Over the 4th of July week, many club members participated in the 13 colonies special event. The object was to work some or all of the 13 colonies special event stations. Our own David Morris, KK4ZUU, was one of the Virginia operators with call K2B. There were bonus stations for the Liberty Bell (WM3PEN) and England ( GB13COL) click the image for a bigger picture.
June was quite a busy month for the club. In a span of two weeks we managed to cover the Warrior Bike charity event, Hamfest, Field Day, and a MiniTri – flawlessly. Well done Team OVH! In addition to celebrating our nation’s independence, this July marks another important anniversary – the 50th anniversary of man’s first landing on the moon. As a youngster I can remember being awestruck by those first TV pictures from the moon. It wasn’t until a few years later while pursuing a technical degree that I began to appreciate just how daunting a task the communications link design for the Apollo missions was. Among the challenges: – A path loss of over 200db ruled out the VHF communications used on earlier missions. A special S-Band (2GHz)radio … Read more >>
After decades at the fairgrounds, we moved the hamfest to the Manassas Park Community Center and to a new date – June 15. After a lot of hard work and some weather luck, it was a big success. Special thanks to the parking crew headed by Jim O’Rourke, KM4SXM, and the food crew headed by Phii, AC4PL.
Continue reading for pictures by Pinkie and Cat, KM4PBD:
At the 2019 OVH field day, Cat, KM4PBD, ran the fox hunt as the educational activity. Cat was the fox hunt winner in 2018. There were five 440 M yagis available which had been constructed by Gil, KM4OZH. Each of the yagis was put to use by fox hunters. One of the fox hunters was our guest Lee J. Carter, member of the Virginia House of Delegates, 50th District.
The fox hunters started from the park pavillion and their first job was to find Cat, who then gave them the fox’s frequency. The fox hunt was won by young James Morris, who is the son of David Morris, KK4ZUU.
George, K4GVT, used his drone to drop antenna lines for field day.Video by DAVID KK4ZUU
June is shaping up to be a busy month for club activities. We’ll have Hamfest, Field Day, and the Warrior Bike for the SOWW veterans charity. Speaking of veterans, this month also marks another milestone, the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landing at Normandy. Imagine what it must to have been like to maintain radio communications during the utter chaos as the first waves hit the beaches. Lets take a look at two radios which played an important role in bringing tactical comms to D-Day. U.S. ground forces found themselves on the eve of WWII with large HF manual Morse radios for headquarters elements, but nothing portable enough for the company or squad level. After several R&D efforts, the winning bid went to Galvin Industries, a manufacturer of car and … Read more >>
As we celebrate Armed Forces Day this month, lets take a moment to recognize some of the contributions made by our fellow hams in uniform. This column, I’d like to recognize Edwin H. “Howard” Armstrong, W2XMN, whose contributions helped to forge the foundation for much of today’s radio communications technology. Armstrong grew up in suburban New York at the turn of the century and was fascinated by wireless technology. By age 14 he had filled his bedroom with wireless gear and erected a 125 foot antenna on his parents property (no HOAs in those days)[1] He was soon accepted at Columbia University where he received his electrical engineering degree in 1913. America entered WWI shortly after his graduation and Armstrong joined the Army. Sent to France as a Signal … Read more >>
Ole’ Virginia Hams supported the NOVA STEM Day event at the Manassas Northern Virginia Community College, running one of 35 information booths. Many ‘thanks’ go out to John (KG4NXT), Theresa (KG4TVM), Cat (KM4PBD), and Don (WA2SWX) who answered the multitude of questions from parents and kids regarding amateur radio. There were displays and demonstrations of digital radio, home-brew products (e.g., Raspberry Pi fox transmitter, crystal radio, WSPR, etc.), and other radio set-ups. NOVA loaned us a 50 inch Screen which we used to display FT8 activity in real time and also to display a world map of stations hearing us from NOVA using the PSK reporter application. NOVA also provided us WI-FI which was need for the psk reporter application. Three people were interested enough in our presentation that they … Read more >>