DAREN of WV News April 10, 2016 (.C40)
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.
Last week I talked about the Wood County NODE/PBBS of WOODWV/PKBGWV and the Jackson County NODE/PBBS of JACKWV/RPLYWV being off the air. They were only off the air a couple of days. I don't know what the problem was, but I'm thinking there may be some kind of interfering signal that is causing the stations not to operate. If you are trying to check into the State Wide DAREN Net, and having trouble, you may want to try a different path. I was also talking to the Wood County E-911 Communications Technician about band conditions on the 150 MHz bands. He said that he is having problems with the County Fire, County Sheriff, and City Police radio systems. He said the problems having been coming and going for a couple of weeks. It's possible it may just be band conditions. With any luck it will all clear up when the weather gets better.
It was 25 degrees when I got up this morning to head for the woods. At least 14 Amateurs helped provide the safety communications for the Challenge At Mountwood Mountain, Bike race today. There were over 225 racers who also had to tough out the cold weather. Even with all the rain the last couple of days the bike trails weren't too bad. There were very few accidents and no major injuries. We went into the woods about 10:00am, and the race started at 12 Noon. By the time we came out of the wood around 4:00pm, the temperature was about 56 degrees. That has been the coldest Mountain Bike race that we have ever helped with.
The Wood County groups next event will be a 10K (about 5 mile) road race in the city of Vienna. That event will be held on April 23rd. There will be Amateurs stationed at each of the Mile Markers, both for run and walk. They will be operating homemade race clocks for the runners to see. They start all of the race clocks using radio to hear the starting gun. The race only lasts a couple of hours, but I just hope it's not as cold as it was today.
There were 33 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net again this week. Michael Whitco, KC8OAN, who has been participating in the net since February 3, 2001, has completed 500 check-ins, and will be receiving his certificate.