WB6UIE

Jeff Fuller WB6UIE Welcome aboard to all our new OVH members. With a number of club activities approaching, this would be a good time to order club nametags and polos if you don’t already have them.         You can order your nametag directly from: https://www.thesignman.com/clubs/ovhcart.html I have a number of polos in stock. If you’d like to purchase one, email me with your size and I will bring it to the next club meeting. Available sizes Men’s and Womens: S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL, 5XL Prices Size          Price S-XL        $26.00 2XL         $28.00 3XL         $30.00 4XL         $32.00 5XL         $34.00 (Polos are 100% cotton, so you may want to order a size larger.) If you would like to personalize your polo with name and callsign, you can … Read more >>

Jeff Fuller WB6UIE       Constructed by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, the park was originally designed as a getaway for inner city youth during the Great Depression. Today its rustic cabins and idyllic trails are available for all to enjoy. There is another interesting and, until recently, little known slice of the park’s history – its role as a training site for OSS operatives during WWII.                     America entered WWII with no national agency responsible for coordinating intelligence and covert action. Before Pearl Harbor, such activities were conducted piecemeal by the individual military services. President Roosevelt addressed this deficiency by creating the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) under WWI Medal of Honor recipient Brigadier General … Read more >>

It seems our recruiting efforts have been paying off with several new members joining the club recently. When you hear them on the Thursday club net, please take a minute to introduce yourself and welcome them to OVH. I had some questions at Tailgate about club nametags. You can order one directly from the link below.         http://www.thesignman.com/clubs/ovhcart.html We also have club polos (right). For details, contact Jeff at WB6UIE@gmail.com  

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. Here are some of them for the coming year. How about a position on the OVH leadership team? We’ll put together the slate this month with voting to follow in February.         Unfortunately, it looks like the ongoing pandemic will curtail our traditional outdoor activities for a while. No worries. Ham radio also excels as an indoor sport.     I still have some sets of antenna books from the club lending library to be checked out (Thanks Art!). Winter weather may not be the best for putting up HF antennas. What about that new VHF design you’ve … Read more >>

The approaching holiday season and year’s end are traditionally a time for reflection and giving thanks for our many blessings. This Veteran’s Day, lets take a moment to express thanks to our veterans – the young ones who are in harm’s way today defending our freedoms, and those who have gone before, sometimes giving all.   American servicemembers have a proud history of being able to adapt, innovate, and overcome during the most challenging of circumstances. This Veteran’s Day I’ll cover a fascinating but little known part of that history – radios built by front line combatants and prisoners of war eager for the latest war news. Known collectively as “Foxhole Radios” their circuits embody a unique combination of clever innovation and elegance. (“Foxhole” refers to the fighting holes used … Read more >>

Cooler temperatures of fall will soon be here and, along with them, the beginning of the holiday season. I’m sure your family, like mine, has some holiday traditions which have been passed down over the years. We carry them on, not necessarily for practical reasons, but as a means of bonding and connecting with past generations. Learning to communicate using Morse code or “CW” is one such tradition in the amateur radio community. I’m happy to see several of our new hams accepting the challenge. Here are some interesting Morse factoids to encourage you in your studies. Q.  Why do hams call it CW? A.  CW stands for Continuous Wave, meaning a sine wave produced by an electronic oscillator. The first radio signals from spark transmitters were known as “damped … Read more >>