DAREN of WV News June 1, 2014 (.B43)
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.
On Wednesday, Jim Rose, KD8ITI, and I went to a Local Emergency Planning Committee in Spencer. Before we went to the meeting we stopped and picked up the keys to the tower site where the Roane County NODE/PBBS of ROANWV/SPNCWV is located. When we got to the site everything looked good with the station, but it just didn't work. After a couple of tests I found the transceiver didn't have any receive audio. I had taken enough equipment to change out what ever might needed replaced. After changing out the transceiver, I was able to connect to all of the other NODEs that it used to connect to. I even tried to connect to the Wirt County NODE/PBBS of WIRTWV/ELIZWV. To my surprize the Wirt County station seemed to be working okay. After I got home I tried the Wirt County NODE and PBBS again, and it seems to be working great now. When I first put the station in operation it didn't sound very good. It may have just been that the battery didn't have a good charge.
It looks like I need to make another trip to Wetzel County. The NODE/PBBS of WETZWV/NMARWV is off the air again. I tried to connect to it last week, and it wasn't there. The transceiver for that station keeps losing it's memory or something, and the frequency goes back to 145.000 MHz. When I go back to Wetzel County the next time, I'm going to change out the transceiver. I hope that takes care of the problem. Now that I think about it, I may cvhange the frequency of my home station to 145.000 MHz, and see if I can connect to it.
The Wood County Emergency Communications group held a Hotdog Supper yesterday, and they had a good turnout. If it hadn't been for the scheduling SNAFU of the building, the turnout may have been better. While at the supper three people came in who wanted to take the Technician Class licenses. All three of them passed their tests and will soon have their license. One of them says he wants to take his General Class license as soon as he studies a little bit more.
There were 50 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Tom White. W3JTW, needs only one more check-in to make 700.