DAREN of WV News May 15, 2011(.983)
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 have some sad news to report. Bobbie Wells, KB8TBF, from Tyler County passed away on Friday, May 13th. Bobbie has been a regular on the DAREN system since July 30, 1994, and a very good friend. He was one of Tom Cooper's emergency communications people. Tom, WV8TOM, is the Director of Tyler County Office of Emergency Services. Bobbie not only checked into the State Wide DAREN Net every week, but he also checked into the Local, District 3 ARES Packet Net here in Wood County about every Sunday evening. Bobbie's last check-in to the State Wide Net was on April 16th with 483 check-ins. About once a month Bobbie would check into the Wood County Emergency Communications/ARES voice net on Sunday evenings. Bobbie's last check-in to the Wood County voice net was on April 17th. I'm sure going to miss him.
I got an E-Mail from Lee Mairs, KM4YY, about the Hampshire County NODE/PBBS, HAMPWV/RMNYWV. Lee said the station is back on the air with a less than desirable antenna. He noted that his 5 element Yagi antenna was rotating 360 degrees. He said that it wrapped the transmission line for the DAREN VHF Vertical antenna so tight that it pulled the coax apart. He will have to splice in about a six foot piece of coax to get his Vertical antenna back into operation. But, with his set up right now, he's able to connect into the Mineral County NODE of MINEWV, and get back on the DAREN system.
While at the Jackson County Hamfest in Ripley today, I ran into Fred Slaughter, W8WAR. We got to talking about the DAREN system and he was wondering if it was still in operation. Since Fred is in the Two-Way Radio Business, he wanted to know if it would help to have another NODE/PBBS on the system in Braxton County. He said that he used to have one there many years ago, but it got hit by lightening, and was never put back on. Fred says he has some of the older Kantronics KPC-3 TNCs, and can use one of them and a commercial radio to put the system back in operation. I wouldn't be surprised to see a Braxton County NODE/PBBS back on the air in the next fews weeks.
There were 53 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. Tom Martin, WW8TM, who's been participating in the net since December 31, 1994, has completed 700 check-ins. Tom will be getting his certificate shortly along with a bunch of others. I got my main computer back up and running. It is the one that has my certificate maker on it. I will try to run off the certificates before it goes down again.