DAREN of WV News March 7, 2010 (.921)
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.
Not much to write about this week. The only things that I have are the Day Light Savings Time change, which will takes place this coming Sunday, March 14th, and a couple of Hamfests. There are two Hamfests coming up soon, one on March 20th, and one on May 2nd. The Charleston Hamfest will be on March 20th, and the Jackson County Hamfest will be in Ripley on May 2nd. I won't be able to make it to the Jackson County Hamfest due to a Mountain Bike Race, the same day that our group will be providing the Safety Communications for.
The DAREN system has been pretty stable all winter, but with spring and summer coming, so does the Lightening storms. If spring and summer are as bad as the winter was, we may have some pretty good storms. There's not much you can do to keep the hilltop and mountaintop stations completely safe from Lightening, but you may be able to make them a little safer. Before the lightening season gets here you might want to survey the tower sites where the stations are at, and make sure that all the wiring and grounding systems are in good shape. Also check to make sure the antennas haven't been damaged from falling limbs, trees, or ice over the winter. This has to do with any station that is located at a remote location that you haven't seen since last fall.
There were 59 check-ins again to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. Kevin Harris, KC8OXY, who's been participating in the net since July 1, 2000, has completed 500 check-ins, and will be getting his certificate. As soon as I get some of the other projects that I've been working on completed, I'll try to get caught up with the other certificates that I've been falling behind on. There are a few certificates that I need to get printed up and mailed out. Ron Wilson, K8RWW, needs only one more check-in to make 250.