Back in 2019, the Prince William Fairgrounds announced that it had been sold. This was significant to the Ole Virginia Hams because this was the traditional home for our Hamfest. And so, it was time to move our Hamfest location. We looked at many venues, schools, shopping centers and could not find anything that met our needs. And then we met Amelia Powell. Amelia works for the Parks and Recreation division of Manassas Park. It was Amelia who booked us at the Manassas Park Community Center This was a much bigger task than many people realize. The Hamfest Planning Committee, led by Don, WA2SWX, had to completely change venues. Planning and implementation changes included parking, security, food sales, setup access and tear down. Amelia was very helpful every step of the way. You probably remember that Hamfest 2019 was very… Read more »
VP – OVH July has been another busy month for the Ole Virginia Hams: OVH supported two Tri-It-Now events, one on July 4th and the other on July 27th. On July 17th, we saw the return of the OVH Breakfast. Last in this month’s roundup is the 13th Annual 13 Colonies Special Event. ***************************************************************************** The Return of the OVH Breakfast July 17th saw the return of The Ole Virginia Hams Breakfast @ Yorkshire Restaurant. Originally started by Former President Byron, AK4XR, this was the first OVH Breakfast since 3/14/20. It was good to see everyone again in person. We all had a nice time before breaking up and getting into our day. They are held on the Saturday before our Monthly Meeting @ 8 AM, so the next one will be August 14th, COVID permitting. Hope to see you there…. Read more »
In the picture, you see the WAS (Worked All States) award that Jay, NQ4T received from the ARRL. Congratulations to Jay. If you receive an award, let the web committee know and we will post it.
Happy Birthday wishes to Stephen, KO4GQR; Bill, WB4KLC; Jack, KN4HHQ; Ken, WB4ZOH; Philip, KI4WGC; Jeff, KM4FTK; Bruce, KN4TS; George, K4GVT; Sandy, KM4JUS; Rosalie, KN4ZLY; Dwight, N4GSD; Mary, KK4GOW; James, AA4KG; Jeff, K9VEG; Richard, KJ4ZIH; Luther, WA4FMO and Tony, KK4YZK – This is quite the list, I hope everyone was able to enjoy their day! I’m currently on vacation but just wanted to say happy birthday to our club members. Also wanted to say congratulations to the club and all the members for having a very successful and busy month of June. It was great seeing everyone out and about. John, KG4NXT and I are planning on going to the Berryville Hamfest, the first Sunday in August; hope to see some club members there! Please remember the Thursday night net at 8 PM. Having issues with your radio equipment or need… Read more »
VP – OVH Field day, like Gaul, is divided into three parts ( – with apologies to Julius Caesar) 1) setup 2) field day operation and 3) tear down and submitting the log files. The Setup June 25, 2021 was the day before the first day of Field Day. It was also “Setup Day”. As in some past years, we had a team out to shoot pull line in the trees which become support for field day antennas. Most years we do this with easy-ups and home made easy-up consisting of a sling shot and a fishing reel & weight. This year, we also had a drone dropping lines (George, K4GVT) and a very effective pneumatic launcher made by Jeff, K9VEG. There was no rain and the lines went up. Our infrastructure erectors included Byron, AK4XR; Jeff, WB4TT; Gil, KM4OZH; … Read more »
VP – OVH Sunday, June 27th, 2021 marked the return of the Manassas Mini Tri, and once again the Ole Virginia Hams provided communications support and acted as spotters. Andy, KJ4MTP was our coordinator at the event, which was held once again at The Freedom Aquatic & Fitness Center, Manassas, VA. Scheduled to start at 8:15 AM, Andy wanted us there no later than 7:30 AM for our assignments and actual positioning. To get us there on time, Andy bribed us with donuts, but to be fair, he made us bring our own coffee. Oh well. We did not have a full compliment however, so some Check Points went unmanned. Be that as it may, the Prince William County Police provided a very robust presence. There were five patrol cars each with officers where I was stationed, on Freedom Center… Read more »
It seems our recruiting efforts have been paying off with several new members joining the club recently. When you hear them on the Thursday club net, please take a minute to introduce yourself and welcome them to OVH. I had some questions at Tailgate about club nametags. You can order one directly from the link below. http://www.thesignman.com/clubs/ovhcart.html We also have club polos (right). For details, contact Jeff at WB6UIE@gmail.com
VP – OVH With the weekend behind us, it is time to look back at our Tailgate Party 2021. If this event had a motto, it probably would have been Semper Gumby (Always Flexible). The planning committee had to work around the coronavirus restrictions for places to have our event and to even have in person meetings. But we powered through. The week of the event was an eventful one weatherwise. The days immediately before the event were rain soaked. But we adapted. There was a great deal of planning by many individuals before the event and as you would expect, on the day of the event, real life happened. We thought we were onto something with our event, because of the level of interest we generated before the event: webpage comments, emails and even phone calls. Our flyer said… Read more »
