DAREN of WV News April 22, 2018(.D46)
(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.
Nothing much to report this week. I've been getting things ready for a Road Run in Vienna on Saturday, April 28th. I've been getting the racing clocks ready so they can be started by remote control. The clocks have a circuit board that has two relays that are latched when they receive a Touch Tone signal. The circuit boards were made using an SSI-202 Touch Tone Decoder chip. I needed some kind of receiver that could be operated on the Amateur Bands, since that is where the communications for the race will be handled. I found some small, low priced UHF Hand Held transceivers that can be installed in the clocks. The Hand Held transceivers are single band UHF Model H-777 made by RETCVIS. The radios can be programmed on frequencies between 400 MHz and 470 MHz and are 5 Watts. They only have 16 Channels and need to be programed by a computer since they don't have a Keypad, or Display on the units. I think the radios can be used for other purposes such as control links. From the tests that I have made with some of the radios is setting up one as a receiver. The small earphone, or speaker, jack puts out about 2 volts Positive, as well as the receiver audio on the Tip of the jack when it receives a signal. I used a .1 uf capacitor to pass the audio, and a 4.7K Ohm resistor to the Base of a 2N2222 Transistor connected to a relay. When the radio receives a signal, the audio is passed through the capacitor to an amplifier, and the relay operates. I think the RETCVIS H-777 has a lot of possibilities, and they are cheap. I've been trying to find a VHF version of the radio.
Once I get the Road Race done on Saturday, I'm going to find some time to get to some of the DAREN tower sites to get them back in good working order.
Those taking their Amateur Radio tests here in Parkersburg on Saturday, April 14th had a big surprise. The upgrades and new licenses were issued on Thursday, April 19th. I can remember the days when you took the tests, it took 5 or 6 weeks to find out if you passed or upgraded.
There were only 25 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Donnie Woodford, KC8YVR, needs only one more check-in to make 650.