DAREN of WV News August 9, 2015(.C05)
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.
Not much news again this week. I've been pretty busy the last few days, and will be busy all this week. The Parkersburg Homecoming and Half Marathon will be this coming weekend, and the Wood County Emergency Communications group and other Amateurs in the area are going to be helping. The WCEC group will be operating the BINGO games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but that's after all the work of setting up the 24 by 80 canopy, 36 tables, and about 150 chairs. I'll be spending a lot of time transporting all of the trailers to the Homecoming site. Of course that's not the only thing that needs to be done. We have finish rebuilding the BINGO tables so they will be easier to set up, as well as getting everyone assigned a position and getting them a Race Clock to operate at each of the Mile Markers for Half Marathon. I'll be glad when next Monday gets here, and I get to take a short break before the Volcano Day Festival in September, and the Hamfest in October.
I had trouble getting the DAREN News and State Wide DAREN Net Announcements posted around the state again this week. I don't know if it's just band conditions or because of the lack of NODEs. The check-ins to the net this weekend showed another loss of participates.
I didn't get to go the Hamfest in Huntington yesterday since the group was holding their every other month VE Testing. We had two people who took exams, and both of them passed. One took his exam for Extra, the other one came from Jackson County, and took his Technician, General, and Extra, and passed all three. That's only the third time in the 20 or more years that someone came in with nothing, and walked out with their Extra Class license.
There were only 31 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. My wife Dot, KC8HAI, who has been participating in the net since May 3, 1997, has completed 950 check-ins. My son Kevin, KC8OXY, who has been participating in the net since July 1, 2000, has completed 750 check-ins. And Jeffrey Hensley, WD4VA, who has been participating in the net since August 27, 2011, has completed 200 check-ins. All of these operators will be receiving their certificates.