DAREN of WV News November 29, 2009 (.907)
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 hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving, and the hunters were safe in the woods. I didn't hear about any hunting accidents in this area this year. Usually there's at least one hunting mishap the first week of gun season.
Not much news this week. I've been busy getting ready for our Wood County Emergency Communications Meeting and Christmas Party. I also spent several days putting together a 2 Meter Voice Repeater to replace the one that was hit by lightening last April. To get a repeater back on the air after the Lightening Strike, I tied a couple of Alinco Radios together back-to-back. The two radios were a DR-435 UHF transceiver used to receive the remote receiver signals, and a DR-135, that was used as the transmitter of the 2 Meter repeater. The repeater didn't have a tail, a courtesy beep, or an identifier on it. As soon as the receive signals dropped, so did the transmitter. The original repeater had a voting system that selected the best signal out of the four remote receivers that are in operation, and re-transmitted the audio. Since the lightening destroyed everything at the repeater transmitter site, the only way to receive the remote receiver signals, was to scan the UHF Link Frequencies. When I finally got enough time, I purchased a new repeater controller and put it between the UHF scanning receiver and the 2 Meter Transmitter. The repeater works great even though there is no voter on the system. By outboarding some relays on the controller, I can now shut the repeater down during our Simplex Net on the first Sunday of each month, I can change the courtesy been to indicate there is a net in progress, and the courtesy will change to another beep when the commercial power is off, and the repeater is operating on battery power. The UHF receiver receives each of the UHF Link Frequencies, and repeats the first one it hears. As well as the system is working now, I don't know if I'm going to put a voter back on it or not.
That's all I have for this week. If you have anything you would like to report, drop me a line. I'm always looking for something to write about.
There were 65 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. Bob Ott, WB8OIF, who's been participating in the net since June 26, 1993, has competed 200 check-ins and will be receiving his certificate. Bob Hanson, AF8RH, needs only one more check-in to make 650. Anna Hendershot, KC8JWW, needs only one more check-in to make 600. Steven O'Dell, N8SNR, needs only one more check-in to make 550. And, Krista Mills, KC8VLJ, needs only one more check-in to make 300.