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 >>

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.  

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 >>

This is a collection of stories and photos of OVH members during the QSO party.   We do not have all of the stories.  If you would like your story to be added, please e-mail it to KG4NXT@ARRL.NET. First , our two oldest members operated together. Al, KB4BHB, and Chick, KC1PIA, operated from Al’s house using a 100 watt 2m amp and HF random wire. These guys were both born in 1933 and did a fine job. Next,  John, KG4NXT, and Theresa operated from a state park cabin at Lake Anna.  John  managed to forget a jumper with pl-259 connectors on both ends. He did have a coax with one pl-259.   He managed a field expedient for the other end – see photo below.   John operated Digital on JS8 mode and … Read more >>

On March 14, 2020,  OVH held a VE session.   We had a host of people from Maryland and Arlington because several other VE sessions had been cancelled.    We had 17 candidates and they earned 10 new technician , 1 new general and 3 new extra licenses.  One fellow went from no license to Extra.  Three candidates did not earn a new license.   The VEs assisting were John, KG4NXT; Al, KB4BHB; Chick, KC1PIA;  Luther, WA3FMO;  Steve, N4OGR; Steve, KB4OF; Mark , WA4KFZ;  George, K4GVT; Byron, AK4XR;  and Ray , KM4EKR.