The first of the TRI-IT NOW Triathlons were held at the The Freedom Aquatic & Fitness Center in Manassas, Virginia on 26 March 2017 and of course W4OVH members were there to ensure participants were always kept under the eyes of W4OVH to help ensure safety and road course security. This was the perfect short-distance multisport event to start off everyone’s season! The Tune Up Tri is an excellent race for beginners, and also a great opportunity for more experienced athletes to use as a gauge of your fitness early in the season. It’s a tune-up…for everyone to hone their skills and remember what it feels like to race 3 sports in one event! The event had a slight ‘twist’ on the traditional order of events, designed to allow everyone to get an early-season … Read more >>
The Web Improvement Committee members gave a presentations on their efforts to give the OVH web site [W4OVH.NET] a “new look”; the attendees at the meeting were enthusiastic about the possibilities. Look for a new web site soon with lots of new features. One of the primary purposes in addition to updating the look and feel of the web site is to make publishing articles and images much easier so that we may increase our web site content. All members will be encouraged to provide and post articles, news, general information useful to the club and Amateur Radio and images of the adventures of the Ole Virginia Hams.
The Ole Virginia Hams W4OVH March 2017 Election Results are as follows:
Thank you to our Ole Virginia Hams members and officers for giving so freely of their time and energy to make this Amateur Radio Club a successful and effective endeavor in our pursuit of Amateur Radio.
I’m honored to have been elected OVH’s Vice President and I look forward to working with you and the other officers and directors in club activities and in the recruiting of new members. Like many of us, my interest in ham radio began when I was a youngster. In my case, that was over fifty years ago in junior high school. After passing our Novice exams which included a 5 wpm Morse code test, a couple of us pooled our very limited funds and managed to buy a World War II surplus ARC-5 receiver and enough parts to assemble a power supply and a 6L6 (vacuum tube) crystal oscillator. The total cost for these items was probably under $20 but that was a lot of money back then. I can still remember the smell of the solder melting as we carefully added each component. … Read more >>
PRESIDENT’S LETTER: Let me first say as your new President, that I am honored and privileged to be a member of the Ole Virginia Hams and I look forward to serving OVH this upcoming year. I do want to thank Wayne / N7QLK for handling the reigns for the past two years; I trust Wayne will remain available to assist as needed as I transition into his former position. I have big shoes to fill and it will take some time to grow into them. I have some ideas that I would like develop, and continue with events that we have participated in the past year. This year, the OVH will continue to provide communications support for the Manassas Mini-Tri race program. Andy / KJ4MTP has graciously accepted to lead that in 2017, I expect that with support from everyone, we … Read more >>
SUNSHINE CORNER Happy birthday – it could be a spring or winter day – Fred N3KVV, Russ WB4HHN, George NT4DX, Scott KM4FTD, Lisa, Gary K4MRL and Jeff N1SN, enjoy your day! So here we are into March, you have a great choice for ham related activities – Virginia QSO Party, Vienna Hamfest, Hamfest planning meeting, monthly club meeting, Field Day planning meeting, Technician Class, Cert training and the Mini Tri. I am sure I have missed something but you get the idea, so grab a radio! Congratulations to our club officers for 2017 – President Ray KM4EKR, Vice President Jeff WB6UIE, Treasurer Terry KC4DV and Secretary Byron AK4XR, thank you for your dedication! Reminder – Please do turn in your log for the Virginia QSO Party, the log has a … Read more >>
On February 24, 2017 afternoon, Byron / AK4XR, a non-current private pilot, took up an offer from Paul / W4ZB to go flying in a P210N aircraft and operate aeronautical mobile on 2 meters FM while aloft. The flight was fl own as a round robin from KHEF (Manassas Airport) up to KACY (Atlantic City) and then return by a slightly more southerly routing, most of the en-route phases was fl own at an altitudes of 6,500 or 7,500 feet. Because the line of sight range was nearly 100 miles even at those relatively low altitudes, no problems making contacts were expected. Connectors and cables were used so that the antenna input/output on Byron’s handheld 2 Meter FM transceiver could be connected directly to one of the aircraft’s external VHF comm antennas, but would otherwise be independent of the … Read more >>
“WIRES” capabilities of the new OVH repeater: although the OVH’s new WIRES-X repeater is still not fully operational, those who intend to use it will need to spend some time learning and reviewing how to use its capabilities effectively. The November 2016 meeting presentation slides by Ken / KE2N posted on the W4OVH.NET web site provide a very good starting point. One of the online PDF references buried within Ken’s presentation https://www.hamoperator.com/Hamoperator/WiRES-X_Bible/WiRES-X_Bible.html sometime referred to as the “WIRES-X Bible” is worth special attention for learners. The likelihood of “in shack” RF is always an issue, particularly when transmitting at higher power levels. Who hasn’t gotten a mild, but startling “hot” RF burn or “shock” just from touching some metal object near his/her operating position while transmitting? In-Shack RFI also can play havoc with computers … Read more >>