John Heartney

Last year,  NOVEC rearranged  the ac power feed to our repeaters hosted at their Lomond Drive location.    When lightning stuck the NOVEC tower next to our repeater shack, some of our equipment was damaged.  Here is the damage that Ken, KE2N found : The D-STAR gateway computer had failed (power supply) The mini-PC we were using for 224.66 Asterisk had failed (judged not repairable) The USB audio interface for 224.66 had failed The aux port on the 224.66 repeater had failed. The existing ac power surge arrester (20+ years old) had both of its “healthy” lamps off Ken found the reasons for why we suffered lightning damage: What I observed was that NOVEC had re-arranged our power feed since my last visit.  The feeder cable (previously underground) was now … Read more >>

On April 16th and 17th,  OVH members supported the Old Dominion Equestrian Endurance race near Strasbourg and the West Virginia line.  The OVH members helping were  Gil, KM4OZH; Duane,  KK4BZ;  Mark,  WA4KFZ and John, KG4NXT.   Net control was Ed, KE4RL and other hams assisting were Zoe, KG4TAM; Tom, KN4UNR and Neil, KE2LEY.  Frank, WB1USN was assistant net control. The event consisted of a 50 mile race,  a 30 mile race and a Ride and Tie race (RT).  The RT event had a team of 2 humans and one horse.  One person rode the horse and the other ran.   At various points,  the horse/human team pulled ahead and tied the horse to a tree.  When  the second person caught up, she got on the horse.  Meanwhile, the first person then became … Read more >>

After a pause of about 10 years, OVH operated Winter Field Day at a cabin in Shenandoah River State Park, which qualified us for a bonus of 1,500 points. OVH members participating included Don, WA2SWX; Theresa, KG4TVM; Jimmy, WD4OJY; Cat, KM4PBD; Ron, K3FR; Gil, KM4OZH; Duane, KK4BZ and John, KG4NXT. Al, KB4BHB tried to reach us on 40m phone, but we could not hear him and he could not hear us. Most of the contacts were made on 40m phone and 20m CW. Don and Ron were the CW operators. Don was an intercept operator in a former life. Ron brought a cootie key and did 40m CW. We were using the N3FJP logging software for Winter Field Day and the two laptops were connected by an ethernet cable. The … Read more >>

The Finance Committee and the OVH Board have created and approved a 2021 Scholarship in the name of Steve Frick, N4OGR. In light of our lack of income due to COVID, this scholarship will be funded primarily from contributions. Art, W1CRO has seeded the Steve Frick scholarship with a $500 pledge. The OVH will fund $100. We need you to fund the rest. The donation period ended Febuary 15, 2021. Thank you for your donations.

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 >>

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