DAREN of WV News September 13, 2009 (.896)
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.
I talked to Bob Tuckerman, W3RUA, on the telephone Monday, and he said that Gene Roy, N8ER, was going to go to the Pendleton County tower site that day and remove the NODE/PBBS of PENDWV/FKLNWV. I had already posted the DAREN News and State Wide DAREN Net Announcement on the OLDFWV and MRTNWV PBBSs, using the PENDWV NODE, and was about to post them on the FKLNWV PBBS. By the time I got off the telephone with Bob, the station was already gone. Bob said it may be several weeks before the station goes back on the air. He has enough equipment to install the station, but isn't able to get it done right away. He said that when the station goes on the air, the antenna will only be about 15 feet off the ground. Bob isn't able to climb any more, so it won't go very high up the tower. The tower that it will be going on is an 80 foot self supporting tower owned by the Pendleton County E-911. The tower is located on North Mountain. If anyone would like to help Bob install the Pendleton County DAREN station, it would be greatly appreciated. The Pendleton County NODE/PBBS has been a major station in the DAREN system by having a very good path into the Eastern Panhandle. The Pendleton County NODE/PBBS was first installed on June 25th, 1993. Until the station is re-installed, at the North Mountain tower site, there's no way of knowing what kind of path there will be into the Eastern Panhandle, and some of the other stations.
Ray Gorrell, WV8RG, sent me an E-Mail about the Tyler County NODE/PBBS of TYLEWV/MIDBWV. He said the station went back on the air today. I've made a couple of tests to see how it works, and it seems to be pretty good.
The State Wide DAREN Net NCS for September 26th will be Larry Slagle, KB8CVP. The NCS will be located at the Buckwheat Festival SES (Special Event Station) in Kingwood, WV. The SES will be operated during the Buckwheat Festival which always starts the last Thursday in September and ends the following Sunday. The festival this year will run from September 24th through September 27th. If the SES operates the same as the past years, here's the information that I have. The times will be from 1400Z to 0200Z. The SES will be operating Phone and CW on 40, 20, 10 meters, about 25 KHz up from the bottom of the General Phone and Novice CW bands. They will also be operating PSK on 20 and 10 meters. Request for a SES Certificate can be mailed to Bill Beardslee, NN8W, 109 Western Dr. PO Box B5, Kingwood, WV, 26537. I hope all this information is correct, since I can't find my September 2009 issue of QST.
There were 57 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. Michael Whitco, KC8OAN, needs only one more check-in to make 350. And, Bob Klinger, WD8MTN, needs only one more check-in to make 250. I didn't get the certificates printed up this week due to some other activities