Club News

Local Hams Help with Manassas Christmas Tree Lighting

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On Dec 1, several local hams helped with the City of Manassas Christmas Tree lighting. They are members of CERT – Community Emergency Reaction Team. The tree lighting involved Santa arriving on a VRE train, and then Santa got on a hay wagon and went to the grounds of the Manassas Museum. At the museum, Santa then talked to the crowd and the tree was lit, complete with artificial snow. After the lighting of the tree, Santa went to the ice skating rink and visited with the children. While Santa was listening to the children’s Christmas lists, there were also free hayrides for everyone. The CERT team was there for safety and first aid and they were a direct report to a police officer. This year that was Lt. Barahona.  … Read more >>

2023 Turkey Trot

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  On Thanksgiving morning, OVH did communications support for the 5k portion of the Prince William Turkey Trot (5k) & Mashed Potato Mile.  Their motto:  Trot, Eat, Sleep. It was a near perfect morning for a couple of foot races. Perhaps a bit cool and breezy with 44° temperatures at 8 AM, but it was still sunny, fair and clear. In short, excellent weather. It also may have been a PWC (Prince William County) record, attendance wise.  We had over 1,400 runners that day. The race itself went off without incident, I’m happy to report. It started @ 8:30 AM & was over for us by 9:15 AM. Much like Halloween, many participants were in costume. We had a few cowboys. We had some children in Princess garb. We had … Read more >>

OVH Holiday Party December 10

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Enjoy a pot luck holiday dinner with OVH members and their family. Bring your family or people interested in the club. The party is again at the Yorkshire Restaurant, 7537 Centreville Rd, Manassas, VA 20111. The club will provide the main dishes of ham and turkey and drinks. Please bring a covered dish or dessert. The marines will be there to collect toys for tots. Please bring a new unwrapped toy for the tots.

President’s Letter for November, 2023

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Greetings to All, On November 4th, the Ole Virginia Hams held a VE Session at the Lord of Life Lutheran Church, Clifton Campus. We had 7 candidates in total, 8 tests given as one gentleman took both the General Exam as well as his Extra. I am pleased to report that we had 6 new licenses or upgrades. I’d like to thank Lord of Life Church for once again allowing us space for our VE Sessions. The VEs who attended were:  Al, KB4BHB; John, KG4NXT; Jay, NQ4T; David, KY4MM; Byron, AK4XR and yours truly, Ken, KN4DD. Speaking of VE Sessions, John has been our Coordinator for years now, and has been wanting to take a break. I am pleased to announce that Mark, WA4KFZ, will be taking over that position … Read more >>

Tri It Now’s Ina Nenninger retires

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Sunday, October 15th ended the Tri It Now Mini Triathlon program in Manassas.  The energetic and enthusiastic leader of this group, Ina Nenninger, owner & organizer of Tri It Now has retired. Ina has been living in Colorado and traveling back to Manassas for the last several years just to run this program and have the events go off without a hitch.   If you ever wanted to see an energizer bunny in action, all you had to do was watch, or try to keep up with Ina. Way back in 2014, Ina approached the OVH about providing radio communications for the Mini Tri’s.   There were normally 5 to 6 events per year and they were all at the Freedom Center in Manassas.  The OVH jumped at the chance to help out … Read more >>

President’s Letter for October, 2023

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Hello All, Fall-like weather …. finally! September came in like a (temperature) lion, and then took its own sweet time moderating. But here we are in October, and we are once again with seasonal temperatures. While not a fan of the “s” word (snow), I am looking forward to the cooler seasons and the smaller electric bills. However, I am not yet thinking of the upcoming gas bills. Heavy sigh. Earlier this year, I was once again invited to be part of the 2023 Warrior Bike Ride Executive Planning Committee. This year’s kickoff meeting was back on February 1st. A tremendous amount of planning, work & three county coordination went into a one-day event. It is always a privilege and a pleasure to work with men & women who are … Read more >>

Introduction to Greencube and the S.A.T. Controller

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The amateur radio and amateur satellite hobby has been a popular and innovative niche for many years. When I started in amateur radio in the 1980s, packet was a very popular digital mode for terrestrial communications, with growing amateur satellite packet options. That continues today, but many hams are more familiar with packet use in popular applications such as APRS. Since then, there has been a large global deployment of digital-repeaters globally and especially in the US, supporting the packet digital hobby and increased satellite-packet options. Today, the terrestrial packet hobby coexists with other advanced forms of digital HF and VHF communications such as VARAC and Winlink. And short satellite packet contacts of several minutes have been normal. What has been missing in the US, are longer dwell satellite contact … Read more >>

Gil, KM4OZH PLACES 2ND IN NATIONAL CONTEST

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The ARRL September VHF contest was from Sept 8 to 11 this year. Our Gil, KM4OZH participated in the Limited Rover class; which mean he was mobile and that he had 4 bands to work with – 50 MHz,  144 MHz,  220 MHz and 440 MHz. Gil spends a lot of time getting his car ready for the contest and he is always refining things. This year, Gil and his adult ham son, Jordan, created an automatic antenna switching system based on an Arduino. When Gil changed bands on his radio, the correct antenna was automatically selected. Here is a photo of the breadboarded antenna switching system  before being installed in the car. Gil always plans his route, including sleep time. He is on the road for two days. Gil … Read more >>