DAREN of WV News April 4, 2009 (.873)
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.
The Wood County NODE/PBBS, WOODWV/PKBGWV, went brain dead sometime last Tuesday. I was a little late getting the DAREN News and Net Announcement posted last week, so by the time I got around to the Wood County PBBS, I wasn't able to connect to it. I contacted Duane Jones, N8LDM, who works for the Wood County Emergency Services and we meet at the county tower site. After a few Hard Resets, we finally got the TNC back in operation. We're not for sure what happened to it, but it is back up and running. With the hard reset, the PBBS lost all of the DAREN News, Net Announcements, and WV ARES Bulletins. If you are looking for an older copy of the DAREN News or WV ARES Bulletins, you can find them on the website of: www.wc8ec.com. while we were at the tower site Duane suggested the installation of a backup DAREN station. In the near future a low profile backup station will be installed. If the main station goes down, all I will need to do is go in the remote access of the back-up station and change the ALIAS' for the NODE and PBBS.
Randy Thomas, K8KHW, is still testing his Winlink Packet systems. I got a couple internet E-Mails from him using the Winlink system. He is running some tests to get the system fine tuned. If you use any of his Winlink systems and have any problems, let him or me know.
I got an E-Mail from Don Jones, K8DSJ, about a Jefferson County NODE/PBBS that may come on the air some time in the future. They are just waiting to get a 50 watt radio.
Check out the "Radio-A-Day Give Away" on the www.wc8ec.com website.
There were only 57 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. Judy Peterson, N8UFQ, who's been participating in the net since October 31, 1992, has completed 850 check-ins. Jim Stephenson, KE8YB, who's been participating in the net since June 23, 2001, has completed 250 check-ins. And, Paul Roy, N8PER, who's been participating in the net since April 28, 2007, has completed 100 check-ins. All of these operators will be receiving their certificates. For those who don't know about the certificates, here's a brief description. Those operators who participate in the Weekly State Wide DAREN net will receive an appreciation certificate for every 50 times they check into the weekly net. As you can see some operators have been participating in the weekly net for a long time. The first State Wide DAREN Net was held on October 31, 1992, that's close to 17 years ago. I finally finished printing up the certificates for those who have been waiting for them. I wanted to get them mailed out Tuesday, but they didn't go in the mail until Wednesday. If you have been waiting for a certificate, and haven't received it, let me know. I got Packet message from Bob, Ott, WB8OIF, who said that he had received his certificate on Friday. I want to thank all of the operators who participate in the weekly net and practice using the DAREN system. Some day in the future it may be needed, and it will be nice to know there are several operators who know how to use it