DAREN of WV News October 18, 2015(.C15)
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.
After I posted the DAREN News last week, I got an E-Mail from Ann Rinehart, KA8ZGY. Ann sent a flier about the Charleston Hamfest which will be held on March 19, 2016. The location of the Hamfest has been changed. The new location will be the Emmanuel Baptist Church, 1401 Washington St. West, Rt 60, Charleston.
At the Parkersburg. Wood County Hamfest last week the winner of the main prize had already left when the drawings were held. It took awhile to put together the information as to who won the main prize. He had forgot to place his callsign on the registration form, but now we know who it was. Delmas "Gene" Hartley, N8JYS, was the winner of the HF Transceiver. Gene has been missing from the DAREN Net since June 27, of this year. We now have the radio wrapped up, labeled, and ready to ship. The next time I'm in town, I'll take it to the post office.
Not much other activity going one right now, but Jim Stevenson, WV8JS, who is the West Virginia ARRL SEC (Section Emergency Coordinator), is requesting monthly activity reports from all of the WV ARRL DECs (District Emergency Coordinator) and ECs (County Emergency Coordinator). I know when I was the WV SEC, I had the same problem of getting the DEC/EC Reports. The SEC needs the reports so he can send his SEC Report to the ARRL. The ARRL needs the reports so they can present the information to the FCC. If we can't prove to the FCC that Amateur Radio is a viable service, we may lose some of our Amateur frequencies. If you are the DEC of your district, or the EC of your county, or you know who they are, please encourage them to send their reports to Jim by the 5th each month.
I don't know what happened to the net this week, but there were only 25 check- ins to the State Wide DAREN Net. I know I was having trouble connecting to some of the DAREN NODEs and PBBSs when posting the News and Net Announcements this past week, but I worked my way around the system and got most of them posted. I don't know if it was band conditions, or people just losing interest, but the activity on the DAREN system has dropped a good bit since the first of the year. If it drops much more, there won't be much use to hold a weekly net. Roy Humes, N8RH, sent me an E-Mail said he had a hard time getting checked into the net. He never received a complete Connect Text. I'll be checking out the stations on this end to see if that might be the problem. Roy also told me that he had been checking into the net since 1994, and not 2004. When I checked my records I noticed I had used the date of the station just below his. I guess that's what happens when you get old and have to wear Bifocal glasses. Roy has been participating in the net since April 2, 1994. Sorry about that Roy.