Club News

OVH Supports The Manassas Mini Tri

by
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 >>

Club Nametags and Polos

by

It seems our recruiting efforts have been paying off with several new members joining the club recently. When you hear them on the Thursday club net, please take a minute to introduce yourself and welcome them to OVH. I had some questions at Tailgate about club nametags. You can order one directly from the link below.         http://www.thesignman.com/clubs/ovhcart.html We also have club polos (right). For details, contact Jeff at WB6UIE@gmail.com  

Tailgate Party in lieu of Hamfest 2021

by

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

by

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 >>

OVH VE session and …. all pass

by
Test grading

On May 8, 2021, OVH held a VE session at the Nokesville Community Park. Our Volunteer Examiners were Al, KB4BHB; Ken, KN4DD; Mark, WA4KFZ; Tony, KM4KLB; Ray, KM4EKR; George, K4GVT and John, KG4NXT. Additionally, OVH members Theresa, KG4TVM and Eric, KO4MBI came to the session to assist. All 6 of the applicants earned a new license. There are 5 new Technician licensees and one new General, OVH’s own Harry Zint, KN4IJY. One new twist for this VE session was that all of the applicants had to have an FRN (FCC Registration Number) before testing. You can no longer come to the VE session with just a social security number. Surprisingly, all applicants came with an FRN. Ken, KN4DD was prepared to apply on-line for any applicant that arrived without an … Read more >>

Steve Frick, N4OGR Memorial Scholarship Plaque

by
Jan, Jay and Sandy with the plaque

As we know, Steve, N4OGR because a silent key because of Covid 19.  Covid also shut down the club’s fundraising.   We established a Steve Frick scholarship funded by personal donations.  The fund raised over $4,000.00, which will be awarded to two recipients this year and next year.  Some of the donations came from the square dancers in the club that Steve and Jan, KE4TMW belonged to.  To memorialize Steve and the scholarship fund, George, K4GVT donated a very nice blank plaque. George has recently retired and is starting an engraving business. George did the engraving, which consisted of a separate engraving job for each donor and another engraving job for the top of the plaque. There is also a photo of Steve at the top of the plaque. Jan is … Read more >>

Mark Woodruff, N3HF – Silent Key

by
Mark Woodruff N3HF

I want to extend my thanks and gratitude to the following ham radio operators – John O’Mara, W4NF; Mike Trowbridge, KA4RRU; John Elgin, WA3MNN and Stuart Mitchell, WAODJY.   My dear husband Mark Woodruff, N3HF, passed away in August, 2019.  These men have spent countless hours breaking down Mark’s ham station, going through many boxes of equipment, checking the equipment to make sure it still worked, removing antennas from the house and tower and then finally taking the tower down.  W4NF was instrumental in selling most of the equipment to other hams, locally and across the country.  WA3MNN is a friend of Mark’s who spent a lot of time traveling to help with all these endeavors.  Additionally, he and John Creel, WB3GXW are maintaining the N3HF repeater in Silver Spring, … Read more >>

OVH D-STAR and 220 repeaters are back on the air

by
Ken KE2N links up repaired 220 repeater

Last year,  NOVEC rearranged  the ac power feed to our repeaters hosted at their Lomond Drive location.    When lightning stuck the NOVEC tower next to our repeater shack, some of our equipment was damaged.  Here is the damage that Ken, KE2N found : The D-STAR gateway computer had failed (power supply) The mini-PC we were using for 224.66 Asterisk had failed (judged not repairable) The USB audio interface for 224.66 had failed The aux port on the 224.66 repeater had failed. The existing ac power surge arrester (20+ years old) had both of its “healthy” lamps off Ken found the reasons for why we suffered lightning damage: What I observed was that NOVEC had re-arranged our power feed since my last visit.  The feeder cable (previously underground) was now … Read more >>