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 >>
Happy birthday to the following club members: Harry KC9TXL, Harry KN4IJY, Brian KK4CBS, Gil KM4OZH, Paul N4PD, Joe KI4OHR, Steve KJ4YHA, Lillian KK4MXY, David KI4AZX, Paul W4ZB, and David KD4DEE Condolences to Al KB4BHB, two of his sisters passed away on April 9th. Please send Steve N4OGR an email or give him a call and say Hi as he recovers from his surgery. We had a great time with the Virginia QSO Party in March, just a reminder please turn in your logs and put the OVH down as your club. The deadline to submit your log is April 15th. We saw many club members at the Vienna Hamfest while we were at our club table. Hamfest meetings are well under way! Only 2 months to go, this is our … Read more >>
Soon spring will be here, birds will be singing, and a young ham’s fancy turns to … antennas. Yes, as part of spring cleaning, now is a good time to check your RF plumbing or maybe think about expanding your antenna farm (cover your ears Pinkie …) A popular ham radio saying: “If your antenna stayed up last winter, it wasn’t big enough. After that last storm, I’ve determined that mine was big enough … Want to brush up on your antenna theory? Learn something new about gain, polarization, or baluns? Then our latest additions to the OVH lending library (right)are for you. W1CRO donated several copies of each to the club. Thanks Art! I’ll bring them to the meetings where they’ll be available for check out. How about something a … Read more >>