DAREN of WV News May 6, 2018(.D48)
(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 received an E-Mail from Morris (Mo) Kittle, AD8T, about the Randolph County NODE/PBBS of RANDWV/ELKNWV. The station was repaired with a new radio courtesy of Zane Hammack, WV8ZH, and a new TNC from Gene Roy, N8ER. The station is running about the same power as before and on the same antenna, but Zane reports the antenna is not loading well, and may be due for a refurbish. Either Zane or Mo will take care of that as soon as possible. The call sign on the station is AD8T-7 until a new ARES Emergency Coordinator is selected for Randolph County. Many thanks to the Zane, the site owner for his technical work and contribution to get the RANDWV back on the air. It is a sorely needed node for those in the East side of the state. I also want to thank all of those involved in getting the station back on the air.
I'm going to be busy this week. Members of the Wood County Emergency Communications VE Team have been asked to go to Grantsville to do a One Day Technician License class, and VE Testing this coming Saturday, May 12th. The class will be held at the Grantsville Fire Station starting at about 9:00 am. We were told there may be between 20 to 25 people taking the class. I need to make a trip to town on Tuesday, after voting, and have 25 copies of the Technician Question Pool printed, and get some more calculators since a lot of those we have, have gone bad. We also need to get some Highlighters since a lot of them have dried out since the last class we held.
I made it to the Washington County, Ohio tower site to check on the DAREN Packet Radio station. The WASHOH/MRTAOH station has been down for about a year. I was able to get inside the fenced in area, and into the cabinet that housed the station. The radio and TNC were both off. When I checked the commercial power, it too was off. The cabinet plugs into an outside receptacle, but it was too high to reach. I need to take a six foot ladder the next time I go to the site. If there is no power at the outside receptacle, I will need to get a hold of Verizon and see if they can send me a service technician. The breaker inside the building may have been tripped, or been turned off. I'll report more on it later.
There were 38 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Randy Thomas, K8KHW, needs one more check-in to make 700. Madison Sweitzer, KB3URT, needs only one more check-in to make 250. I'm glad to see the Randolph County station back in operation. It sure helped the net check-ins.