Also affectionately known as OGR June 18, 1950 to January 2, 2021 Steve has been a member of the OVH for decades! He has handled everything from the newsletter, programs for club meetings, ARES, Christmas parades, Field Day, outfitting the club trailer, club Vice President, Ham fest committee member, Quarter Master and all around friend to many. Our hearts go out to his wife, Jan KE4TMW. RIP Steve, we will miss you.
As we enter the new year, I’m reminded of a quote my faculty adviser kept posted on his wall: “We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunity.” Opportunities abound at OVH. Here are some of them for the coming year. How about a position on the OVH leadership team? We’ll put together the slate this month with voting to follow in February. Unfortunately, it looks like the ongoing pandemic will curtail our traditional outdoor activities for a while. No worries. Ham radio also excels as an indoor sport. I still have some sets of antenna books from the club lending library to be checked out (Thanks Art!). Winter weather may not be the best for putting up HF antennas. What about that new VHF design you’ve been thinking about? Or that new circuit idea? Try it… Read more »
Hello everyone! Pinkie here! It’s been a long time since I wrote to my fellow “hams”. I have missed everyone! Our activities have been limited this year as we all weather the COVID crisis. I sensed that Jeff was experiencing a little too much cabin fever being cooped in his basement workshop (right), so I sent him outside with Peaches to watch for Santa! Peaches finally complained that she was freezing, and so they came inside! (Peaches was so disappointed that she didn’t see Santa!) Hmm … I needed a project to keep Jeff from going claustrophobic in the Bat Cave. Aha! Where’s that vacuum cleaner that needed fixing? Uh oh … I should have been warned when I saw his fascination with the news about the guy in the jet suit near LAX. Please send him home when he lands…. Read more »
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 monthly business meeting. Theresa presented awards for Jeff, WB6UIE; Jay,… Read more »
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 a friend. After taking delivery of the nine devices from… Read more »
The approaching holiday season and year’s end are traditionally a time for reflection and giving thanks for our many blessings. This Veteran’s Day, lets take a moment to express thanks to our veterans – the young ones who are in harm’s way today defending our freedoms, and those who have gone before, sometimes giving all. American servicemembers have a proud history of being able to adapt, innovate, and overcome during the most challenging of circumstances. This Veteran’s Day I’ll cover a fascinating but little known part of that history – radios built by front line combatants and prisoners of war eager for the latest war news. Known collectively as “Foxhole Radios” their circuits embody a unique combination of clever innovation and elegance. (“Foxhole” refers to the fighting holes used by the GIs.) Concerned that local oscillator radiation might give… Read more »
On October 20, 2020, the OVH had an antenna party for Butch, W4HJL. Butch has a crank down tower at his house. On the agenda: 1) replace the rotor because control box no longer displayed direction; 2) some of the beam elements were not in same plane as the rest – straighten them; 3) add a 6 meter beam to the antenna. The crew consisted of Gil, KM4OZH; George, K4GVT; George’s brother in law, Tom Schweinfurth, Dick, WN7S; Al, KB4BHB; Bob, W4HJF and John, KG4NXT. Butch, W4HJL, cooked us all a fine lunch. The replacement rotor did not have mounting holes in the right place so the decision was to field repair the old rotor and grease it up. The field repair was handled most ably by Gil. There was a lot of banter. At one point, … Read more »
On Saturday, October 17, OVH ran Jamboree-on-the-Air (or JOTA) at Camp Snyder in Haymarket, VA. One of our members , ROB (W4FSK) was our liaison with the scout camp and was also in charge of the camp that day. We had a troop of boys, a second one of girls and a third troop of Muslim boys. Rob estimates the OVH volunteers worked with about 50 scouts and their leaders, just at Camp Snyder. The scouts that made contacts were given signed contact cards that they can then use for partial credit for several merit badges. John (KG4NXT) brought his IC-7610 so we could have a digital station and both Al, (KB4BHB) and “The Other Ken” (KN4DD) brought their 2 meter mobile stations. The digital station ran FT8 and worked European, Caribbean and US stations. Looking at PSKReporter, the digital… Read more »