John Heartney

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.

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 >>

When we hauled the trailer to the OVH Tailgate Party, we noticed that there was a HOLE punched into the top front of the trailer. It was high up, beyond our reach. We do not know how it happened, but there it was. How do you fix a hole in the aluminum skin of the trailer? Answer: you call on our OVH machine shop owner, Gil, KM4OVH. Gil assessed the situation and had Ken, KN4DD, tow the trailer to his home which has an attached machine shop. Gil fashioned a very nice, shiny patch at the front top of the trailer. Click on the picture to get a larger version of the picture. While the trailer was at his place, Gil also fixed the back two stabilizer’s problems, one of … Read more >>

Early on July 4th, the OVH supported the Firecracker 5k run at the Freedom Center on the George Mason campus. Unlike the Mini-Tris that the OVH supports, this event had the runners on the streets outside of the campus. Therefore, the organizers wanted eyes on that part of the course with our instant radio support. Andy, KJ4MPT was Shadow and Net Control. Theresa, KG4TVM; Ken, KN4DD; Al, KB4BHB and John, KG4NXT manned posts along the race course. The police completely blocked off University Blvd which was a big help. This contrasts with the Mini-Tris, where some traffic is allowed. The race ended without safety incidents. Please click on the article to scroll through the photos.    

James, KQ4CAX activated Conway Robinson State Forest in Gainesville, VA for POTA (Parks on the Air) on May 21st.  James used FT8 on 20 meters using an end fed half wave antenna. He was accompanied by Don, WA2SWX and John, KG4NXT who also successfully activated the park. The solar flux was 170, which is good  but the K index was 4, which is not favorable.  

On Saturday April 22, Don, WA2SWX; Theresa, KG4TVM and John, KG4NXT traveled to Stanardsville, VA for the first ever Thawfest. We had an OVH table and handed out Tailgate flyers and had some equipment for sale from Don and Jim, WI4EE. The hamfest was well attended and the table rows were so close that John got to the OVH table by crawling under the table behind us. Theresa took a stack of flyers and handed them to the table vendors and the tailgaters. All of us handed out flyers to those going by or stopping at our table. It was a very pleasant crowd. Don found the the table on our right was manned by a lifelong ham who was an Orthodox priest. Also, the Thawfest people allowed us to … Read more >>

On February 25, OVH members Al, KB4BHB; Don, WA2SWX; Gene, N4HFW and John, KG4NXT activated the Manassas Battle field. We started at the visitor center but the rangers wanted us to operate in the “amateur radio area” in the picnic ground off Groveton road. We set up there and were glad of the windbreak on one side of the picnic shelter. We used Don’s Wolf River Coils vertical with 3 radials. The transmitter was the digital only QDX Digital Transceiver by QRP Labs which put out 5 watts. We had an amplifier but it would not key up. We needed 10 contacts and got 11, so it was a sucessful POTA activation. Once home, we found the problem with Tokyo Hy-Power HL-45b amplifier. It would not work on only 12 … Read more >>