DAREN of WV News July 14, 2013(.A97)
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.
Friday afternoon and evening was interesting in the Wood County area. The telephone service had a major problem. None of the 10 telephone company remote offices, that work out of the Parkersburg main office, were able to communicate with each other for about eight hours. The 911 center had no administration telephone lines, and landline telephones were unable to communicate with cellular telephones. Landline telephones were also unable to communicate with telephones that are part of the Television Cable packages. The problem was the loss of the two data transfer and handoff circuits called SS7 that ties all of the different offices and services together. The SS7 circuit is about the same thing that is used on cellular telephone service that hands your cellphone call from cell tower to another cell tower as you move from one cellphone coverage area to another. The SS7 circuits originate somewhere around Washington DC area and are sent to the main telephone offices in each major telephone areas by fiber optic cable. The Parkersburg telephone office is the main office, or HOST, for 10 offices: Dallison (679), Elizabeth (275), Lubeck (863), Minerals Wells (489), Pennsboro (659), Ravenswood (273), Ripley (372), Valley Mills (464), Vienna (295), and Williamstown (375). Each of these offices were able to talk within themselves, but they could talk between each other. The idea is to bring the two SS7 circuits into Parkersburg from two different directions, one from the North, and one from the South, so the chances of losing both circuits are slim. But, some how in the past ten years, the two circuits were placed in the same Fiber Optic cable. Most of the cellular telephone service was about the same way, the different companies, ATT, Sprint, Verizon, etc., were able to talk within themselves, but were unable to communicate between each other, and to the landline telephones. The Fiber Optic Cable carrying the SS7 circuits got broke, or cut somewhere around the Dunbar area, and both SS7 circuits were lost. Even though Dunbar is over 80 miles from Parkersburg, the telephone service was interrupted. This was a scaled down, cheap and dirty explanation of how easy it is to lose telephone service. So keep your Amateur Radio handy and operational, we were busy while the telephone service was crippled.
The Wood County Emergency Communications group is going to be busy this coming week. Even though they said they weren't interested in operating the BINGO games at the WV Interstate Fair and Exposition in Wood County this year, the Fair Board members contacted them. It seems that after a years notice, they are unable to find an organization who is able to set up and operate the BINGO games without a large overhead expense. The Fair Board made an offer the Communications group couldn't turn down. Now we have to get everything ready for the fair.
There were 45 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Jim Woodford, KC8MLK, needs only one more check-in to make 450.
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