Club News

President’s Letter for June 2025

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Hello Everyone, I’d like to start with another apology for the short President’s Letter. My wife’s and my medical issues persist, but I am told by the doctors that there is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel. We are close to the end of our adventures. Our 2025 Tailgate Party (in lieu of Hamfest) was back on June 7th  : this year we had a confluence of poor weather. It was humid and we had a persistent light rain and wind, the combination of which kept attendance down significantly. As such, the club’s take was down compared to recent years, however we still managed to turn a profit. Our 2 club photographers, George, K4GVT and Rosalie, KN4ZLY, have once again provided us with many memories. OVH Tailgate … Read more >>

Gil, KM4OVH, wins VAQP Rover Plaque despite deer attack

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Bent Antenna Mast and grill damage

Gil, KM4OVH, is a national competitor in the ARRL VHF contest and a past statewide Plaque winner in the Virginia QSO Party (VAQP). The VAQP starts at 10 AM on Saturday and runs until midnight and then runs 8 AM to 8 PM on Sunday. Gil always plans his route in detail ahead of time to maximize his multipliers. Byron, AK4XR, has been understudying Gil and following in a separate vehicle. For Gil and Byron, things went as planned on Saturday. The plan was to grab some sleep at Gil’s family farm and to continue the planned route on Sunday at 8 AM. As they drove at 1 AM on Sunday with Gil in the lead, A DEER APPEARED in the left part of the road. Gil applied the brakes … Read more >>

President’s Letter for May 2025

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Hello Everyone, Please let me apologize for the brevity of this month’s President’s Letter’s up front. My wife’s and my medical issues came all at once and have been keeping us quite busy. I am hoping to get back to normal in June. Our next OVH Monthly Breakfast get together will be on May 17th @ 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM EDT Yorkshire Restaurant 7537 Centreville Rd Manassas VA 20111 (703) 368-4905 We usually have 4 to 10 people that show up. I hope you can find the time to go. The next regular OVH will be held on Tuesday, May 20st, at 7:30 PM in the training room at the Buckhall VFD. W4OVH Monthly Meeting – 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM EDT Buckhall VFD Hall 7190 Yates Ford Road … Read more >>

YOU can help with Meteor scatter experiments

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Our own Bruce KN4GDX is supporting the effort and has an article published in hamSCI ( Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation). You can help with a HF or 6M radio with wsjt-x. You can help even without transmitting. Here is an excerpt : hamSCI is preparing for a series of meteor scatter (MS) experiments later this year. The target storms will be peaking on August 11-12 (Perseids) and December 12-13 (Geminids). Preparation and testing are underway now. This is a combination ‘special event’ and a contest to generate contact data during meteor scatter events using 10 meters and 6 meters. Operating Guidelines are under development. This month’s Lyrids shower (peaking April 21-22) is an excellent time to set up your equipment and join with other operators preparing for the events … Read more >>

OVH Parks on the air or POTA

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Both spring and Don, WA2SWX, arrived recently. Don retired and moved to Ecuador last year with his wife Edith. He was back here for a brief visit. It was time to POTA again and the OVH was invited. We set up at Conway Robinson State Park, which has a shelter and lots of tall trees for antennas. We had a nice pile up on 20 Meters on FT8 despite Conway Robinson having been activated 216 times. OVH members attending were: Theresa, KG4TVM; Gene, N4HFW; James, KQ4CAX; Ken, KE2N and John, KG4NXT. Al, KB4BHB, contacted us as a Hunter on 2 meters. Heritage Hunt and Woodbridge Wireless have expressed interest in doing club POTA events. Say tuned.

President’s Letter for April 2025

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Greetings to all. I would like to start this month’s letter off with the 2024 September VHF Contest results. This contest ran September 14 – 16, 2024. I’d like to recognize OVH’s own Vice President, Gil, KM4OZH, for placing second in his category, “Limited Rover” with 13,986 points. He is now “Officially Famous” with his listing in the current issue (April, 2025) of QST, pages 76 & 77. Next up is last month’s VAQP back on March 15th and 16th. Gil had plenty of (mis) adventures with this one, including a deer vs. car contest. If you can get him to tell the story, it is a good one and he tells it well. I am not sure I would have been as sanguine as he was. I do hope … Read more >>

Heritage Hunt has first VE session

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On Saturday March 8, 2025, our sister club, the Heritage Hunt Hams, had their first VE session. They had conducted an in-person class for Technician Class operator license with 15 people finishing. Some of them tested immediately but some did not. The Heritage Hunt Hams decided to hold their first VE session and asked for some OVH assistance. John, KG4NXT and Theresa, KG4TVM helped register the session and helped run the session. The Heritage Hunt VEs were Chris, K4XMS; Allen, KC4ZA; Tim, K6SLK and Stephen, KI4SA. Don, W2SBI helped although he is not a VE. The session went smoothly, however one candidate left his jacket and his study book at the test site. The book did not have his name on it but it has his FRN, so we matched … Read more >>

President’s Letter for March 2025

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Greetings All, In February, we held our annual club officer elections during our monthly meeting. I’d like to thank everyone who braved the bad weather to participate. In a clean sweep, your entire officer cadre was reelected. John, KG4NXT; Jeff, K9VEG; Gil, KM4OZH and I (Ken, KN4DD) were returned to our positions as Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President and President, respectively, Because of that bad weather, our featured speaker, Gordon, NQ4K, was not able to give his Virginia QSO party briefing. In his stead, John, KG4NXT was able to find us a video last minute. His video was “Parachuting into POTA”. While interesting, I don’t think many of our OVH members will be rushing out to try this one. The most common comment, and thus the lesson learned from this video, … Read more >>