DAREN of WV News March 15. 2015 (.B84)
WA8LLM (304) 679-3470 wa8llm@yahoo.com
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS, P.O. BOX 3328, PARKERSBURG, WV 26103
http://www.wc8ec.com
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.com website.
I forgot that last Sunday was the time change to Daylight Saving time. I'll pass on the reminder this week. It's time to set your clocks ahead an hour if you didn't do it last week. Of course if you own any of SkyScan Atomic Clocks, they should have set themselves. If you haven't already set your house clocks, don't forget to set all the clocks in your house; don't forget the one in your car or truck. Last Sunday was also time to set the clocks in your Packet Radio Terminal NODE Controllers (TNC), both your home station and any remote, hilltop or mountaintop stations, both DAREN, and all other regular Packet stations. When changing the time in the Packet stations, it's a good time to give them a "RESET", which may help them operate better. The information given here is for most of the Kantronics TNCs, KPC-2, KPC-3, KPC-4, KPC-9612, KAM, KAM Plus, KAM- XL, KAM-98, etc. Not only is it a good time to reset the TNC, it's also a good time to do other things. Don't forget to change the batteries in your Smoke and CO Detectors. Here's how to change the time in your TNCs, if they are made by Kantronics. If you're at the TNC just type the command "DA", <space>, followed by the two number year, month, day, hour, minute, and second. For example: the command to set the date of March 8, 2015, at 2:00 am would be; type DA 150308020000, and then press <enter>. If you're connecting to a remote station over the air, you must connect to your Remote Access callsign or ALIAS, and give your passcode. When you get the (prompt:) command, then do the "DA" command. I'm sure that you didn't get up at 2:00 o'clock to set your clocks or TNC, so be sure to adjust the above procedure for the time that you do make the changes. While you're into your remote station, and if you haven't done so already, now would be a good time to change the "MYA" to "DAREN". I know there are still several remote stations that have the same "MYA" ALIAS as their "MYN" ALIAS. I found that's it's not necessary to make the "MYA" and the "MYN" the same. By changing the "MYA" to "DAREN" will allow any necessary or EMERGENCY BEACONs cover the DAREN system a lot better. After you finish setting the time, and the MYA, and have the (prompt:) command back, do a "RESET" command. Doing the "RESET" command may clear out some minor problems that have been building up for the past few months, or the last time you did a RESET. I've sent out test beacons a couple of times to see how they work, but don't know how much of the state got covered. If you are going to Digipeat through the DAREN system, use the "MYN" of the remote stations, don't digipeat using the "DAREN" ALIAS, unless you want to cover the whole state. You would be surprised how many DAREN stations it ties up.
Don't forget the Charleston Hamfest which is this coming Saturday, March 21st. I hope to see a lot of the DAREN operators there.
There were only 34 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week.