Sunshine Corner February

SUNSHINE CORNER Happy birthday wishes to the following club members: Roland WB4NWG, David W5DRR, Richard (no call) Gavin KK4MXT, Dick WN7S, Harvey WB6TTF, Jeff WB6UIE, Stephen KK4UZC, Patty KI4FQF, Norman KK4HDL, Art W1CRO and Katie Apologies to John KI4OWH for missing his birthday in January, hope you had a great day! February is election time for the OVH, a very appreciate thank you to Ray KM4EKR, Jeff WB6UIE, Byron AK4XR and Terry KC4DV for serving as the club officers this past year. Butch W4HJL is home, very happy to hear this! We hope he is done with the hospital visits. Please do call or email him. Joe KI4OHR is continuing to recover from his fall, glad he did not have to have surgery! Get well wishes to Ken KE2N from … Read more >>

Pinkie’s Corner

Pinkie Pig here!  It was a splendid beginning to the New Year with a great turnout at our January meeting!  I was tickled pink to see everyone!  A few days after the meeting, several members came down with a cold/flu —- myself included.  Trust me, I was more green than pink for a couple of days!  I hope everyone has recovered! Peaches thoroughly enjoyed the meeting.  She got her picture taken with several folks, and was very excited!  (I think she likes the attention!)  John wore his pig shirt, and Peaches loved it!  Now she wants one! Looking forward to seeing everyone in February!  Stay well and stay as warm as a pig in a blanket! Pinkie signing out —- until next time!  

Presidents Letter

Presidents Letter: Greetings to all and I hope this message finds you all healthy and well after all of the Christmas and New Year activities. Well, it is that time again where I’d like to remind all OVH members who have not done so already, to renew his / her club membership(s) for 2018.  The club needs the support of all of its members.  A mail-in form to accomplish membership renewal appears later in this Newsletter; you can also renew (and pay) online at http://w4ovh.net under the Membership Application tab; or, you can pay at the upcoming meeting. OVH officer nominations are now being received; there will a vote for a new slate of officers for 2018 at the February, 2018 OVH meeting.  So please be thinking of the best … Read more >>

Sunshine Corner January

SUNSHINE CORNER Welcome to 2018! Starting the year off with a birthday are the following club members:  Justin KJ4LAS, Elizabeth KG4NXV, Chuck W4XP, John WA1STU, Ken KE2N, Ed WD4AVU and Woody N4MQ.  Best wishes to you all for a great year ahead! Many thanks to those that attended our Holiday Party in December and showed up with donations for the Toys for Tots campaign, your support for the kids is amazing. Sad end to the year with two of our club members passing away. Milt N4SN passed on December 20th  and Tom KB1FLK passed away on December 21st.  We will miss them both, please keep their families in your thoughts.  A card from the club and flowers were sent to both services. ARES training is on Saturday, January 20, 2018 at … Read more >>

VP’s Corner

VP’s Corner Jeff Fuller WB6UIE This month we’ll explore what has become one of amateur radio’s hottest high tech topics – Software Defined Radio, or SDR. SDR works by sampling the radio frequency spectrum and turning those samples into a stream of bits.  Sounds simple, but it takes quite a bit of computing horsepower to do so in real time.  Seems like just a few years ago in grad school when this was a computer exercise (submitted on punched cards) and actual SDR was just a pipe dream. Today, with the addition of a digitizer and software, you can have your own SDR running on a PC.  Here’s a short You Tube video covering SDR basics You can listen to a variety of SDRs from around the world via http://websdr.org/  Cascade your sound card’s output to Fldigi to demodulate digital … Read more >>

Become “Radio Active” in 2018

Its 2018 and the Ole Virginia Hams want to help you start the New Year off right by helping you  join an exciting hobby and technology venue by helping you both learn and test for your own Amateur Radio Technician Class License.

The W4OVH club will continue our offering of free Technician Class license preparation courses starting on January 29th at 7PM. There will be a total of 8 weekly sessions of 1 hour each.

This year we are introducing new innovations to the course delivery. The course will be conducted by video teleconference so that you have the convenience of attending from your computer at home.

We have class availability for 9 students using this format.

The specific class schedule and dates beyond the start date of 29 January will be added to the club event calendar when finalized.

Please contact Mark Braunstein, WA4KFZ, direct if you are interested at wa4kfz@cox.net

Lifetime Achievement Awards – W1CRO and W4HJL

During the Year End Party, Lifetime Achievement Awards were shown to everyone that go to Art, W1CRO, and Butch, W4HJL, still very active with the club (both are OVH Directors).  Because neither was able to attend the party on December 10th, We took the party to them! On Tuesday night, December 12th, Bob, W4HJF, Terry, KC4DV, Paul, W4ZB, Ray, KM4EKR, Sandy, KM4JUS, John, KG4NXT and Theresa, KG4TVM all drove over to visit Butch, recuperating at home to deliver his award.  It was great to see him at home after his recent adventures in the hospital.  On Wednesday, December 13th, Terry, Ray, Sandy, John and Theresa drove to Arthur’s home to visit and deliver his award.  It was wonderful to Arthur and Joyce too. Butch and Art’s participation, leadership, expertise, friendship, etc. … Read more >>

OVH 2017 Christmas / Holiday Party

W4OVH’s annual year end Christmas / Holiday party was held on Sunday, December 10th at the Yorkshire restaurant in Manassas.   The turnout was wonderful, the donations to Toys For Tots was outstanding, and the fellowship amazing! The food – well just WOW on that.  No one there went away hungry. OVH wants to thank its members for their donations to Toys For Tots.  Thanks to the United States Marine Corp for sending two of their best to attend, Sgt. Tucker Renckert and Lance Corporal Sydney Ally, and they did not leave our party hungry! Pinky, OVH’s mascot attended the party too and she has some words of her own!  (see separate  post). Also during the Year End party, Lifetime Achievement Awards were shown to everyone that go to Butch, W4HJL, … Read more >>