DAREN of WV News December 6, 2009 (.908)
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 haven't received much information about the DAREN system or other Amateur Radio activity so the news will be a little short.
The Wood County Emergency Communications is getting ready for a disaster exercise scheduled for December 17th. The drill will be a Region 5 Hospital Command Post exercise testing the abilities to coordinate and correct any problems they are faced with. The hospital wants to use Amateur Radio operators to help handle their messages. Plans for now are to use Packet Radio for some of the communications.
There were 69 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. Bob Hanson, AF8RH, who's been participating in the net since November 16, 1996, has competed 650 check-ins. Anna Hendershot, KC8JWW, who's been participating in the net since May 5, 1998, has completed 600 check-ins. Steven O'Dell, N8SNR, who's participating in the net since April 2, 1994, has completed 450 check-ins. And, Krista Mills, KC8VLJ, who's been participating in the net since December 28, 2002, has completed 300 check-ins. All of these operators will be receiving their certificates. Gene Roy, N8ER, needs only one more check-in to make 850. I received a message from Jerry Nelson, KD8HJN, on Thursday, telling me that he hadn't received his certificate. Since there were only 96 check-ins on his record, and that his 50th check-in was November 22, 2008, I wasn't for sure what to do. When I got to checking his records, I found out that Jerry's callsign had been changed, and I didn't catch it. His old callsign was KC8HUP. His last check-in as KC8HUP was on December 1, 2007. His first check-in as KD8HJN was December 8, 2007, the following week, which I showed as a new participant to the net. Under Jerry's old call sign he had 440 check-ins. Now that I found my mistake I need to issue Jerry some new certificates. He needs a certificate for 450 on February 9, 2008, and for 500 check-ins on February 14, 2009. Jerry's records now show 535 check-ins. Now that I caught my mistake, I can keep up with his records. Sorry for the mix-up Jerry.