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 >>

Sunshine Corner

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SUNSHINE CORNER Sending Happy Birthday wishes to the following club members:  Wayne, N7QLK; Kevin, W4RKU; Baofang, KK4JFK; Theresa, KG4TVM; Butch, W4HJL; Greg, KM4CCG; Jeff, WB4TT; Charlie, WA4YGI; James, N5TE; James, KA4BOL; Paul, KO4GZR and Allan (no call).   Thank you to all of our Veterans for your service.                 Get well wishes going out to Wayne, N7QLK, celebrating his birthday with a new knee, hope your recovery goes smoothly. Saturday, December 2nd is the annual City of Manassas Christmas Parade.  The OVH will once again be supporting this event by providing radio communications at the judge’s stand and along the parade route.    If you can help, please contact George, K4GVT at  george@k4gvt.com and he will get you the detailed information for the parade.   … Read more >>

Tri It Now’s Ina Nenninger retires

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Ina-Nenninger-retirement-pic6

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 >>

Sunshine Corner

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SUNSHINE CORNER – October 2023 Happy Birthday wishes to our club members celebrating this October month: Chris, KN4IJF; Ray, KM4EKR; Rob, KC4VDN; Phil, AC4PLl and Richard Eisenhart, No Call.  Hope you all have wonderful birthdays with lots of candles! Congratulations Corner:  Kudos to Gil, KM4OZH, our National Competitor as a rover in ARRL’s September VHF Contest. Little birdie told me that he was running up to Pennsylvania and down to southern Virginia to collect multiplier grids. So, with OVH’s outpouring, he achieved a personal best claimed score of 11,319.    WAHOO!!!!!!! Help Needed:   Volunteers in the VA/DC/MD area to assist with the “X-STEM NOVA” event on Friday, October 20, presented by the USA Science and Engineering Festival.  The event is being held at the National Conference Center near Leesburg, VA.  We’re … 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 >>

FT8 at 35,000 feet

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wa2swx does FT8 from an airplane

Don, WA2SWX, did some FT8 while flying to Ecuador. He connected via the internet to his home station in Centreville. Here is his description: “FT-8 at 35,000 feet somewhere over Mexico or Central America. The nerd’s version of the mile high club.” Here is the screen shot: This is legal under part 97 US Station: o FCC Rules: Part 97.109 Station control …“Any station may be remotely controlled.” o FCC Rules Part 97.213 Telecommand of an amateur station: …has some simple requirements, including a 3 minute time-out on the transmitter in the event of malfunction. 4 US Station, with Operator outside of US: Operator must be “licensed” by a US License, bilateral, reciprocal, IARP agreement or CEPT T/R 61-01. The call sign used must always indicate the location of the … Read more >>