DAREN of WV News June 28, 2009 (.885)
Kenneth Harris WA8LLM (304) 679-3470 wa8llm@yahoo.com
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION
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.
I knew I was going to be late getting the DAREN News started this week. I had a great time at Field Day, and I'm tired. Now I've got to get all of the equipment put away and get ready for the next Field Day, or major disaster that would cause the equipment to be used.
I didn't receive any Field Day messages via Packet Radio, so I guess no one tried for the extra bonus points by sending a message to the ARRL Section Emergency Coordinator. I took advantage of the Winlink 2000 system that Randy Thomas, K8KHW, has in operation. I sent 13 ARRL RADIOGRAMs through the DAREN system to the Internet. Since the messages were originated on Amateur Radio they should be counted. I communicated with Randy about the Winlink system on Thursday since it seemed his Winlink system wasn't working. Randy told me the system had been hit by lightening again, taking out the Two Meter radio, the High Frequency Radio, and the computer. He was waiting for one of the radios to come in on Friday, and was hoping to have the system back in operation before Field Day. I want to thank Randy for all the work he does to keep the Winlink system in operation. Randy did get the system up and running for Field Day.
Our communications group will be operating a Free Coffee Safety Break this coming weekend, for the 4th of July. We will have one of our trailers set up at the Southbound Rest Area on I-77, below Mineral Wells. If you're traveling in the area, stop by and say hello to whoever is working at that time.
There were only 50 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. Matt Wright, KD8GWP, who's been participating in the net since September 1, 2007, has completed 50 check-ins, and will be receiving his certificate. I think the reason the net may be down this week was because of Field Day. Even though the net was operated the whole Field Day period, the bonus points for the non- traditional was canceled and replaced with an Educational bonus points. Our group set up a Packet Radio system anyway to let the operators at our site get checked into the net. I also notice there were no new callsigns on the net this year like there has been for the previous year's on Field Days. Since they did away with the non-traditional classification, maybe Packet Radio wasn't set up for at Field Day sites for demonstration or to allow the operators to check into the State Wide DAREN. I do want to take a minute to thank all of those who took a few minutes out of their Field Day activities to check into the net this week