DAREN of WV News February 19, 2017 (.C85)
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 am sorry to announce that a good supporter of the DAREN system has passed away. Robert (Bob) Sellars, KB2FEL, became a Silent Key today. When I heard about it, I checked the State Wide DAREN Net records, and saw that Bobs last check-in to the State Wide Net was on December 29, 2016. Bob had been a regular on the net since September 9, 2006, with a total of 458 check-ins. Bob was system operator for the Hardy County NODE/PBBS of HARDWV/OLDFWV. Bob was very active in the Navy/Marine MARS (Military Affiliate Radio System) program until it was discontinued a couple years ago, and he switched over to Army MARS. Bob was also active in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) SHARES (SHAred RESourses) Radio program. He represented Amateur Radio in both organizations. I used to communicate with Bob often when he used to try to get me to join the Navy/Marine MARS program after leaving the Army MARS program. I'm going to miss getting messages from him. I don't know who, if anyone, will take over the duties of the Hardy County DAREN station.
I've been busy lately getting things together so I can work on the DAREN stations that I take care of. In the process of looking for parts, I started thinking about organizing all of the equipment, both large and small parts. I have several drawer organizers to put things in. I have labeled most of the drawers with a letter and a number. I'm putting together a cross-reference catalog so I will know where to find each of the parts. With fifty years of collecting parts, I have a life time of organizing to do. I hate to just throw away old computers and computer monitors, since there are a lot of good used parts in them, so I just take them apart and save most of the parts. It's hard to believe how much copper wire that can be saved out of the old computer monitors. I have at least 50 pounds of copper wire that comes off the yoke of the picture tube. Since it's molded to fit the yoke of the picture tube, there's no way to reuse the wire. The de-gaussing coil on the front of the picture tube is another story. With a little bit of work unwrapping the tape from the large coils, the wire there can be placed of small spools and be reused. If you are a builder you can find a lot of good used parts.
There were 40 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. There was one new check-in to the net this week and that was John Pitner, W8IDW, from Vienna. I have been working with John as he was setting up his station, and it looks like he made it. I want to welcome John to the DAREN system, and hope he can check into the net as often as possible and learn his way around the system.