DAREN of WV News February 24, 2013(.A77)
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'm sorry to announce the passing of a long time participant of the State Wide DAREN Net. Gladys Gorrell, KC8GIZ, passed away on February 12th. Gladys has been participating in the net since March 15, 1997. Gladys was the wife of Ray Gorrell, WV8RG. Gladys will be missed.
I received a message from Tim Davis about the Barbour County NODE/PBBS of BARBWV/PHILWV. Tim said the NODE/PBBS was off the air for awhile due to a bad power supply. He has ordered the parts to repair the power supply, but in the mean time he is powering the DAREN NODE/PBBS from the same power supply that he's using for the Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) station. I want to thank Tim for getting the station back on the air.
In the February 3rd DAREN News I wrote about connecting the 145.69 MHz DAREN system to a 6 Meter frequency to help cover the dead spots on the state. I've been looking for a 6 Meter frequency that could be used. From all of the information that I've found, it looks like the frequency of 51.68 MHz would be a good one to use in conjunction with the 145.69 MHz frequency. I have some old Low Band (40 to 50 MHz) General Electric commercial radios that we might be able to use. They are crystal controlled and new crystals will need to be ordered. I need to check out the radios to make sure they will do what I want, but it is a start. Even though the Narrowbanding of the FCC Part 90 radios involved frequency between 50 and 500 MHz, some businesses and public safety agencies may have changed out their whole radio systems. There may be some commercial or public safety radio systems that operated on the Low Band (40 to 50 MHz) frequencies, and have moved up to the VHF High Band or the UHF Band. In any case we need to keep our eyes out for any 40 to 50 MHz Band radios that could be used on the new DAREN crossband frequency of 51.68 MHz. If anyone has any ideas on the new DAREN arrangement, let me know. The new arrangement would allow 51.68 MHz to be a backbone system for DAREN, and the 145.69 MHz frequency for NODE-to-NODE and local hub use. Any ideas are accepted.
There were 45 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. I will try to get the certificates for those who have been waiting for them printed up soon.