DAREN of WV News July 20, 2014 (.B50)
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.
Nothing much to write about this week. I haven't heard from anyone, or any activities. I did get the Wood County Emergency Communications (WCEC) Field Day Report E-Mailed to the ARRL. WCEC operated under the call of WC8EC, running 5A. The bands seemed to be down on Saturday, so we tried to help our score by getting as many Bonus Points as we could. On Sunday morning the bands seemed to clear up and about every call that went out got answered. Since the WCEC group picks up several new Amateurs each year we try to get them involved with Field Day and get them on HF. We know that we will never have the highest score for our class, we just want to make sure those who operate at our Field Day site has a good time, and learns anything they can. A lot of the new Amateurs have never seen how emergency communications can be established in less than ideal conditions, and want to get ore involved. While at Field Day we needed to put together some power jumper cables with Anderson Power Poles, so to get another 100 points we held a short class on how to solder and put the Anderson Power Pole connecters on the jumper wires.
At the monthly WCEC meeting after Field Day some of the members wanted to have more training on how to solder. So for a training class that is held on the 4th Saturday of each month, the August class will be a complete class on how to solder. There will be all kinds of soldering tools and associated equipment. The class will be held at the Mid Ohio Valley Health Department, starting at about 9:00 AM. Anyone interested in learning how to solder is welcome to attend.
I've rattled on enough for this week, to fill up a half a page. If someone else would like to rattle on about something let me know.
There were 45 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Melvin Shiflett, KD8OWG, who's been participating in the net since May 7, 2011, has completed 150 check-ins, and will be receiving his certificate. Jerry Sturm, KC8SIG, needs only one more check-in to make 250. Frank Hughes, WD8DEP, needs only one more check-in to make 450. Kimberly Shiflett, KD8OHG, needs only one more check-in to make 150. And, Terry Mills, KC8TUE, needs only one more check-in to make 550. There was one new operator who checked into the net this week and that was Jeffrey Holstein, K8JMH, from Point Pleasant. I received an E-Mail from Jeff the other day and I told him how to use the DAREN system and how to get checked into the State Wide DAREN Net and the District 3 DAREN Net. It looks like he made it in. I want to welcome Jeff to the DAREN system and hope he uses it as often as possible, and keeps checking into the DAREN Nets.