John Heartney

The 13 Colonies special event is a contest for hams to contact special event stations in each of the 13 colonies.   Appropriately, the contest ran from July 1 to July 7 , which includes Independence Day.    Each state has a special 1 by 1 call.  For example,  Virginia was K2B.  The idea is to contact all 13 stations for a ‘sweep’.   The contest is on all bands  and all modes.  This was the 10th year the contest has run. For the Olde Virginia Hams,  the first known sweep was by Gil KM4OZH, who finished his in two days.   Other OVH members participating were Al, KB4BHB,   Wayne , N7QLK,  John,  KG4NXT, and David, KK4ZUU.   If  any one was missed,  contact KG4NXT  and we will correct the web article.   We should … Read more >>

As field day approached,  all eyes were on the weather forecasts  and the forecasts were not good.    On Friday, the rain let up about 1 pm but started again when we gathered at the park to slingshot lines for the antennas.   We proceeded and got all the lines shot with the loss of only two weights,   The rain actually helped a bit here because the  school kids at the site stayed under the pavilion which made it safe for some of the near shots. As we gathered Saturday morning for setup,  the rain held off for a time.   We had another challenge since Bill South, N4SV, had always setup and configured the logging computers and no one else had.   Byron, AK4XR, took the task on and had them all … Read more >>

Following Mark’s video technician training class class,  we had a VE session at Buckhall Volunteer Fired department.  We had 23 candidates and everyone got at least one new license.   We have 16 new Techs, 3 new Generals and 4 new extras.   Three of the new Techs took the General unsuccessfully.   I think 23 is probably a record for an OVH  VE session.  We  had so many candidates that we could not fit them into the training room at Buckhall that we use for our OVH meeting.   We had to put two overflow tables in an adjacent room where we did the grading.   We had lots of help from our OVH VEs.   We had Al, KB4BHB, Byron, AK4XR,  Luther, WA3FMO,   Steve (OGRE), N4OGR, Tony,  KM4KLR, Kevin, KX4KU,  Wayne , … Read more >>

I recently had a CW contact with Len, KJ6BKJ.    He sent me a touching letter that I want to share with the club.  It shows you never forget the code.   Here it is Dear John (KG4NXT), It was a sincere pleasure contacting you on the radio. I recently got my first set of QSL cards and so you will be among the first recipients. More important, you are my first CW contact since 1958. Sorry for the horrible job of sending. The picture depicts my inspiration for getting a ham license. I have been attempting to canoe the entire Mississippi River for the last several years. I do it with two others. Two of us get in the boat and paddle downstream to meet with the third who drives … Read more >>