Club News

President’s Letter for September 2025

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Hello All, A reminder that September is National Preparedness Month. So, while the weather is warm and mostly dry, now would be a good time to inspect any tree-supported antennas or get a new one up. Left on our 2025 To-Do List, we have the Manassas Christmas parade on December 6th at 10 AM and our annual OVH Christmas Party. Preparations have begun. Back on September 6th the Ole Virginia Hams supported the SOWW 8th Annual Bike Ride. It was ~93° and nice. And the rain waited until the evening. A big thank you to new member, Jerry, KR4EZZ, who not only attended his first Bike Ride as a spotter, he wrote his first article as a contributor for our webpage, “My First Willing Warrior Ride”, immediately below this article. … Read more >>

My First Willing Warrior Ride

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The following is from Jerry, KR4EZZ, who was helping with the (8th annual SOWW) Warrior Ride for the first time: Click on the picture to see the whole article and a slideshow at the end. I was not going to go to the brewery first and just go to my station, as the schedule had me down to be there at 9:15. But, I decided it might be nice to see things start. At the brewery, I was told the station (Evergreen Country Club) was set up ahead of time and they were waiting for me. So, I took off. Got there and saw a tent, with two EMTs (Great Falls FD) and two nurses (from UVA Hospital, Haymarket on Heathcote Blvd. and from Prince William) sitting underneath. A bit … Read more >>

My First Meteor Scatter Contacts

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Pskreporter shows KG4NXT heard in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts

I was first licensed in 1964 and just got my first Meteor Scatter contact. Thanks to Bruce, KN4GDX and Rich, K1HTV, for their help. Most radio skip occurs when our signal bounces off of an ionized layer of the ionosphere. That layer has been ionized by the sun. For meteor scatter, the ionization is provided by a meteor that is burning up in the atmosphere. That means the ionization is not up there for long as that meteor burns up. On the evening of August 10, 2025, I made my first meteor contacts. I used the MSK144 mode of WSJT-X on 6 meters – 50.260 MHz bouncing off of the Perseid meteors. Here is Rich’s description of MSK144: “The Perseid meteor shower is a 24 hour a day shower. Unlike … Read more >>

President’s Letter for August 2025

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Greetings All, The month of August is the halfway point of this, my last term as your Club President. I have enjoyed serving, both as Vice President (one term) and President (four terms) of the Old Virginia Hams Amateur Radio Club. But with what appears to be increasing medical issues, it is clear it will soon be time to step aside and make way for new blood and new ideas. Accordingly, I am planning on finishing my term in February with our standard election cycle and not running for any club officer position after that. Additionally, I will be surrendering my duties as “A / V Guy” (audio/visual guy) at that time as well. We are a 60+ year old club made up of over 100 members. With 6 months … Read more >>

Berryville Hamfest 2025

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Bill AF4LL and Dana

This year the Berryville Hamfest was better than ever. For the first time, the ARRL State Convention was held at the hamfest. The tailgate area almost ran out of parking. There were odd things for sale as well as most radios ever made. John, KG4NXT, got a Waffle House t-shirt from 2019 that had a graphic of a Waffle House with the words “Proudly Serving Ham Radio Operators”. We had a lot of active and in-active OVH members attending: Bill, AF4LL; Mark, WA4KFZ; John, KK4TCE; Ed, KK4PHP; Karl, W4KRL; David, KD4DEE; Gil, KM4OZH; Ron, K3FR; John, KG4NXT and Theresa, KG4TVM. Click on the picture to get a slide show of pictures from the hamfest.

Three Generations of Ham Radio

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What was Ham Radio like 100+ years ago? How did Ham Radio impact three generations of one family over that time? One of our members, Ron Todd, K3FR, dug into his family memories and photos to put together a (short) slide presentation covering his father’s experiences with Ham Radio and how it has impacted his, and now, his son’s life. Join in through Ron’s presentation and his dad’s own notes.

OVH Club POTA activation

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Jerry KR4EZZ, Al KB4BHB, John KG4NXT, Ted, Theresa KG4TVM

On July 18th, the OVH had a club POTA activation at Conway Robinson State Forest, located in Prince William County, VA. We also invited members from the Heritage Hunt club and two of them came. We had two stations running. The first station was John, KG4NXT, with an end fed, half wave antenna in the trees using Lithium battery power. The second station was George, K4GVT, who ran his portable Delta Loop antenna, which was powered by both battery and solar cells. This was George’s first activation and it was successful with 13 contacts. John also successfully activated with 20 contacts. In addition to the operating, there was also some socializing, which was nice. Theresa, KG4TVM, brought coffee and donuts. The OVH members attending were George, K4GVT; James, KQ4CAX; Al, … Read more >>

President’s Letter for July 2025

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    Hello Again Everyone,   Once again, our busy season is winding down, and it’s been a whirlwind for some time now. On June 28th & 29th, the OVH took part in ARRL Field Day 2025. Under the guidance of returning Field Day Chairwoman Cat, KM4PBD, we had another good Field Day weekend. I look forward to reading our official stats. Despite the humidity and light rain, preparation started the day before, on Friday. Antenna lines were shot into the trees Friday afternoon. We also had our second weather balloon launch (or second and third if you are going to be a stickler for such things) on Saturday. Please see the July 9th article on our OVH webpage for an in depth look as well as great graphics (a … Read more >>