DAREN of WV News July 15, 2012(.A45)
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 talked to one of the radio technicians, Matt Greathouse, N8MDG, who works for Miller Communications, who owns the tower where the Ritchie County DAREN NODE/PBBS of RITCWV/HRVLWV is located. Matt told me that while he was taking a shift of running a generator and cleaning up around the site, that he noticed the radio for the NODE/PBBS was off, so he turned it back on. I had connected to the station at one time shortly after the station went off the air. I figured that everything was okay, but the next day the station was off the air again. After talking to Matt, we figured that after the commercial power was back on, and the generator was removed the radio needed to be turned back on again. There may be no problem with the station, it just needs to be turned back on. I'm going to be busy today and all week at the county fair. Our communications group operates the BINGO games at the fair, and I will spending a lot of time there. Matt said that if gets a chance to go back to the tower site that he will turn the radio back on and see if it's okay. In the mean time I have received several messages and E-Mails about the station of how the operators weren't able to get checked into the State Wide DAREN Net. To post the DAREN News and State Wide DAREN Net Announcement each week, since the June 29th storm, I've had to use different paths since my main route throughout the state was through the RITCWV NODE. This is a good time to learn to use other NODEs to check into the DAREN Net. One of the reasons we hold the net each week is to check the different paths. Another reason is so that we know which NODEs are operational. If we can get check-ins from all over the state, then we know there is state wide coverage.
Jeff Hensley, WD4VA, said that he put a node (PEAKND) on the peak of Massanutten Mountain, just a few miles East of Harrisonburg, VA. It is currently on the VDEN frequency 145.73 MHz. It's a KPC-3 Plus with 9.1 network node firmware. Jeff said that he has a KPC-9612 with 8.2N networknode firmware that he plans to add to the system in the next couple months. He hopes to put one port on the 9600 bps VDEN frequency, and the 1200 bps port on DAREN system, then network the two TNCs, and networks will be tied together. He says location has generator backup. He said that he tried to model the DAREN conventions when setting it up. Since he is in Rockingham County, Virginia, is will use the node name of ROCKVA when he gets the DAREN node installed. He said that in testing, he had no problem hitting PENDWV from PEAKND on low power, so it should be a solid link into Virginia and the VDEN network. If anyone is interested in communicating with Jeff he can be reached at: jeffrey_hensley@hotmail.com or packet mail on HRECC-7 which can be reached from PENDWV.
Gene Roy, N8ER, said that William Hole, AC8FD, took a lightening strike today, and lost everything including DAREN. He doesn't know long he's going to be off the air.
There were 48 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Allen Poland Jr., K8AXW, who been checking in to the net since October 11, 2008, has completed 150 check-ins, and will be receiving his certificate. Jim Woodford, KC8MLK. needs only one more check-in to make 400.