DAREN of WV News January 27, 2013(.A73)
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, but the weather has been great. It was great weather for being outside and working on the antennas. My nephew, Sammy Mercer, N8SVX, and I have been working on a couple of projects. The main one is the building of Soundcard Interface devices so we can get some more of the local Hams on Packet Radio. With the price of TNCs going up, and the price of Handheld Radios going down, it's just as easy to use a free shareware soundcard program, a homemade computer interface, and a Walkie-Talkie, and you're on Packet.
We had a good turnout at the one day Technician License class that we held on Thursday, January 24th. We had 27 people that came in and took the class. Out of the 27 that took the class, 22 of them passed their test, and two of them took their General and passed. But the two who got their General were already studying. One Amateur, Brad Caribine, KC8TYU, who operates Packet on the DAREN system, and the weekly net, took his Extra Class, and passed it. I was told that about nine of those who passed their test were from the Health Department, one who set up the class and testing. About another nine of them were from the Red Cross. One of those who passed the test, Tim Harrison, was from Jackson General Hospital in Ripley. Tim Harrison, was looking over the shoulder of Jim Coberly, KD8DMP, while he was operating Packet Radio at the Region 5 Hospital exercise on December 6th. Tim has already E-Mailed me and wanted to know what kind of radio to get, and where to get it. I hope to see Tim here on Packet in the very near future.
I've got a couple of classes to attend this week. One of them is in Charleston, and one in Parkersburg. I've also got a CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) meeting to go to Monday evening, so I have another busy week ahead of me.
If you have any activities like those above let me know so I can have something to write about.
There were 50 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Ken Butler, WA8TOX, who's been participating the net since July 12, 2008, has completed 200 check-ins, and will be receiving his certificate. Bob, Tuckerman, W3RYA, needs only one more check-in to make 900.