DAREN of WV News June 4, 2017 (.D00)
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.
Since Field Day is just around the corner, now is the time to start getting everything ready to go. One of the things that WC8EC, Wood County Emergency Communications, tries for is to get as many bonus points as possible. There are several ways to get bonus points. One of them is the sending and/or receiving National Traffic System (NTS) messages. An extra 200 point can be picked up by simply passing 11 messages. One message to the ARRL State Section Manager (SM) or the Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC), will get you 100 bonus points. Another 100 bonus points can be picked up by sending NTS Type messages to 10 other people (10 points per message, maximum 100 points). The ten other people doesn't have to be Amateur Radio operators, they can be anyone. The Field Day Rules says the messages that are sent or received must be sent or received during the Field Day period by Amateur Radio RF. Randy Thomas, K8KHW, sent me an E-Mail reminding me of his Winlink 2000 system. The Winlink 2000 system can be accessed via the DAREN system. The Field Day Rules doesn't say that a Winlink system can, or can not be used, it only says the messages must be received or sent by Amateur Radio RF. The DAREN system operates on Amateur Radio and it is RF. After I got the E-Mail from Randy I thought I had better practice using the system again. I sent myself and E-Mail over the DAREN system. As soon as I sent the message, I went to my E-Mail computer, and the message was waiting there for me. To refresh everyone's memory, I am going to inclose how to send a message via Randy's Winlink 2000 system. The call sign on Randy's system is K8KHW-10, and it can be accessed through the Ritchie County NODE of RITCWV. To send an E-Mail is easy. Once you get connected to the Winlink 2000 system, you send the command: SP SMTP:email address, and then press <enter>. An example would be: SP SMTP:wa8llm@yahoo.com <enter> You can either wait for the system to ask for a Subject Title, or just type in the subject of the E-Mail, then press <enter>. You can either wait for the system to tell you to send your message or just type or send your message. When you are finished with your message, press <enter> and then type a /EX and press <enter>. You should get a message back saying that you message has been sent. Everyone should play with the Winlink 2000 systems before Field Day so that you can be familiar with them, and you will be able to use them in an emergency. I want to thank Randy for the reminder.
There were 35 check-ins to the net this week. Terry Mills, KC8TUE, needs only one more check-in to make 700. There was a new callsign on the net this week, and it was KF8LO. When I looked it up I found that Cody Stroud, K8NXE, from Elkins has changed his call. From the looks of the FCC Database Cody picked up a family members callsign.