John Heartney

OVH Holiday Party

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We had our annual OVH holiday party at Yorkshire restaurant on Dec 6.   Because of the virus, we wore masks when not eating.  In addition. the restaurant had blocked off every other table to help with social distancing.  We had the usual ham, turkey and venison chili for the main dish.  This year the venison was provided by Gil, KM4OZH, who had shot a 10 point buck.   There were a number of side dishes and desserts brought by OVH members. As usual, we also collected toys for tots.  Several members that could not attend provided toys including Gene, N4HFN; Wayne, N4HCR; Sandy, KM4OZH; Ray, KM4EKR and Al, KB4BHB.   We had two marines come to eat dinner and collect the toys for the toys for tots programs. There was a brief … Read more >>

Antenna Party for Butch, W4HJL

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tower near the ground with Al KB4HB, Bob W4HJF, George K4GVT and Gil KM4OZH supervising

On October 20, 2020,  the OVH had an antenna party for Butch, W4HJL.   Butch has a crank down tower at his house.   On the agenda:  1) replace the rotor because control box no longer displayed direction; 2) some of the beam elements were not in same plane as the rest – straighten them; 3) add a 6 meter beam to the antenna.    The crew consisted of Gil, KM4OZH;  George, K4GVT;   George’s brother in law, Tom Schweinfurth, Dick, WN7S; Al, KB4BHB;  Bob, W4HJF and John, KG4NXT.    Butch, W4HJL, cooked us all a fine lunch.    The replacement rotor did not have mounting holes in the right place so the decision was to field repair the old rotor and grease it up.   The field repair was handled most ably by … Read more >>

Scouts On The Air

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Ken KN4DD sets up a 2 meter contact for a scout

On Saturday, October 17, OVH ran Jamboree-on-the-Air (or JOTA) at Camp Snyder in Haymarket, VA.  One of our members , ROB (W4FSK) was our liaison with the scout camp and was also in charge of the camp that day.  We had a troop of boys, a second one of girls and a third troop of Muslim boys. Rob estimates the OVH volunteers worked with about 50 scouts and their leaders, just at Camp Snyder. The scouts that made contacts were given signed contact cards that they can then use for partial credit for several merit badges. John (KG4NXT) brought his IC-7610 so we could have a digital station and both Al, (KB4BHB) and “The Other Ken” (KN4DD) brought their 2 meter mobile stations. The digital station ran FT8 and worked … Read more >>

Junk in the Trunk

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Al KB4BHB, John KG4NXT, Don WA2SWX

On Saturday October 10, The Culpeper Amateur Radio Association (CARA) held their Junk in the Trunk. This was basically a tailgate only hamfest. The following OVH members are seen there: Don, WA2SWX;   Al, KB4BHB;   Theresa, KG4TVM;   John, KG4NXT;  Woody, N4MQ; Ron, K3FR &    Bill, AF4LL  was also there (Bill is a read-in member). The price of admission was more than reasonable – $5 per car, including cars with stuff to sell. We found the prices to be lower than we expected and there was good stuff to buy. Just as importantly, people were taking Covid-19 precautions by wearing masks. If you do not see pictures below – click the title above

OVH assists Serve Our Willing Warriors (SOWW) bike ride

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Couple smiling at Ron K3FR

The Serve Our Willing Warriors bike ride used ham radio for its communications.   The ham radio part was organized by Andy, KJ4MPT and included both OVH and Woodbridge Wireless members.  This was actually a 3 in 1 bike ride — there were courses for 58 miles,  30 miles and 13 miles.  The OVH members helping included Andy, KM4MPT;  John, KG4NXT;  Ron, K3FR;  Byron, AK4XR; Jay, NQ4T;  David, KG4GIY; Greg, KM4CCG; Ray, KM4EKR; and Sandy, KM4JUS. The rest stops were manned by  fire department EMTs from several jurisdictions while the water and snacks were provided by a Fairfax church. Ron, K3FR described his experience as follows: “I was on the course as the ham radio operator at checkpoint ROMEO-11 (St Louis Rd and Foxcroft Rd) in southern Loudoun County, so all … Read more >>

13 Colonies Certificates arrive

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13 Colonies 2020 certificate

The certificates from 13 Colonies special event are arriving.   If you get all 13 colonies, it is called a “sweep”.   There are also bonus stations for the Liberty Bell and a station in England.  Known club members include Al, KB4BHB;  Wayne, N7QLK and Ken, KE2N.  

OVH does distributed Field Day

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haywagon operating - Gil KM4OZH

Due to the damn pandemic, we did not have our usual field day at Nokesville Park. However, many club member did participate in field day activities. Known OVH field day operators include Al, KB4BHB; Wayne, N7QLK; George, K4GVT; Butch, W4HJL; Jay, NQ4T; Tony, KM4KLB; Ron, K3FR; John, KG4NXT; Jeff, K9VEG; Wayne, N4HCR; David KK4ZUU, Kevin, KX4KU; Mark, WA4KFX;, Bill, N4SV; Ron, N4RDZ; and Jim, KM4SXM. If you were missed, let John, KG4NXT know and we will add you to the list. Wayne, N4HCR, wrote an article on field day that was published on the forbes website.  This is the link to it:    https://www.forbes.com/sites/waynerash/2020/06/30/thousands-of-radio-operators-band-together-to-practice-for-the-worst/ There was a lot of digital operating this year. Three of us did FT8 with auto logging: Wayne, N7QLK; John, KG4NXT and Bill, N4SV. Mark, WA4KFZ … Read more >>

Contest University

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Contest University

Normally,  Contest University cost $85 and is presented at Hamvention in Dayton.   Since Hamvention was cancelled,  the organizers had a virtual Contest University on Zoom and have made the presentations available on the web.   The material is not limited to contesting and includes a great survey of recent rig transmit and receive capabilities entitled  “Contest & DX Performance A Complex Subject Today:  Great RX Performance – TX Limitations”.   There is a module on digital contesting that includes a “how to” on a number of Elecraft, Icom and Yaesu rigs called  “Everything You Need to Know About USB and Serial Interfaces”.   In all, there are 9 presentations that are available here: Contest University links

The above links are to the slide decks of the presentations.  They have also published a 10 hour YouTube presentation of all the proceedings Contest University on YouTube

With  a bit of patience, you can click to the individual presentations.