DAREN of WV News August 28, 2016 (.C60)
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.
Four Amateurs and one non-Amateur were busy in the heat yesterday. Along with me was my son Kevin, KC8OXY, and his son Brian, Bill Davidson, N8JXO, and Sammy Mercer, N8SVX, at the Tyler County tower site where the DAREN NODE/PBBS of TYLEWV/MIDBWV, and the Tyler County Amateur Radio Club 147.36 MHz voice repeater used to be operated. The buried power cable that once feed the tower site was accidentally damaged, and both stations went off the air. The club didn't have enough money to get the equipment to repair, or put in a new power line so they have abandoned the site, and wants to get the tower on the ground. The heat was so bad that all the group was able to do, was get the antennas off of the tower. The top set of guy wires have been removed, and the top section of tower is unbolted. All of the radio equipment has also been removed from the transmitter building. It was just too hot to stay there any longer. I'm planning to take all of the equipment back to Tyler County on Thursday, when I go to the Office of Emergency Services Volunteer meeting. I might try to talk Tom Cooper, WV8TOM, who is the county Emergency Services Director into placing the voice repeater on the air at his office until the club can find a tower site where they can place it. At least the club will have a repeater they can use to coordinate their activities.
Terry Mills, KC8TUE, wants to remind everyone to put the Parkersburg/Wood County Hamfest on their calendar. The Hamfest will be held on October 8th, at the 4-H Camp Ground on Butcher Bend Road in Mineral Wells. The Hamfest is only about 4 miles off of the I-77 Interstate, Mineral Wells, Exit 170, just South of Parkersburg. The group already has the main prizes, and a bunch of door prizes ready for the Hamfest. Breakfast will be served starting at about 6:00 am. There will be W5YI VE Testing given at around 9:00 am.
That's it for this week. Keep me posted on any activities that are happening in your area.
The State Wide DAREN Net was down again this week. There were only 29 check- ins. Anna Hendershot, KC8JWW, who has been participating in the net since May 9, 1998, has completed 950 check-ins. Krista Mills, KC8VLJ, who has been participating in the net since December 28, 2002, has completed 650 check-ins. Both of these operators will be receiving their certificates. Gene Roy, N8ER, needs only one more check-in to make 1200. And, Krista's older sister Tricia Magyarosi, KC8VLI, needs only one more check-in to make 650. There is still one station that checked into the net again this week with the callsign of "NOCALL". The station checked into the net on Saturday evening at around 4:17 pm. If that stations doesn't see his or her call on the Net Announcement this coming week, and thinks it may be them, let me know so that I can get their net participation records caught up.