DAREN of WV News April 30, 2017(.C95)
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.
It's been a slow week, so I've been able to get a few projects either started or done. I just came back from the Athens (OH) Hamfest, where I picked up a few things that I didn't think I could live without. I'm getting ready for the Wood County Emergency Communications meeting this coming Tuesday. I'm planning to have a Show-N-Tell about how to set up a temporary voice repeater using a TYT UV8000E 10 Watt Hand/Held radio. The Hand/Held is a dual band, 2-Meter/440 radio with cross band repeat. The repeater will have a UHF input and a VHF output. I thought about it when I remembered several years ago when the Chicago Police department had the same type repeater system, using the old tube type Motorola radios with the Carter Duovolt Genemotor, motor/generator to provide the 525 Volt high voltage for the transmitter. Yes, I still have some of them. The mobile radios had a UHF Transmitter, and a VHF Receiver. It was long before the concept of same band repeaters and duplexers were thought of. On May 20th several Amateurs will be providing the communications for the 10K Chic-Fil-A Road Run. A cross band repeater will be used to cover the race course. After getting home from the Hamfest today I started building a new antenna outrigger to put at the Wirt County NODE/PBBS, WIRTWV/ELIZWV tower site. The outrigger will hold two 2-Meter J-Pole antennas and two UHF Beam Link antennas. All of the antennas that are there now are mounted on two separate outriggers, but want to swing in the wind. The two 2 Meter antennas need to be replaced since they want to keep falling apart. The new outrigger will be mounted on two legs of the tower and will be a lot stronger. I need to start getting everything ready for a one day Technician Class radio class next Saturday, May 6th. So far there have been at least 13 people who have shown interest in taking the class. Four of the people are: a County Commissioner and School Board Maintenance Supervisor from Pleasants County, and the EMA (Emergency Management Agency) Director and his Assistant from Washington County, Ohio. Don't forget the Jackson County Hamfest next Sunday, May 7th. The Hamfest will be held at the Ripley Middle School in Ripley. After the Hamfest Sammy Mercer, N8SVX, and I are planning to stop by the Jackson County NODE/PBBS, JACKWV/RPLYWV, tower site and change out the antenna, which has a 90 degree bend about half way up, and change out the 25 Watt Alinco DR-1200 Transceiver with a 100 Motorola Transceiver.
That's it for this week. I'll give you the process of how things went, next week. If you have anything going on in your area, let me know so I can pass it on.
There were 35 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week.