W4OVH and Friends at 2018 Warrior Bike Ride

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Wow… it has been a very busy weekend over the 5-6 May Saturday and Sunday! First the outstanding Manassas Air Show and W4OVH attending to promote our Amateur Radio activities on Saturday, coordinated by Kevin Utzy and then the 2018 Inaugural Warrior Bike Ride on Sunday. The 2018 Warrior Bike Ride was hosted by the Serve Our Willing Warriors (SOWW) organization which does such outstanding work in providing a much-needed break for our recovering service members at military hospitals in the National Capital Region.  The average hospital stay is 300 days!  The exhausting, daily routine of surgeries, procedures, therapies, and doctor appointments takes a heavy toll on everyone involved. SOWW provides their Retreat, where our “Willing Warriors” can get away from the hospital environment with family, caretakers, and friends to relax, … Read more >>

OVH At The Manassas Airshow

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Members of the Old Virginia Hams participated in the Manassas Airshow on May 5th, 2018 at the Manassas airport by setting up a booth to show off some of the many activities in amateur radio to the attendees. There is much cross over between air enthusiasts and amateur radio. The club saw this as an opportunity to introduce the hobby to those who may not fully understand the various aspects and opportunities in the hobby. This public outreach was also provided a chance to not only educate but to make the community aware of our club and what we do. The club displayed five different items: A homemade crystal radio using soda cans as capacitors, made by Al, KB4BHB SDR CW radio built by John, KG4NXT 2 meter Fox and … Read more >>

Pinkie’s Corner

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Pinkie Pig here!  We had a delightful April meeting after missing the one in March due to the weather.  I just don’t feel like leaving the pig pen when it’s cold and rainy!  Attendance was fairly light, but we managed to have a good time. Lots of topics and info about upcoming events were discussed.  It sounds like hamfest planning is in full swing!  It won’t be long! Our speaker was Larry, from West Virginia.  His presentation was about illegal transmissions and deliberate interference.  He also talked about “fox hunts”!  I was worried it was going to turn into “pig hunts”!  And on top of all that, all that talk about “raspberry pie” made me hungry!  (Do you ever wonder how they come up with some of those names?) We … Read more >>

VP’s Corner

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Jeff Fuller  WB6UIE   Spring is here at last (hopefully) and with it an opportunity to explore new trails, new modes and new frequencies. Like many of us, I’ve been stuck in my comfort zone on two meters for ARES and public service events. What about a backup in case one or more of our friendly repeaters goes off the air? Six meters may be a good choice for that backup. It falls into an interesting part of the spectrum known as LVHF (low VHF) whose characteristics straddle those of of both HF and VHF. Its ability to diffract around obstacles gives it somewhat greater range than two meters. And under sporadic E conditions, paths of 1000 miles or more are common. How to get on six meters? If you … Read more >>

OVH Holds VE Session

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VE Session grading table with Tony

Following Mark’s video technician training class class,  we had a VE session at Buckhall Volunteer Fired department.  We had 23 candidates and everyone got at least one new license.   We have 16 new Techs, 3 new Generals and 4 new extras.   Three of the new Techs took the General unsuccessfully.   I think 23 is probably a record for an OVH  VE session.  We  had so many candidates that we could not fit them into the training room at Buckhall that we use for our OVH meeting.   We had to put two overflow tables in an adjacent room where we did the grading.   We had lots of help from our OVH VEs.   We had Al, KB4BHB, Byron, AK4XR,  Luther, WA3FMO,   Steve (OGRE), N4OGR, Tony,  KM4KLR, Kevin, KX4KU,  Wayne , … Read more >>

Sunshine Corner April

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SUNSHINE CORNER Happy birthday wishes to the following club members:  Harry KC9TXL, Harry KN4IJY, Brian KK4CBS, Robert KJ4SZJ, Jeff KB4IWD, Gil KM4OZH, Paul N4PD, Joe KI4OHR, Steve KJ4YHA, Chris KU4FT, Lillian KK4MXY, David KI4AZX, Paul W4ZB, David KD4DEE. Special birthday wishes to Annemarie (George’s K4GVT mother in law), known to many of us as Oma.  She is celebrating 85 years young! I would say Happy Spring but every time I think it is spring, here comes the cold weather again! Since the March meeting cancelled due to weather, April will be the first meeting that Byron, AK4XR, will run as President of the club. Good to hear club members on the air for the Virginia QSO Party, please remember to turn in your logs and fill in OVH for your … Read more >>

First CW Contact Since 1958

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KJ6BKJ QSL CARD

I recently had a CW contact with Len, KJ6BKJ.    He sent me a touching letter that I want to share with the club.  It shows you never forget the code.   Here it is Dear John (KG4NXT), It was a sincere pleasure contacting you on the radio. I recently got my first set of QSL cards and so you will be among the first recipients. More important, you are my first CW contact since 1958. Sorry for the horrible job of sending. The picture depicts my inspiration for getting a ham license. I have been attempting to canoe the entire Mississippi River for the last several years. I do it with two others. Two of us get in the boat and paddle downstream to meet with the third who drives … Read more >>

OVH Does Maker Faire

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boy sending morse

On a weekend already busy with Virginia QSO party and Winterfest,   the OVH also presented “Amateur Radio in the Maker Spirit”.   The Faire included such exhibits as telescope making, The Thomas Jefferson Group making a cubesat and high power rocket stabilization.  see more at https://nova.makerfaire.com/makers-exhibitors-2018/ Headed by Don Meyerhoff, WA2SWX, the OVH exhibit included 1) an eco friendly crystal radio; 2) a SDR cw rig; 3) a 2 meter Fox transmitter built from a rasberry pi and emitting voice; 4) a uBitx 10 watt SSB transceiver with a case 3D printed by son-in-law Nick , KG7SOM; 5)  Tuna tin cw transmitter;  6) ICOM 7610 with LED display running FT8. Our exhibit was well received and we had lots of visitors.   We allowed hands on operation of the SDR  radio, the Fox … Read more >>