DAREN of WV News December 17, 2017(.D28)
(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.
Not much to write about this week, so I'll give you an idea of how to fix any broken elements that are on the Cushcraft 10 Element Beam. It will also work on any of the beam antennas that uses the same type of elements. I just happen to have several of the 10 Element Beams, and a few bent or broken elements. If any of the elements are bent very far, you won't have much luck trying to straighten them up, they will usually break. The elements can be replaced with a piece of Number 6 copper wire. The only thing you need to build is a mount to hold the copper wire. I used a 2 inch piece of 1/4 inch soft copper refrigeration pipe tubing, and two 1 inch pieces of S & K Brass Tubing. One of the brass tubing is Model 8132 and the other one is Model 8133. The brass tubing will slide right over the 1/4 inch copper pipe, to help make it larger for the mounting hole. Just center up the brass tubing over the copper pipe and solder them in place. After you make the mounts all you need to do is drill a 11/64 inch hole in the center to mount it to the antenna boom. Cut a couple pieces of Number 6 copper wire about 18 1/2 inches long and solder them in the mount and attach the assembly on the boom. Once mounted all you need to do is cut the element to the right length. The 10 Element Beams that I have all measure the same length. The Reflector Element is 41 1/4 inches long. The Director Elements start at 36 1/2 inches long for D1 and get 1/8 inch shorter on each element. D2 is 36 3/8, D3 is 36 1/4, D4 is 36 1/8, D5 is 36, D6 is 35 7/8, D7 is 35 3/4, and D8 is 35 5/8 inches. The elements are mounted on the boom with a Number 8-32 screw that is 1 3/4 inch long. The Driven Element is a different story, I haven't had to replace one of them yet, but if I do, I'll pass on whatever information that I can.
There were 32 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Yesterday I completed 1300 DAREN Net participations. Most of my participation has been as the Net Control Station. There has been several others Amateurs who have been the NCS for the State Wide DAREN Net, and they have been located all over the state. I want to thank all of those stations for being the NCS. Mike Whitco, KC8OAN, needs only one more check-in to make 550. When I closed down the net last week I didn't see that Howard Peek, N8SCS, had checked into the net and I didn't get him on the list. I happened to look at my back-up station and saw his call. I have added Howard to the check-ins for December 9th. Sorry about that Howard.
That's it for this week. If you have any ideas or information that you would like to pass on, let me know. I'm always looking for something to write about.