KN4DD

Hello Everyone, The last few days in this, the first full week of June certainly has been different. The Canadian wildfires combined with an unusually low jet stream for this time of year has given us days of very bad air quality. In fact, the Washington, DC area reached the worst air quality in the world on Thursday, June 8th. We even had our first ever “Code Purple” day. And yet, in this bad luck, I think I see some good luck. We have just completed a successful Tailgate Party. If that bad air from those wildfires had reached us days earlier, I don’t think we would have had a successful Tailgate Party. The turnout would have been much lower, if any at all. So, I choose to be thankful … Read more >>

Hello Everyone, I would like to jump right in this time. After a 2 year transition, the FCC implemented its new RF Exposure program. Ron, K3FR, reminded us at our last meeting on April 18th, that the rules phase-in would begin on May 3rd. As of this writing, that phase-in occurred about one week ago. Ron informed us that on pages 64 thru 66 in the May 2023 issue of QST magazine, there is an excellent article detailing this event. He also reminded us that on page 65, the ARRL provided a link to an ARRL RF Exposure calculator tool that is free. http://arrl.org/rf-exposure-calculator The article also states there is a simple method that many hams would like, but cautioned it might be too conservative for other hams, and the … Read more >>

Greetings to all. April 3rd, 2023 was the 50th Anniversary of the cell phone. Inventor Martin Cooper of Motorola used the first portable handset … to make the first cell phone call … to his rival at Bell Labs. Way to rub it in, Marty. From 1973 until now, there has been an incredible proliferation of these devices. It seems like everyone has one and many have more than one. Yet, when I ask my students, most of whom are middle aged, “How many radio circuits are in an average smartphone?” their guesses are all over the map. There are five, if you don’t know: The phone itself is the first one; wi-fi; Bluetooth; GPS and near-field communication (NFC – although you may know it as “Google Pay” or “Samsung … Read more >>

Greetings to all. Well, we had our annual club officer elections at our meeting last month. I’d like to thank everyone who participated. I am reminded of a line from a song by The Who from years ago. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”. John, KG4NXT; Don, WA2SWX and I (Ken, KN4DD) are returning to our positions as Secretary, Treasurer and President, respectively, I want to give a big thank you to Tony, KM4KLB for his service as Vice President. The new addition to our cadre of officers is Gil, KM4OZH. Gil has been active with the OVH since 2015 and has been behind the scenes in many activities. Most recently and perhaps most importantly, Gil has joined our Technical Committee. So please give a big welcome … Read more >>

I hope you all are enjoying the recent spring like weather. I know I have. I also know that everything costs something, so I won’t be surprised if the bill comes due in the form of actual winter weather. Just the same, I wouldn’t mind if our recent weather stays around for the rest of the season. Speaking of spring like weather, now would be a good time while we still have “see through trees” to get out there and check those antennas. Better now (and easier) than when the foliage returns. I was informed of the results from the June 2022 ARRL VHF contests after I had published the January President’s Letter.  So, even though this is a bit late, I want to congratulate two of our own, Gil, … Read more >>