DAREN of WV News March 1, 2009 (.868)
Kenneth Harris WA8LLM (304) 679-3470 wa8llm@yahoo.com
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
P.O. BOX 3328, PARKERSBURG, WV 26103
http://www.wc8ec.com
DAREN News, are articles and information about the Digital Amateur Radio "Emergency" Network of WV, which operates on 145.69 MHz. Anyone having any information about DAREN, or Amateur Radio in general, and would like to share it with others, may send it to WA8LLM @ PKBGWV on 145.69 MHz, or to my E-Mail: wa8llm@yahoo.com. A State Wide DAREN NET is operated every Saturday from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm, and lately, before and after those hours. The DAREN Net Announcement, showing the MAIN NCS, ALTERNATE NCS, NODEs accessible to both, and the previous week's check-ins, are posted by Thursday on most of the Main county DAREN PBBS'. The DAREN News can also be found on the wc8ec.com website.
Not much news this week, so I'll ramble on for a little bit. Are you a member of the ARRL? Have you registered your E-Mail address on the ARRL Website? You may be missing a lot of good information if you haven't done so. The ARRL sends out a lot of good information in the form of their Bulletins and Newsletters. They don't flood your E-Mail with a bunch of E-Mails, but what they do send out might be very informative. Pass this information on to other Amateurs who are ARRL members, they may be missing some good information too.
I've received E-Mails from Bob Ott, WB8OIF, about the Berkeley County NODE/PBBS of BERKWV/MRTNWV. Bob has been communicating with Mark Kraham, W8CMK, who is the SYSOP of the DAREN NODE/PBBS. Bob was supposed to meet with Mark at the tower site and together they were hoping to get the station back on the air. If the owners of the TV station, where the NODE/PBBS is located, have no objection, Bob will have keys to the site and become the new SYSOP for the DAREN station. If Bob becomes the new SYSOP, he will be changing the call sign of the station. He was hoping to have the station back on the air by this weekend if things went well. Mark thinks the DAREN station may be receiving some kind of interference from the TV station since they started transmitting in digital format about the same time the DAREN station went off the air. With any luck, maybe the packet station got disconnected and moved while the station owners were installing the new digital TV transmitter. Bob is also looking to put a cross-over station to allow DAREN to operate through a WinLink NODE on 145.77 MHz. Bob will keep us posted.
There were 67 check-ins this week's State Wide DAREN Net. John Peterson, who's been participating in the net since April 23, 1994, has completed 750 check- ins. Ron Wilson, K8RWW, who's been participating in the net since March 27, 2004, has completed 200 check-ins. Donnie Woodford, KC8YVR, who's been participating in the net since November 27, 2004, has completed 200 check-ins. These three operators will be receiving their certificates. Vivian Arnold, KA8VAH, needs only one more check-in to make 700. My son Kevin Harris, KC8OXY, needs only one more check-in to make 450. And Robert Sellars, KB2FEL, needs only one more check-in to make 100. I want to welcome Laurel Farmer, KB8OOK, back to the State Wide DAREN Net. Laurel has been missing from the net since May 29, 1999. There was one new participant to the net this week and that is Jason Bailey, KD8JCS, from Elkins, WV. I want to welcome Jason to the DAREN system and hope he uses the system and checks into the net as often as possible.