA.   Exploring new bands. Could we maintain comms across the local area without the repeater? Want to try 6 or 10 meters?… Read more »

This is a collection of stories and photos of OVH members during the QSO party.   We do not have all of the stories.  If you would like your story to be added, please e-mail it to KG4NXT@ARRL.NET. First , our two oldest members operated together. Al, KB4BHB, and Chick, KC1PIA, operated from Al’s house using a 100 watt 2m amp and HF random wire. These guys were both born in 1933 and did a fine job. Next,  John, KG4NXT, and Theresa operated from a state park cabin at Lake Anna.  John  managed to forget a jumper with pl-259 connectors on both ends. He did have a coax with one pl-259.   He managed a field expedient for the other end – see photo below.   John operated Digital on JS8 mode and submitted a digital log – no digital logs were submitted… Read more »

On March 14, 2020,  OVH held a VE session.   We had a host of people from Maryland and Arlington because several other VE sessions had been cancelled.    We had 17 candidates and they earned 10 new technician , 1 new general and 3 new extra licenses.  One fellow went from no license to Extra.  Three candidates did not earn a new license.   The VEs assisting were John, KG4NXT; Al, KB4BHB; Chick, KC1PIA;  Luther, WA3FMO;  Steve, N4OGR; Steve, KB4OF; Mark , WA4KFZ;  George, K4GVT; Byron, AK4XR;  and Ray , KM4EKR.

This week we’re experiencing a few days of spring like weather and the ionosphere is teasing us with occasional HF openings into Europe and hopes for an increase in the sunspot number. Speaking of HF, this spring marks another anniversary in radio history. In spring of 1956, Air Force General Curtis LeMay led a flight of several aircraft half way around the world while maintaining continuous HF SSB communications with several Strategic Air Command (SAC) ground stations. Why? As commander of SAC’s newly minted nuclear bomber force, LeMay needed a way to guarantee continuous command and control of his forces. Smaller fuselage designs of faster jet bombers meant smaller crews and no room for a Morse operator. AM’s noise vulnerability and poor talk power weren’t going to hack it. What to do? SSB (single sideband) offers a big improvement in… Read more »