DAREN of WV News March 18, 2018 (.D41)
(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 noticed during the State Wide DAREN Net yesterday that several stations were having trouble getting checked in. A couple fire departments were called out on a power substation fire at Mountwood Park. On the hilltop at Mountwood Park is where the Wood County 147.255 MHz voice repeater and the Ritchie County DAREN NODE/PBBS of RITCWV/HRVLWV are located. Due to the substation fire, the power was off from about 9:00 am until about 3:00 pm in the park and at the tower site. The voice repeater and the DAREN NODE/PBBS is supposed to operate on battery during power failures, but the batteries only lasted for a couple hours. So if you were trying to connect into the State Wide DAREN Net during the power outage, and was having trouble, now you know why. I saw several stations that looked like they were having problems. I'm sure I got everyone. If I missed anyone, let me know. It looks like I've got another project to work on this summer, and that's changing out the back-up batteries.
There were 37 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. I want to welcome Barry Wagoner, N8WG, back to the net. Barry has been missing from the net since May 21, 2011. I hope he will check in as often as possible. There was one station that checked into the net this week with the callsign of "NOCALL". The station checked into the net at around 6:11 pm yesterday. It looks like they were digipeating through the digipeaters of MINEWV, PRESWV, and RITCWV. If you don't see your callsign on this coming week’s State Wide DAREN Net Announcement, and think it may have been you, let me know so that I can give you the check-in credit you deserve. I want to thank everyone who supports the DAREN system. Everyone makes mistakes from time-to-time, including me. I won't let anyone know who it was.