John Heartney

I was first licensed in 1964 and just got my first Meteor Scatter contact. Thanks to Bruce, KN4GDX and Rich, K1HTV, for their help. Most radio skip occurs when our signal bounces off of an ionized layer of the ionosphere. That layer has been ionized by the sun. For meteor scatter, the ionization is provided by a meteor that is burning up in the atmosphere. That means the ionization is not up there for long as that meteor burns up. On the evening of August 10, 2025, I made my first meteor contacts. I used the MSK144 mode of WSJT-X on 6 meters – 50.260 MHz bouncing off of the Perseid meteors. Here is Rich’s description of MSK144: “The Perseid meteor shower is a 24 hour a day shower. Unlike … Read more >>

This year the Berryville Hamfest was better than ever. For the first time, the ARRL State Convention was held at the hamfest. The tailgate area almost ran out of parking. There were odd things for sale as well as most radios ever made. John, KG4NXT, got a Waffle House t-shirt from 2019 that had a graphic of a Waffle House with the words “Proudly Serving Ham Radio Operators”. We had a lot of active and in-active OVH members attending: Bill, AF4LL; Mark, WA4KFZ; John, KK4TCE; Ed, KK4PHP; Karl, W4KRL; David, KD4DEE; Gil, KM4OZH; Ron, K3FR; John, KG4NXT and Theresa, KG4TVM. Click on the picture to get a slide show of pictures from the hamfest.

On July 18th, the OVH had a club POTA activation at Conway Robinson State Forest, located in Prince William County, VA. We also invited members from the Heritage Hunt club and two of them came. We had two stations running. The first station was John, KG4NXT, with an end fed, half wave antenna in the trees using Lithium battery power. The second station was George, K4GVT, who ran his portable Delta Loop antenna, which was powered by both battery and solar cells. This was George’s first activation and it was successful with 13 contacts. John also successfully activated with 20 contacts. In addition to the operating, there was also some socializing, which was nice. Theresa, KG4TVM, brought coffee and donuts. The OVH members attending were George, K4GVT; James, KQ4CAX; Al, … Read more >>

Early on July 4th, the OVH did communication and overwatch at the George Mason University Freedom Center, at Manassas, VA. We watched for safety problems on University Blvd. Helping were Greg, KM4CCG; Theresa, KG4TVM;  Al, KB4BHB; John, KG4NXT and Jerry, KR4EZZ.   Jerry had just received his license grant on July 2nd and showed up with an HT to support the race.  We were released about 10:15 AM.  The sponsors provided race T-Shirts to all OVH members. Those shirts will be distributed at the July OVH meeting. Click the picture for more pictures.

Gil, KM4OVH, is a national competitor in the ARRL VHF contest and a past statewide Plaque winner in the Virginia QSO Party (VAQP). The VAQP starts at 10 AM on Saturday and runs until midnight and then runs 8 AM to 8 PM on Sunday. Gil always plans his route in detail ahead of time to maximize his multipliers. Byron, AK4XR, has been understudying Gil and following in a separate vehicle. For Gil and Byron, things went as planned on Saturday. The plan was to grab some sleep at Gil’s family farm and to continue the planned route on Sunday at 8 AM. As they drove at 1 AM on Sunday with Gil in the lead, A DEER APPEARED in the left part of the road. Gil applied the brakes … Read more >>

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.