DAREN of WV News January 17, 2016 (.C28)
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 got an E-Mail from Gene Roy, N8ER, telling me he is also having trouble connecting to some of the NODE/PBBSs that he can usually hit. We are thinking the problem might be band conditions. It's hard to believe the bands would be so bad that we can't connect to NODE/PBBSs that are so close that we can almost see them. Or, the bands are so hot the NODE/PBBSs are hearing distant stations. Since Packet Radio stations won't transmit if they hear other stations on the air, they will not be able to respond even when they are requested. That makes them look like they are out of service. If there are distant stations operating on the same frequency, the NODE/PBBSs won't transmit until the other signals are gone. If the bands are hot enough for the NODE/PBBSs to hear distant station/s, what mode/s are the distance stations operating? If someone has a voice repeater with an output frequency on the packet frequency, the Packet stations will wait until the frequency is clear. On the other hand, the Packet NODE/PBBSs may be hearing signals that are so strong; they can't hear any stations that are trying to connect to them. Just since I started writing this DAREN News, I've heard an unmodulated signal key up several times on 145.69 MHz. I've also heard it several times over the past few weeks. Since most of the main DAREN stations are located on high Hilltops and Mountaintops, they will be able to hear signals that home terminal stations may not hear. The Wood County NODE/PBBS of WOODWV/PKBGWV comes and goes. One time you can get into it, the next time you can't. It's kind of hard to fix a problem when it's not broke. If you are the SYSOP (System Operator) for a Packet Station, what might, or should, help with most interference, is to be sure your TNC has the command "CD" set to SOFTWARE. The SOFTWARE command tells the TNC to only listen for true Packet signals. If the TNC doesn't hear a true Packet signal, it doesn't care what is on the frequency, it will transmit it's signal. Only time will tell if the problems clear up. In the mean time, I'm planning to change out the Wood County station with an 100 Watt Motorola radio.
There were 40 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Jeffrey Holstein, K8JMH, who has been participating in the net since July 19, 2014, has completed 50 check-ins and will be receiving his certificate. Lisa Henedershot. KB8UER, needs only one more check-in to make 1100. It's hard to believe that I've been participating in the State Wide DAREN Net for 1200 weeks. There was one station that checked into the net on Saturday at about 11:00 am, using the Callsign of "CALL". If you checked into the net around that time, don't see your callsign on this weeks Net Announcement, and think it may have been you, let me know so that I can update your check-in records. No one will know, but you and me. I hope I can hang around long enough to do another 1200, but I doubt if that happens.