DAREN of WV News January 3, 2010 (.912)
Kenneth Harris WA8LLM (304) 679-3470 wa8llm@yahoo.com
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
P.O. BOX 3328, PARKERSBURG, WV 26103
http://www.wc8ec.org
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.org website.
I hope everyone had a safe New Year. From what I hear the temperature is going to stay below freezing for the next week or so, and there will be lots of snow. I don't think I'll be working outside much. Since it's a new year I guess we get to start all over again. With winter here we can sit down, watch it snow, and think what happened last year. There' a lot of things that I want to do better this year. I need to replace the TNCs on some of the DAREN stations, and work on the Wood County 147.255 MHz voice repeater. I want to plan on doing our Field Day a little different. I want to learn new ways to set up the equipment to make easier and faster. Then in a real emergency we can use what we learned.
I haven't had any information about any of the DAREN stations, but I know I haven't been able to connect to a couple of them for a few weeks. I think the band conditions have changed is why I'm unable to post any information on the Berkeley County PBBS of MRTNWV. I can get connected to it, but when I try to post the DAREN News and weekly Net Announcement, it RETRYs out. It was a fairly good path back in the summer. The other station that I can't get connected to is the Greenbrier NODE/PBBS of GREEWV/FAIRWV. It's possible that it's just off the air. I haven't seen Joe Forren, ND4B, who is the SYSOP for the station, check into the State Wide DAREN Net for about a month, and his E- Mail address no longer takes my messages. Maybe he's just been busy with the holidays and things will get back to normal before long.
Wood County Emergency Communications is planning on their second annual Hamfest to be held on October 9th. The location is being changed and it will be easier to find, with a lot more room. I'll keep you posted as things progress.
That's all I have for now. If you have anything to pass on to others, send me a message and I'll get it in the News.
There were 62 check-ins again to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. Gladys Gorrell, KC8GIZ, who's been participating in the net since March 15. 1997, has completed 650 check-ins, and will be receiving her certificate.