DAREN of WV News January 10, 2016 (.C27)
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.
Well, it looks like there is some kind of problem with the Wood County NODE/PBBS of WOODWV/PKBGWV. I've had a couple of E-Mails telling me the station is down. Some times I can connect to it, and some times I can't. The last time I got into the PKBGWV PBBS I saw that I had a message from Mark Sweitzer, KD8MIV, but before I could read it, the station went off the air again. I don't know what the problem might be, but I've got to get it fixed. In the mean time, I'll put together another station, and get it on the air here at the house with the same ALIASs. The only times I've had problems where a station comes and goes, it's either a power source trouble, or some kind of signal interfering with the receiver. The station is located at one of the Wood County Emergency Services tower sites. The station operates from a back- up battery that powers all of the Public Safety radios, so it shouldn't be a power source problem. I did hear the county is moving, or installing radios at another tower site. But, I've talked to Duane Jones, N8LDM, at the 911 Center, and he says there are still other county radios in operation at the same tower site as WOODWV/PKBGWV, so there shouldn't be any problem with power. We may get together this coming Friday at the tower site, and fix the problem.
I'm not getting any reports of anything happening around the state. Keith Dobbins, N8KLD, did give me an idea of how to interface a Terminal Node Controller, with the Motorola Maratrac transceivers that we have. I'll start looking into getting them ready to go on the air.
That's pretty much it for this week. If you have any activities or news you would like to report, let me know.
There were 40 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Ken Butler, WA8TOX, who has been participating in the net since July 12, 2008, has completed 300 check-ins and will be receiving his certificate. Tom Di Bacco, AC8HQ, needs only one more check-in to make 100. And Jeffrey Holstein, K8JMH, needs only on more check-in to make 50.