DAREN of WV News May 3, 2015 (.B91)
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.
Well, Sammy Mercer, N8SVX, and I made it to the Jackson County NODE/PBBS of JACKWV/RPLYWV yesterday after the Jackson County Hamfest. What we found took a lot longer to repair, and more equipment than we had. I hadn't given it much thought as to what might be wrong with the station, except it may be off frequency like the last few times. The last few times I had to work on the station only took a couple of minutes to repair, so I wasn't prepared for what we found. We found the power supply had no power coming out of it, the batteries were dead, the transceiver wouldn't key up, and the TNC had reset itself back to day one. It looked like it may have taken a nearby lightening hit. Since I didn't think about all of those problems, I didn't have a regular power supply with me, so we used a 12 volt 3 Amp computer power supply to keep a couple of batteries that I had in the back of my truck charged up. I did bring a couple of extra transceivers and TNCs, so we were able to get the station back on the air. I didn't think to bring my Watt Meter, so I wasn't able to see how much power the transceiver was putting out. When I was testing some paths, I was only able to connect to a couple of the other NODEs. I don't think the power out of the transceivers that I tried are normal. So, it looks like I need to make another trip to Ripley to get the station back in tip top shape. This time I will have a complete station, TNC, Radio, Power Supply, and batteries programed, tuned up and ready to set in place. That's what happens when you try to second guess troubles, and not have what you need with you.
I got and E-Mail from Gene Roy, N8ER, about one of the Tucker County NODE/PBBSs. Gene said the TUCKWV/PRSNWV station is back on the air. He says the station is at the same tower site as the Davis 147.135 MHz Voice Repeater. The elevation is about 4000 feet. They are using a Station Master antenna with 5/8 inch Hardline, transmission line. The transceiver is a GE Master II radio that he sit up several years ago. He said the station has a good path to the Pendleton County NODE/PBBS of PENDWV/FKLNWV. We need to check out the station. It may be a great help for that section of the state, since we have been having limited coverage in that area.
There were only 36 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week.