OVH at Frostfest

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Frostfest 2019

Very early on ground hog day, OVH members manned a table at Frostfest in Richmond. The purpose was to distribute hamfest flyers and spread the word of our new location at the Manassas Park Community Center and the new date of Saturday June 15. We had many takers on the flyers. Many people were happy we moved the hamfest to Saturday. In addition, Don, WA2SWX and Theresa, KG4TVM worked the vendors at hamfest. One was happy to learn that the hamfest paypal links on our website are now live and was going to purchase a table right after frostfest. The table was also manned by John , KG4NXT and Jeff, K9VE, distributed flyers on the floor. Stu, W4PR, loaned us a badly needed chair when we discovered that Frostfest tables … Read more >>

CW- Where everything old is new again

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Begali signature iambic paddle

Morse code is a fascinating mode that uses the human brain to decode the signal. It has been in use for over 170 years. It takes a few weeks to learn and a lifetime to master. A good way to practice Morse code, of course,  is to get on the radio and actually send and receive code. This is where the CW net can help you. Once you have a basic understanding of the alphabet and numbers, you can check into a CW net and get some real world experience sending and receiving code. The Old Virginia Hams radio club  hosts the weekly OVH CW net on Wednesday nights at 7 PM on 3.550 Mhz. This net is open to all amateurs.  The net is QRS, meaning it’s a fairly … Read more >>

Presidents Letter

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Presidents Letter: I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and is recovered from all the festivities. We tend to overdo it so if you are like my family, you were probably looking forward to going back to work or school. It being a new year I want to remind you to send in your membership dues. It completely slipped my mind and I just recently sent them in. I also wanted to mention that elections are coming up next month and you need to be a paid member to vote or to run for office. Since I am also the Field Day chairman I wanted to mention that we will be holding our planning meetings starting next month. Check on the reflector for the upcoming meeting dates. We already have our … Read more >>

Sunshine Corner

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HAPPY NEW YEAR! Happy birthday to John KI4OWH, Justin KJ4LAS, Elizabeth KG4NXV, Chuck W4XP, John WA1STU, Ken KE2N, Ed WD4AVU, Ken KN4HHO and Woody N4MQ, hope you all have a great year! Thank you again to everyone that contributed to the Toys For Tots at the party, I dropped off a whole carload of toys at the fire department on my way home from the party. Please keep Fred N3KVV (Paul W4ZB is his brother) in your thoughts, he is recovering from a very serious car accident in December. 2019 is looking to be even busier with many activities. Please stay tuned to a new CW net and Saturday morning meetings to discuss ham radio! Hamfest meetings are well under way, contact Don WA2SWX and let him know how you … Read more >>

VP’s Corner

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Happy New Year

As we enter the new year, I’m reminded  of a quote my faculty adviser kept posted on his wall: “We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunity.” Opportunities abound at OVH for programs, projects, and people. Based on your inputs, here are some ideas for programs and projects. I’ve added a couple of threads (links) to tug on for each so you can explore them further online. (1) Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) http://www.arrl.org/direction-finding http://www.homingin.com/ (2) Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) http://www.arrl.org/aprs-mode (3) Digital Modes http://wb8nut.com/digital/ (4) Morse Code http://www.arrl.org/learning-morse-code Jeff, K9VEG, has established a weekly CW net for those interested in polishing their skills. See the OVH reflector for details. (5) 6 and 10 meter FM and Digital Anyone interested in exploring the acres of unused RF spectrum there for mobile,portable, … Read more >>

Presidents Letter

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Presidents Letter: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your family members. I wanted to get that in first! And please don’t forget to renew your OVH membership for 2019 now! Use the form at the end of this Newsletter or do it online at w4ovh.net.   Speaking of forgetting, every time I try to get on the air with the “new” FT8 mode, I have to try to remember what I did last time which didn’t work. One of these days I’ll get it working; and now I see that a new FT8 version has come out so I will have to download that and get up to speed with it. The recent, big FT8 contest with a lot of FT8 activity on HF provided a good incentive … Read more >>

Awards given at OVH Holiday Party

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Ellis getting Award

At the popular OVH holiday party,  the club gave out several awards.  There were several people getting awards who did not make the party.  These awards will be given out at the January meeting.   Awards given at the party were: Steve Frick N4OGR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Al Dugas KB4BHB LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Jay Moore NQT4 CERTIFICATE OF  RECOGNITION Wayne Phillips N7QLK HALF MARATHON CHAIRMAN shirt (custom embroidered) Don Meyerhoff WA2SWX Large bottle of Ginger Wine for taking on Treasurer and Hamfest Chair John Heartney KG4NXT VE shirt for being VE liaison Yorkshire Restaurant Certificate of Appreciation There were also lots of toys for tots donated.      

Sunshine Corner

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Sunshine Corner

Wishing these club members a happy year-end birthday to David KK4ZUU, Tony KM4KLB, Ed KK4PHP, Jay KM4JOJ, Dianne KI4FVV, Bill N4SV, Kelly, Byron AK4XR, Charles WA1FFX, George N4XSL. Thank you to everyone that attended the club party and for their generous donations for Toys 4 Tots.  More on this in January! As we end 2018, I would like to wish everyone a happy Holiday and a peaceful year to come! 73, Theresa kg4tvm@hotmail.com 703-257-3566