FT8 at 35,000 feet

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wa2swx does FT8 from an airplane

Don, WA2SWX, did some FT8 while flying to Ecuador. He connected via the internet to his home station in Centreville. Here is his description: “FT-8 at 35,000 feet somewhere over Mexico or Central America. The nerd’s version of the mile high club.” Here is the screen shot: This is legal under part 97 US Station: o FCC Rules: Part 97.109 Station control …“Any station may be remotely controlled.” o FCC Rules Part 97.213 Telecommand of an amateur station: …has some simple requirements, including a 3 minute time-out on the transmitter in the event of malfunction. 4 US Station, with Operator outside of US: Operator must be “licensed” by a US License, bilateral, reciprocal, IARP agreement or CEPT T/R 61-01. The call sign used must always indicate the location of the … Read more >>

Sunshine Corner

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SUNSHINE CORNER – September 2023 Happy Birthday wishes to our club members celebrating this September – Gus, N4MLE; Scott, WB6EFW; Al, KB4BHB; Jim, WE4JJ; Kyle, No Call Sign; Maury, W4HYB; Luis, KQ4GBC; Ron, N4RDZ; Mark, WA4KFZ;  Lori, KC0EWN and Bill, AF4LL. Hope you all have wonderful birthdays with lots of candles!   Special Happy Birthday to Chick, KC1PIA whose 90th birthday was at the end of August. Special Happy Birthday to Al, KB4BHB who had his 90thbirthday September. This is really awesome. Glad you are smiling. I hope you got lots of gifts and fun stuff. Congratulations Corner:  Many thanks to the OVH volunteers who helped the Willing Warriors community with their 6th Annual Warrior Bike Ride back on September 9. Also, a big shout out for all the OVH … Read more >>

President’s Letter for September, 2023

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Greetings Everyone, Once again, it’s half past September. After a short cool period last month, September heat came roaring back with a vengeance. Depending where you were in the greater Washington DC area, you experienced three to five days of back to back record-breaking heat paired with less than normal rainfall so far. The good news, if you will allow me, Hurricane Season (which ends December 1st) has been mild for the US this year, with only one storm hitting the mainland so far. And as always, I hope for a mild winter. Our flurry of activities is winding down too. Off of the top of my head, we have the last Tri-It-Now event in October, the Manassas Christmas parade on December 2nd and our annual OVH Christmas Party left … Read more >>

Sunshine Corner

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SUNSHINE CORNER – August 2023 Happy Birthday wishes to our club members celebrating this August: Ken, KD4VA; John, KK4TCE; Karl, W4KRL; STU, W4PR; Ronnell, KK4ZNR; Chick, KC1PIA; Vern, K0LVS; Duane, KK4BZ and  Raymond, KK4AQR. Hope you all have wonderful birthdays with lots of candles! August OVH Meeting: If you want to know more about the OVH, please attend one of our meetings that are held on the third Tuesday of the month. Our next scheduled meeting will be Tuesday 08-15-2023 at 7:30 PM at the Buckhall Volunteer Fire Department, 7190 Yates Ford Road, Manassas, VA 20111. You are welcome to attend without obligation. From the parking lot, you will see a wing wall projecting from the building with signage that reads “Training Room”. The single door to the room where … Read more >>

President’s Letter for August 2023

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Hello Everyone, With September only a few weeks away, I am reminded that while Hurricane Season officially starts on June 1st , here in the Mid-Atlantic region it unofficially begins in September. Now would be a good time to check your emergency communications equipment, supplies, including batteries. It would also be a good time to verify the integrity of both your antenna(s) and the guy wires. Over the years, the Ole Virginia Hams have had several members completely fry their equipment due to lightning strikes. So, I think it would also be good to review your safe grounding & isolation setups. While depriving you of a good story, it’ll save you a lot of money and (setup) aggravation later on.   Cat’s, KM4PBD head injury Back at the end of … Read more >>

13 Colonies Certificates begin to arrive

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The 13 Colonies event runs in early July and consists of contacting special event stations in each of the original 13 colonies. Contacting all 13 constitutes a “SWEEP”. There are three bonus stations: Liberty bell in Philadelphia; England and France. Many OVH members participated including AL, KB4BHB; Duane, KK4BZ; Jay, NQ4T; Bill, N4SV and John, KG4NXT. Click the small image to get a much bigger view of the certificate.

K3FR will activate rare grids

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Ron, K3FR explains as follows: A week from now I will be off on the first leg of my three week journey to the west coast and back. Here are the slides I talked about at the FARA club meeting last week. I will be hitting 25 states, 80 plus grids, while visiting family in Michigan, Washington and Oregon. I’ll be stopping at a lot of sightseeing spots and points of interest. I’ll be carrying two cameras and my Icom IC-7100. I intend to activate 6 meters and 2 meters from the rarer grids beginning on my third day. Hope some of you get to connect with me. 73, Ron, K3FR __________________________ Click on the picture to get a link to download powerpoint slides of his journey Ron’s slides of … Read more >>

Member Spotlight – OVH’s own Gavin Saul, KK4MXT in the news.

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We have seen the Saul family at our monthly meetings on many occasions. While it is common to see wives trail in after the husbands, and sometimes husbands following wives in, it is rare for us to have the whole family come in.  Robert, KK4MXU (or “dad” as Gavin might say), Gavin, KK4MXT, mom Kirsten & sister Katie all have been spotted at Buckhall VFD at one time or another. This is due in part to their affinity with the Ole Virginia Hams (Kristen ran the kids 4H event at our Hamfest for several years when we were still at the fairgrounds and is still is very active with the 4H.) and in part because Robert is an officer at the Buckhall VFD and they live just down the street … Read more >>