DAREN of WV News October 12, 2014 (.B62)
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.
Last week was a busy week, but it is now over. The Parkersburg/Wood County Hamfest is also over. The turnout for the Hamfest was a little lower than last year, but there were more vendors. Since the tables were free a lot more Amateurs brought more things to sale and display. We have already started plans for the Hamfest next year, and some of the door prizes are already being collected. I want to thank all of those who attended the Hamfest and hope they come back next year. Since the main door prize for the past few years was a generator, the one for next year has already been acquired.
I got another E-Mail from Joseph Lawrence, K9RFZ, who is the ARRL Section Manager for Indiana about the telephone conference call he is going to have. The conference call is about the DAREN system and how it was started and set up. I E-Mailed him a copy of the DAREN Plan which can be found on the www.wc8ec.org website. The conference call is going to be held at 7:30pm tomorrow evening. I'll let you know what comes out of the conference call.
This coming Thursday the Wood County Emergency Communications and ARES group will be providing the Safety Communications for some more High School Cross Country foot races. These will be the last races for this year. It's fun to provide the communications and letting the general public see how Amateur Radio can be used. Beside the safety communications, the group operates the race clocks along the race course, and reports the runner numbers and times of the first five runners as they past each of the mile makers. They also spot the runner numbers as they approach the finish line and let the race officials announce the runner names. The group also provides the 4-Wheelers with communications so they can pick up any runner that has problems and can't finish the races.
I know that Field Day is a few months off, but Sammy Mercer, N8SVX, and I have been working on HF antennas. We have been trying to build HF antennas for 40 and 75/80 Meters that are only 20 feet off the ground, and can be used to cover the complete band, without using an antenna tuner. Some of the operators on Field Day don't use HF on a regular basis, and aren't familiar with using tuners. We think we have come up with an antenna that will cover the entire 75/80 Meter Band with an SWR of 1.5:1 or less. The same type antenna has been built to do the same thing for 40 Meters. The antennas will be set up and tested several times before Field Day to make sure they work as planned.
There were 41 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Roy Humes, N8RH, needs only one more check-in to make 900.