DAREN of WV News June 11, 2017 (.D01)
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.
This past week has been real slow. We only had one activity and that was VE Testing yesterday. We had two people who took their Technician test and passed it. Since the first of the year we have held two Technician Class License classes, with VE testing, and three VE Test sessions. I'm not for sure how many new Technicians we have in the area, but I know there are least 20. I forgot how many we had at the first class, and the February test session, but we had 14 pass the test after the second class, two at the April test session and two yesterday. I forgot to mention that while I was at the Jackson County Hamfest back in May, I talked to someone from the Charleston area about holding a General Class License class. They are planning to hold one, but there has been no date set. If I find out when it is, I'll let everyone know.
Since things have been slow I've been working on a couple projects for future activities. Since Sammy Mercer, N8SVX, and I have acquired some of the TYT 8000E Hand Held radios which are Dual Band (2 Meter/440 MHz) with Cross Band Repeat, we are working on a good portable dual band antenna, or two good portable antennas, one for 2 Meter and one for 440 MHz. The copper J-Pole antenna is good for 2 Meters, even though it is a little bit directional, and using it on 440 MHz is okay for short distances, but we need something that is good for longer distance for each band and omnidirectional on both. For many years, on and off, I have played with the Coaxial Collinear Antenna where you alternate the center conductor and the outside shield. I've been using the antenna, and it seems to work okay, but I could never get the SWR down to where it should be. All of the articles that I have read talk about using RF Toroids on the bottom of the antenna, about a half wave length below the half wave elements, but I never seemed to have them while working with the antennas. I usually use RG-8 Coax for the elements, so the hole in the Toroids needs to be big enough to let the coax pass through. I found a solution to the problem. If you have any old computer monitors just laying around. You know, the big ones that you can hardly carry, they have all kinds of good parts, so don't just throw them away. On most of those monitors the video cable that goes to the computer usually has one or two RF Toroids on them. Just take the Toroids off the video cable. The hole may not be big enough to fit over the RG-8 cable, but there's away around that too. On the coax feeding the bottom half wave element of the Coaxial Collinear Antenna, just remove the outside plastic jacket, and wrap it with one layer of plastic tape. Now the RF Toroid should slide over the coax with ease. By using three of the RF Toroids, I now have 5 Watts coming out of the Hand Held going into the antenna, and about a half a Watt, or less coming out. Now I'm satisfied.
There were 35 check-ins to the net this week. Terry Mills, KC8TUE, who has been participating in the since October 19, 2002, has completed 700 check-ins and will be receiving his certificate. Mark Sweitzer, KD8MIV, needs only one more check-in to make 250.