DAREN of WV News APRIL 24, 2011(.980)
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 news this week. I've been busy getting ready for an event that will be a communications challenge. The Mid Ohio Valley Health Department is sponsoring a fund raiser called Bike For a Cure. The event is going to be a 28 mile Bike Race and a Ride. The race and ride, will be 14 miles out, and 14 miles back, on the Wood County section of the Rails-To-Trails. The Health Department wants Amateur Radio operators to be posted at each of the 18 road and driveway crossings on the trail. Each of the crossings has gates that need to be opened for the race and ride so the bike riders won't have to leave the trail to go around the gates. The officials of the event wants to have safety communications over the entire course. Since the Rails-To-Trails are not straight, and level, several communications facilities will be needed to provide the communications. The event will be held next Saturday, April 30th.
I got an E-Mail from Lee Mairs, KM4YY, informing me about a problem with the Hampshire County NODE/PBBS of HAMPWV/RMNYWV. He said that something happened to the antenna of the station which is about 60 feet up, on the top of his tower. He said that he could hear the radio signal with a Handheld radio, but no one else could hear it, not even the Hardy County NODE of HARDWV, which is only 18 miles away. He has a boy coming over to climb the tower and try to get the station back on the air. In the mean time he plans on using a mobile antenna to try to get a station in operation, so he can get back into the DAREN system. Lee will let us know when he get the main NODE/PBBS back in operation. I want to thank Lee to having, and maintaining a DAREN NODE/PBBS.
There were 56 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. Robert Sellars, KB2FEL, needs only one more check-in to make 200. I had announced last week there would soon be a new participate to the State Wide DAREN Net. This week Kendale Peterson, KD8QAK, 8 years old, of Walker, checked into the net. Kendale's mom Judy Peterson. N8UFQ, said that he couldn't wait to be able to check into the State Wide Packet Net, then he checked into the Local District 3 Packet Net this Sunday evening. After he got checked into the Packet Net, he checked into the Wood County Emergency Communications ARES Net on voice, and gave his comments. Kendale loves talking on the radio, I wish we could get more young people that interested in Amateur Radio.