Radio Event

President’s Letter for May 2022

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It’s hot. It’s cold. It’s wet. It’s dry. Repeat. Often. Last winter’s schizophrenic weather just seems to go on and on. On the plus side, we certainly aren’t experiencing the drought the folks out west are experiencing. I am proud to report that The Ole Virginia Hams has selected 2 STEM students for the 2022 Steve Frick Scholarship. Additionally, I am very pleased to announce that for the first time ever, we have two young women as our STEM student scholarship winners. These young people will be present @ the beginning of our May 17th meeting for the award presentation. On May 8th, OVH supported our second Run, Bike, and Swim Mini Tri of 2022. Officially called “The Tri It Now – Ladies Choice”, there were also a number of … Read more >>

The OVH Supports “The Tri It Now – Ladies Choice”

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On May 8th, The Ole Virginia Hams supported the “The Tri It Now – Ladies Choice”, our second Run, Bike, and Swim Mini Tri of the 2022 season. Ladies Choice participants ran the gamut from tweens on up. The Tri It Now events are relatively easy and short events on a Sunday at The Freedom Aquatic & Fitness Center, Manassas. The course consists of: Run 1.5 miles – Bike 4 miles – Swim 250 yards. It’s a great way for our Technician Class members to get involved as the only things needed are a Handy Talkie (HT) and a desire to serve for a couple of hours on a Sunday morning. Weather wise, it was not a good weekend, with the official rain tally at 2.02 inches in total @ … Read more >>

OVH supports Serve Our Willing Warriors (SOWW) and receives an award

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Willing Warriors Bike Event 2021 Certificate

VP – OVH On Saturday, September 11th, members of the Ole Virginia Hams supported the 4th Annual Warrior Ride. The date for this ride was chosen to honor the fallen, survivors and heroes of that fateful day. I am pleased to report, “Mission Accomplished”! It was a beautiful day for a bike ride. While it got to 79° in the afternoon, the morning ride was cooler, with no humidity. Additionally, the variable clouds all day kept the riders cool and in the shade while the day wore on.                 That is not to say the day was without its challenges. 3 separate bike rides, a 13 miler, half metric (~30 miles) & full metric (~60 miles), all using the same starting route. The … Read more >>

OVH Field Day 2021

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VP – OVH Field day, like Gaul, is divided into three parts ( – with apologies to Julius Caesar) 1) setup 2) field day operation and 3) tear down and submitting the log files. The Setup June 25, 2021 was the day before the first day of Field Day. It was also “Setup Day”. As in some past years, we had a team out to shoot pull line in the trees which become support for field day antennas.  Most years we do this with easy-ups and home made easy-up consisting of a sling shot and a fishing reel & weight. This year, we also had a drone dropping lines (George, K4GVT) and a very effective pneumatic launcher made by Jeff, K9VEG. There was no rain and the lines went up. … Read more >>

Pinkie’s Corner

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Hello everyone! Pinkie here! It’s been a long time since I wrote to my fellow “hams”. I have missed  everyone! Our activities have been limited this year as we all weather the COVID crisis. I sensed that Jeff was experiencing a little  too much cabin fever being cooped in his basement workshop (right), so I sent him outside with Peaches to watch for Santa! Peaches finally complained that she was freezing, and so they came inside! (Peaches was so disappointed that she didn’t see Santa!) Hmm … I needed a project to keep Jeff from going claustrophobic in the Bat Cave. Aha! Where’s that vacuum cleaner that needed fixing? Uh oh … I should  have been warned  when I saw his fascination with the news about the guy in the … Read more >>

Scouts On The Air

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Ken KN4DD sets up a 2 meter contact for a scout

On Saturday, October 17, OVH ran Jamboree-on-the-Air (or JOTA) at Camp Snyder in Haymarket, VA.  One of our members , ROB (W4FSK) was our liaison with the scout camp and was also in charge of the camp that day.  We had a troop of boys, a second one of girls and a third troop of Muslim boys. Rob estimates the OVH volunteers worked with about 50 scouts and their leaders, just at Camp Snyder. The scouts that made contacts were given signed contact cards that they can then use for partial credit for several merit badges. John (KG4NXT) brought his IC-7610 so we could have a digital station and both Al, (KB4BHB) and “The Other Ken” (KN4DD) brought their 2 meter mobile stations. The digital station ran FT8 and worked … Read more >>

Pinkie’s Corner

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Hello everyone!  It’s that time of year again!  Time to enjoy all the holiday festivities, and also to reflect on all the events of the past year. The club had an outstanding Hamfest in June!  It was one of the best.  We had a new location and everything worked out great! The weather was good for the Christmas parade.  It was a bit cold and windy, but it wasn’t snowing! I got to “ham it up” and wave my little arms off!  A good time was had by all! Our holiday party was a smashing success thanks to Theresa’s hard work and phenomenal planning skills! She’s wonderful at pulling these events together! She created and awarded trophies and certificates to John, Jeff, Don, Wayne, Gil, Byron and Cat for their … Read more >>

JOTA – Jamboree on the Air

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Cat, KM4PBD, supervises morse code practice

On October 19,  OVH supported the JOTA event at Camp Snyder in Haymarket.   Modes included: DStar, 2 meter FM,  FT8,   HF SSB and  QRP SSB on a loop.   Scouts contacted Germany, France, Portugal and Belgium as well as many stations in the U.S.   We also had an oscilloscope on display and morse code keys with sound for the scouts. Duane, KK4BZ,  was on horseback in the battle field and worked many of our scouts on 2 meters.   We do not get a lot of horseback mobiles ! Scout Leader  Rob, W4FSK,  is a member of our club and was our sponsor at Camp Snyder.   We got a scout lunch of hot dogs and baked beans.   Participants included  Rob, W4FSK;  Al,  KB4BHB; Don, WA2SWX;  Duane,  KK4BZ;  Theresa , KG4TVM;  Cat , … Read more >>