DAREN of WV News April 14, 2013(.A84)
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.
Gene Roy, N8ER, sent me a message saying it must be band conditions the path between the NODEs of TUCKER and PENDWV is down since he has tried several radios, TNCs, and antennas, and still has trouble. The antennas he's using are stacked Mosely M-149-9, at about 100 feet on an elevation of about 1900 feet. He said he's never seen band conditions, as they have been this year.
I got an E-Mail from Al Poland, K8AXW, that reminded me why we started the DAREN system. At one time there were several Packet Radio stations that were for any type of traffic, but most of them were for Buy, Sale, and Trade systems. They were called BBS (Bulletin Board System). When you connected into one of them you would have to LIST everything that you hadn't seen since the last time you checked into the BBS. If you didn't check the BBS about every hour or so, the messages would build up to 50 or 100. With the speed of 1200 Baud, it would take several minutes to see what messages you hadn't listed before, let alone read one of them if you wanted. Then if there were several people doing the same thing, the frequency was so cluttered up, it was almost impossible to get a regular message through. I tried to get a message to Charleston once on 145.01 MHz. The message was about using Packet Radio for a three state, 21 county, exercise called Hurricane ZELDA. I never did get the message through, because there was so much non-emergency traffic on the frequency that I kept getting cut off from RETRIES. Because of the exercise, several Packet Radio operators decided to put together a Packet Radio system that would only be used for formal and emergency type use, thus the DAREN system was born. A History of DAREN was written several years ago. If anyone is interested in it, I'll E-Mail it to them. In the mean time, I'll try to get it posted on the www.wc8ec.org website. Those who were interested in a formal and emergency/disaster type traffic system have helped to keep the DAREN system operational, including the State Office of Emergency Services, who helped fund some of the DAREN Packet stations. I'm not for sure if there are still very many Buy, Sale, and Trade type BBS systems in operation since the Internet has grown so big, and the younger Amateur Radio operators don't use Amateur Radio, or Packet that much.
John Dobson, W8WEJ, is trying to find out if there are any DX Cluster systems still in operation in the areas of West Virginia or Ohio. He owns a farm in Wirt County, and does a lot of DXing from there. The only DX spotting he can use is on the Internet, but the only Internet service he can get is Dial-Up. The problem with the Dial-Up is the speed. The highest speed that he can get is 14K, and he says his computer won't operate properly at that slow of rate. He doesn't want to install an Internet Satellite system that will cost an arm and a leg, just to have a DX spotting system. I told him if we can find a Packet DX Cluster that we can reach, that I'd help him get a path to it. Since I'm not much of a DXer, I haven't kept up with any of the DX Clusters. Does anyone know of any DX Clusters, and if so, where are they at, and what frequency are they on. Other Amateurs may like to know.
There were 44 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Donnie Woodford, KC8YVR, needs only one more check-in to make 400.
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