OVH supports Serve Our Willing Warriors (SOWW) and receives an award

Willing Warriors Bike Event 2021 Certificate

VP – OVH On Saturday, September 11th, members of the Ole Virginia Hams supported the 4th Annual Warrior Ride. The date for this ride was chosen to honor the fallen, survivors and heroes of that fateful day. I am pleased to report, “Mission Accomplished”! It was a beautiful day for a bike ride. While it got to 79° in the afternoon, the morning ride was cooler, with no humidity. Additionally, the variable clouds all day kept the riders cool and in the shade while the day wore on.                 That is not to say the day was without its challenges. 3 separate bike rides, a 13 miler, half metric (~30 miles) & full metric (~60 miles), all using the same starting route. The … Read more >>

July’s Roundup – One breakfast, two Tri-It-Now events & 13 Colonies

VP – OVH July has been another busy month for the Ole Virginia Hams: OVH supported two Tri-It-Now events, one on July 4th and the other on July 27th. On July 17th, we saw the return of the OVH Breakfast. Last in this month’s roundup is the 13th Annual 13 Colonies Special Event. ***************************************************************************** The Return of the OVH Breakfast July 17th saw the return of The Ole Virginia Hams Breakfast @ Yorkshire Restaurant. Originally started by Former President Byron, AK4XR, this was the first OVH Breakfast since 3/14/20. It was good to see everyone again in person. We all had a nice time before breaking up and getting into our day. The OVH Breakfasts are held on the Saturday before our Monthly Meeting @ 8 AM, so the next … Read more >>

OVH Field Day 2021

VP – OVH Field day, like Gaul, is divided into three parts ( – with apologies to Julius Caesar) 1) setup 2) field day operation and 3) tear down and submitting the log files. The Setup June 25, 2021 was the day before the first day of Field Day. It was also “Setup Day”. As in some past years, we had a team out to shoot pull line in the trees which become support for field day antennas.  Most years we do this with easy-ups and home made easy-up consisting of a sling shot and a fishing reel & weight. This year, we also had a drone dropping lines (George, K4GVT) and a very effective pneumatic launcher made by Jeff, K9VEG. There was no rain and the lines went up. … Read more >>

OVH Supports The Manassas Mini Tri

Rear panel added.

VP – OVH Sunday, June 27th, 2021 marked the return of the Manassas Mini Tri, and once again the Ole Virginia Hams provided communications support and acted as spotters. Andy, KJ4MTP was our coordinator at the event, which was held once again at The Freedom Aquatic & Fitness Center, Manassas, VA. Scheduled to start at 8:15 AM, Andy wanted us there no later than 7:30 AM for our assignments and actual positioning. To get us there on time, Andy bribed us with donuts, but to be fair, he made us bring our own coffee. Oh well. We did not have a full compliment however, so some Check Points went unmanned. Be that as it may, the Prince William County Police provided a very robust presence. There were five patrol cars … Read more >>

Tailgate Party in lieu of Hamfest 2021

VP – OVH With the weekend behind us, it is time to look back at our Tailgate Party 2021. If this event had a motto, it probably would have been Semper Gumby (Always Flexible). The planning committee had to work around the coronavirus restrictions for places to have our event and to even have in person meetings. But we powered through. The week of the event was an eventful one weatherwise. The days immediately before the event were rain soaked. But we adapted. There was a great deal of planning by many individuals before the event and as you would expect, on the day of the event, real life happened. We thought we were onto something with our event, because of the level of interest we generated before the event: … Read more >>

2021 OVH Tailgate Party Preparation

VP – OVH After months of planning, three planning meetings (one virtual and two in person) Ole Virginia Hams finally held its first Tailgate Party. I wanted to share with you the amount of work that went into this event and to acknowledge the incredible amount of effort of the planning and implementation crews. From the Tailgate event planning committee, we would like to recognize the following people: With John, KG4NXT; Theresa, KG4TVM; Sandy, KM4JUS; Ray, KM4EKR; Don, WA2SWX; Ken, KN4DD; Ron, K3FR; Tony, KM4KLB & Gil, KM4OZH. We would especially like to recognize Tony for the amount of effort he put into planning the layout of our Tailgate Party. Below, I have capsulized Tony’s nine page project plan in PDF format. I think this one page demonstrates the incredible … Read more >>

Update : OVH Laptops will be used by shelter kids for classes

"The Other Ken", KN4DD, delivering the OVH laptops

On October 27th, OVH once again stepped up for the community and donated 9 more computers. This brings our total to 20 usable computers donated. We are not counting the 4 donated laptops that were unusable and gifted to eAsset Solutions Computer and Electronics Recycling of Falls Church. A reminder: 11 laptops were donated by OVH to Gracing Spaces (https://www.gracingspaces.com) on August 31. They, in turn, presented those computers to Fairfax County Social Services for use by the children in their shelters. With regard to this round, seven of those nine computers were laptops. We would like to recognize Art, W1CRO; Butch, W4HJL; AL, KB4BHB; and John, KG4NXT for those laptops. The remaining two computers were Windows 10 desktop machines. Theresa, KG4TVM “re-gifted” these two machines after acquiring them from … Read more >>