DAREN of WV News December 27, 2015(.C25)
WA8LLM (304) 679-3470 wa8llm@yahoo.com
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS, 319 COMMUNICATIONS DR, WAVERLY, WV 26184
www.wc8ec.com or 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 www.wc8ec.com and www.wc8ec.org websites.
I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. Things were very quiet around here after the National Weather Service confirmed that it was an F0 Tornado that went through the south side of Parkersburg on Wednesday night at about 11:30 pm. A few garages were damaged, and a few house roofs were blown off. Several power poles were broken off, several trees down, and about 6000 people were without power for several hours. If anyone else had severe damage in their area, I like to hear about it.
I don't know what the problem was, or is, with the Wood County NODE/PBBS of WOODWV/PKBGWV, but after having trouble with it last week, it seems like it is okay for now. When it was accessible, I connected into the back door and did a Soft Reset. I guess only time will tell.
I heard on the West Virginia Fone Net last week that the Bluefield Hamfest is moving it's Hamfest date. The new date will be October 1st, 2016. That is just one week before the Parkersburg/Wood County Hamfest which will be held on October 8th, 2016. Prizes for the Parkersburg/Wood County Hamfest are already sitting on the shelf waiting for that date to come. There will be more information as the dates get closer.
My son Kevin, KC8OXY, has the programming software to program the Motorola Radios that we picked up a couple of weeks ago. But, there is one problem, the program runs as a DOS program, and the computer can't have a speed of more than about 60 MHz. We have several computers around here; we just need to find one that will run that slow. It's strange to hunt for a computer that will run slow, when everyone else wants to run faster computers. We're not in a big rush, since I still have a lot of work getting the radios modified with shorter control cables, and make up the cable to go between the control heads and the Terminal Node Controllers. My Nephew Sammy Mercer, N8SVX, used to program Motorola radios, and may be able to help. He will make his weekly trip to my house on Tuesday, and see what he can do.
Wood County Emergency Communications and I want to wish everyone a Very Happy and safe New Year.
There were 36 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week.