James, KQ4CAX activated Conway Robinson State Forest in Gainesville, VA for POTA (Parks on the Air) on May 21st. James used FT8 on 20 meters using an end fed half wave antenna. He was accompanied by Don, WA2SWX and John, KG4NXT who also successfully activated the park. The solar flux was 170, which is good but the K index was 4, which is not favorable.
Hello Everyone, I would like to jump right in this time. After a 2 year transition, the FCC implemented its new RF Exposure program. Ron, K3FR, reminded us at our last meeting on April 18th, that the rules phase-in would begin on May 3rd. As of this writing, that phase-in occurred about one week ago. Ron informed us that on pages 64 thru 66 in the May 2023 issue of QST magazine, there is an excellent article detailing this event. He also reminded us that on page 65, the ARRL provided a link to an ARRL RF Exposure calculator tool that is free. http://arrl.org/rf-exposure-calculator The article also states there is a simple method that many hams would like, but cautioned it might be too conservative for other hams, and the … Read more >>
On Saturday April 22, Don, WA2SWX; Theresa, KG4TVM and John, KG4NXT traveled to Stanardsville, VA for the first ever Thawfest. We had an OVH table and handed out Tailgate flyers and had some equipment for sale from Don and Jim, WI4EE. The hamfest was well attended and the table rows were so close that John got to the OVH table by crawling under the table behind us. Theresa took a stack of flyers and handed them to the table vendors and the tailgaters. All of us handed out flyers to those going by or stopping at our table. It was a very pleasant crowd. Don found the the table on our right was manned by a lifelong ham who was an Orthodox priest. Also, the Thawfest people allowed us to … Read more >>
Greetings to all. April 3rd, 2023 was the 50th Anniversary of the cell phone. Inventor Martin Cooper of Motorola used the first portable handset … to make the first cell phone call … to his rival at Bell Labs. Way to rub it in, Marty. From 1973 until now, there has been an incredible proliferation of these devices. It seems like everyone has one and many have more than one. Yet, when I ask my students, most of whom are middle aged, “How many radio circuits are in an average smartphone?” their guesses are all over the map. There are five, if you don’t know: The phone itself is the first one; wi-fi; Bluetooth; GPS and near-field communication (NFC – although you may know it as “Google Pay” or “Samsung … Read more >>
Jeff Fuller WB6UIE Welcome aboard to all our new OVH members. With a number of club activities approaching, this would be a good time to order club nametags and polos if you don’t already have them. You can order your nametag directly from: https://www.thesignman.com/clubs/ovhcart.html I have a number of polos in stock. If you’d like to purchase one, email me with your size and I will bring it to the next club meeting. Available sizes Men’s and Womens: S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL, 5XL Prices Size Price S-XL $26.00 2XL $28.00 3XL $30.00 4XL $32.00 5XL $34.00 (Polos are 100% cotton, so you may want to order a size larger.) 73, Jeff WB6UIE WB6UIE@arrl.net
Greetings to all. Well, we had our annual club officer elections at our meeting last month. I’d like to thank everyone who participated. I am reminded of a line from a song by The Who from years ago. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”. John, KG4NXT; Don, WA2SWX and I (Ken, KN4DD) are returning to our positions as Secretary, Treasurer and President, respectively, I want to give a big thank you to Tony, KM4KLB for his service as Vice President. The new addition to our cadre of officers is Gil, KM4OZH. Gil has been active with the OVH since 2015 and has been behind the scenes in many activities. Most recently and perhaps most importantly, Gil has joined our Technical Committee. So please give a big welcome … Read more >>
Our new Vice President Gil, KM4OZH is an Amateur Extra and “of a certain age”. While many of us in the club would fit that description, Gil is a relative newcomer as he was first licensed in 2015. Despite what some of you might call “a lack of seasoning”, he was attracted to contesting almost immediately. Attracted is perhaps too mild a word to use if you followed our Gordon Miller, (NQ4K) VAQP meeting presentation. Passionate is probably a better term. More on that later. He really enjoys roving contesting. If you need proof of any of this, one only needs to look how his Mercedes is outfitted. The picture above is in VAQP configuration with HF and HF antennas deployed. He is used to dealing with 4 bands with … Read more >>
On February 25, OVH members Al, KB4BHB; Don, WA2SWX; Gene, N4HFW and John, KG4NXT activated the Manassas Battle field. We started at the visitor center but the rangers wanted us to operate in the “amateur radio area” in the picnic ground off Groveton road. We set up there and were glad of the windbreak on one side of the picnic shelter. We used Don’s Wolf River Coils vertical with 3 radials. The transmitter was the digital only QDX Digital Transceiver by QRP Labs which put out 5 watts. We had an amplifier but it would not key up. We needed 10 contacts and got 11, so it was a sucessful POTA activation. Once home, we found the problem with Tokyo Hy-Power HL-45b amplifier. It would not work on only 12 … Read more >>