Club News

OVH at NOVA STEM day

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Ole’ Virginia Hams supported the NOVA STEM Day event at the Manassas Northern Virginia Community College, running one of 35 information booths.  Many ‘thanks’ go out to John (KG4NXT), Theresa (KG4TVM), Cat (KM4PBD), and Don (WA2SWX) who answered the multitude of questions from parents and kids regarding amateur radio.  There were displays and demonstrations of digital radio, home-brew products (e.g., Raspberry Pi fox transmitter, crystal radio, WSPR, etc.), and other radio set-ups.  NOVA loaned us a 50 inch  Screen which we used to display FT8 activity in real time and also to display a world map of  stations hearing us from NOVA using the PSK reporter application. NOVA also provided us WI-FI which was need for the psk reporter application.   Three people were interested enough in our presentation that they … Read more >>

VP’s Corner

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(Adapted from xkcd.com)

Soon spring will be here, birds will be singing, and a young ham’s fancy turns to … antennas. Yes, as part of spring cleaning, now is a good time to check your RF plumbing or maybe think about expanding your antenna farm (cover your ears Pinkie …) A popular ham radio saying: “If your antenna stayed up last winter, it wasn’t big enough. After that last storm, I’ve determined that mine was big enough … Want to brush up on your antenna theory? Learn something new about gain, polarization, or baluns? Then our latest additions to the OVH lending library (right)are for you. W1CRO donated several copies of each to the club. Thanks Art! I’ll bring them to the meetings where they’ll be available for check out. How about something a … Read more >>

VP’s Corner

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This has been quite a mind expanding week as I listened to John describe his favorite new digital mode, JS8. It runs on a laptop computer and manages to copy at subterranean signal to noise ratios. Wow, how does that work? And how did we get here? The journey leading to seemingly magical modes like JS8 began shortly after World War I as growing demands for commercial and government communications rapidly exceeded the capacity of manual telegraph circuits. A small group of clever inventors proposed a solution known as a “printing telegraph” or teleprinter. Its electromechanical keyboard and printer combination used a 5 bit Baudot code to represent 64 possible alphanumeric characters. Their invention was a resounding success and their company, the Teletype Corporation, went on to become a major … Read more >>

New Antenna for 146.97 repeater

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Byron on tippy toes but with safety harness on and attached

Our repeater committee decided to replace the 2 meter repeater antenna to fix the noise problems that have occured when there is a lot of precipitation.  Ken, KE2N, had run a separate transmit antenna and the results appear to validate the theory that the antenna was the problem. When the new antenna arrived, it was decided to do an immediate installation because of national weather service warnings of a storm the next day.   With only a few hours notice,  Ken had a team of 4 club members :  Byron, AK4XR,  Gil, KM4OZH, John,  KG4NXT,  and Ken himself.    The team arrived and installed the antenna without notable problems.   Byron ,who learned safe tower climbing in Iraq,   climbed the tower and installed the antenna with the rest of the team as … Read more >>

New W4OVH Repeater Trustee

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Wayne Phillips N7QLK

Wayne Phillips, N7QLK,  is our new W4OVH repeater trustee. We thank Stu, W4PR, for his able service as our previous repeater trustee. As the repeater trustee, Wayne is the ‘chief control operator’ and can appoint and fire control operators for our repeaters. In addition, if you want to use the club call W4OVH at a special event or otherwise, you need to get Wayne’s approval. Thanks Wayne.

Virginia QSO Party presentation

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Gil with 80 M mobile for VAQP

VIRGINIA QSO PARTY PRESENTATION

At our February meeting,  Jeff, WB6UIE, presented slides about the upcoming Virginia QSO party.   The slides were not so clear as projected so we are including them in this link  Presentation 
We host the QSO party awards at out hamfest.   More information on the QSO party can be found on the event calendar on this web site for March 16, 2019. Read more >>

VP’s Corner

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http://www.thesignman.com/clubs/ovhcart.html

It seems our recruiting efforts have been paying off with several new members joining the club recently. When you see them at a meeting or club function, please take a minute to introduce yourself and welcome them to OVH. Club recognition has definitely helped our recruiting. So, as spring approaches with Hamfest and other activities, this would be a good time to order your club nametag if you don’t already have one.       Nametags can be ordered from the above link. It will be some time before our next custom polo order. However, I do have some generic polos (club logo but no name or callsign) available for purchase. I’m expecting a customization quote from a local vendor in time for our next meeting. This year’s Virginia QSO Party, sponsored by the Sterling … Read more >>

OVH at Frostfest

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Frostfest 2019

Very early on ground hog day, OVH members manned a table at Frostfest in Richmond. The purpose was to distribute hamfest flyers and spread the word of our new location at the Manassas Park Community Center and the new date of Saturday June 15. We had many takers on the flyers. Many people were happy we moved the hamfest to Saturday. In addition, Don, WA2SWX and Theresa, KG4TVM worked the vendors at hamfest. One was happy to learn that the hamfest paypal links on our website are now live and was going to purchase a table right after frostfest. The table was also manned by John , KG4NXT and Jeff, K9VE, distributed flyers on the floor. Stu, W4PR, loaned us a badly needed chair when we discovered that Frostfest tables … Read more >>