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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 >>

Bouncing Signals off the International Space Station

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What if I told you that even without any astronauts actively working a radio and making contacts, there was still a reason to point your antenna at the sky when the ISS passes over and throw some RF at it? Well, it’s true, and it’s nowhere near as difficult to accomplish as you might think; in fact the last two nights in a row I’ve successfully sent a radio signal up to the ISS and gotten one in return. How? I’ll tell you! There are a number of objects in orbit that we as amateur operators can actually transmit to. There are a number of low-powered satellites of various modes you can talk through, but the ISS is the most well known of LEO (low earth orbit) objects for obvious … Read more >>

New Field Day Loggers

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The old XP loggers are gone ! We now have windows 10 laptops with solid state drives and the latest N3FJP field day software. This is being done at no cost to the club. Jim O’Rourke, KM4SXM, donated the first laptop. John, KG4NXT, donated the second one. Don, WA2SWX, donated 3 laptops. Our club has a comprehensive license on the N3FJP software so that was updated at no cost.

Mini LiFePO4’s

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My 4.5 Ah mini LiFePO4 and fused cable. (The battery came with Power Pole output connector.)

If you’ve joined us in supporting Tri It Now and larger events, you’ve probably realized that the medium power setting on your HT (typically around 2 Watts)isn’t quite enough to provide reliable comms over the entire course. This is especially true if you’re using the short ducky antenna which came with it. How to improve coverage? Going with a larger antenna and/or adding a “tiger tail” counterpoise is one solution. Bill, K5AE has an excellent video on the topic at tiger tail tail video Or, you can up the power to 5 watts. This usually means buying a larger battery for your HT if you want a useful amount of talk time. If you’ve tried that option, here’s hoping you’ve had better luck than I did. Most of my my … Read more >>

PINKIE’S CORNER

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Pinkie on Throne

Pinkie Pig here again!  The holidays are upon us, and it’s time to spread good cheer! Everyone had a wonderful time at our Christmas party.  The food was great – we all pigged out.  Theresa did her usual bang-up job of organizing everything!   We collected a load of toys for the tots.  Awards were given out, and I got to have my picture taken with the Marines!  I was tickled pink!  I got to mingle and ham it up!  Who knew there were so many pig lovers! We all had a lot of laughs, and I had a good chuckle over the poor fellow sitting at the bar in the other room who looked over and thought he saw a large pink pig! Peaches wanted to stay home, watch Pippa … Read more >>