DAREN of WV News October 25, 2009 (.902)
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. There hasn’t been any activity going on so I've been trying to caught up with some of the little projects that I've not been able to work on.
The hospitals in Region 5 are planning an exercise for their Emergency Operation Centers on December 17th. They want to test their Emergency Plans and see if they can come up with solutions to problems they will be facing. They have asked that Amateur Radio operators be a part of the exercise. A simulated call center will be set up at the Wood County Health Department office in Parkersburg. The call center will be using landline and cellular telephones to contact each of the several hospitals with problems. About half way through the exercise, the landline and cellular telephone will become inoperative due to the cause of the event. The scenario will be an Ice Storm that has 2 to 3 inches of ice on everything, and they are expecting another inch. Amateur Radio operators will be asked to provide the back-up communications for the second half of the exercise. I need to find out how many hospitals are in Region 5 that are going to involved, and try to get an Amateur Radio operator at each one of them. I would like to have each of the hospitals operating on Packet Radio from the beginning of the exercise. Then when they turn the communications over to the Amateurs, they will be ready to do their job. If you would like to be involved with the exercise, let me know. We still have a little time to prepare for it.
There were 63 check-ins this week's State Wide DAREN Net. My wife Dot Harris, KC8HAI, who's been participating in the net since May 3, 1997, has completed 650 check-ins. Now my daughter Cathy Wotring, KC8DJJ, needs only one more check-in to make 700. I want to welcome Henry Bacco Jr., KA8JHT, back to the DAREN system, Henry has been missing from the net since February 18, 1994. I hope Henry can make it back on a regular schedule. Last week I thought I would try to get the Participation Certificates printed up and get sent out after I finished the DAREN News, but it only takes one telephone call to change about everything. Now I need to get the minutes typed up for the communications meeting coming Tuesday, November 3rd, and since it's the last of the month I need to start getting the DEC and EC reports together so that I can send my SEC Report to the ARRL. There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done, but I'll try.