D.A.R.E.N. News 2011

DAREN of WV News July 24, 2011(.993)
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 spent a lot of time at the West Virginia Interstate Fair and Exposition last week operating the BINGO games, and trying to help operate a Special Event Station.  The weather was so hot and muggy, that very few people showed up at the fair, and the trailer we were operating the SES out of wasn't much cooler even with the Air Conditioner running full blast.

I got an E-Mail from Allen Poland Jr., K8AXW, about his experience with Echolink.  He used to use Echolink while he only had Dial-up Internet.  After he switch over to High Speed Internet using the telephone line, he said that it came to a screeching halt.  He said it was necessary to open 3 ports so that unsolicited packets could come and go without being blocked.  Al said that not only that, the high speed modem had to be accessed, and 3 ports opened on it. He said if you use a router it's also necessary to get into the "setup" on it and open those ports.  He has since received information on how to open the ports on the Modem.  He was able to open the ports on the Router a long time ago, but didn't know that it was necessary to get into the modem setup, and open ports.  He said he might be giving Echolink a try again, now that he knows more about it.  But, he figured others might have had the same problem, and it would be nice to learn how they solved it, if they did.  Since I've never used Echolink, and I'm not much help on computers, I hope this information helps those who may be having trouble setting up their Echolink.

There were 50 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN.  William Hole, AC8FD, who's been participating in the net since December 12, 2009, has completed 50 check-ins, and will be receiving his certificate.  Jim Woodford, KC8MLK, needs only one more check-in to make 350.  I didn't get started on printing up the certificates like I had planned.  Our group operated the BINGO games at the West Virginia Interstate Fair and Exposition last week and I'm trying to recover from that activity.  It takes about two weeks between getting ready for the fair, operating the BINGO games, and then getting everything back to normal.  This week I will be trying to get the grass cut from not being able to do anything with it for about three weeks.  So I'll be working on it whenever the sun isn't too hot.  After that I will have a couple of weeks before we start working on the Parkersburg Homecoming BINGO, and Parkersburg Half Marathon.  Maybe I can find time to work on the certificates.

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