DAREN of WV News July 25, 2009 (.889)
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.
For the past few weeks Shane Harper, KD8BMX, has been doing radio tests and getting ready for the Auto Rally. A couple of days ago he sent me an E-Mail stating the Auto Rally for this year has been cancelled due to lack of registered entrees. If you were planning to help with communications for the rally, you might want to hold off registering to help for a little while.
I've been reading the ARRL Letter Volume 28, Number 29, for July 24th. One item that caught my eye from the second 2009 ARRL Board of Directors meeting was Narrowband Channel Spacing. The ARRL Board members directed the President to appoint a study committee for the purpose of research and to consider developing a plan to move the US Amateur Radio community to narrowband channel spacing in the VHF and UHF bands. The Public Safety agencies are going through narrow banding right now. By the first of January, 2013, all Public Safety radios between 50 and 500 MHz have got to be Narrowband. To a lot of Public Safety agencies that means replacing some, or all, of their older radios. That's not a big problem for most Cities, Counties, and States, since all they have to do is write a grant to Homeland Security, and they will most likely get the money to replace the radios that can't be programmed for Narrow Band. Most VHF and UHF Amateur Radios that were manufactured within the last 5 or 10 years can be programmed for Narrowband, but how about the older ones. If the Narrow Band plan comes to the Amateur Radio community, will you be able to program your radio to meet the requirements? I have a bunch of older radios that will not meet the Narrow Band requirements, and I won't be able to get a grant through Homeland Security to replace them. How about the DAREN system? Most of the radios on the DAREN system are of the older vintage, and won't meet the requirements. Does that mean the DAREN system will go away since most of the radios that won't meet the requirements won't get replaced? We might want to watch what the ARRL is going to do with the Narrow Band plan, and write to them about our concerns.
There were 57 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. Barry Wagoner, N8WG, who's been participating in the net since December 29, 2001, has completed 200 check-ins. And, Kenneth Butler, WA8TOX, who's been participating in the net since July 12, 2008, has completed 50 check-ins. Both of these operators will be receiving their certificates. As soon as I get this part of the DAREN News typed up, I'm going to my other computer and finish getting the Participation Certificates printed up so that I can mail them out on Monday. If you have been waiting for a certificate and don't have it in your hands by the next State Wide DAREN Net, let me know. I have 15 certificates to get printed up, and I want to make sure that everyone who deserves a certificate gets theirs. There was one station that checked into the net this week using his MARS callsign. If you think it was you, you might check the callsign in your TNC. I know who it is, but I won't embrace the operator. Those things happen once in a while. I know, because I have posted the DAREN Net and Net Announcements a couple of times with my MARS Callsign, when I was in Army MARS.