DAREN of WV News May 27, 2018(.D51)
(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.
Well, I finally got one of my remote stations back in good working order. I went to the Ritchie County NODE/PBBS of RITCWV/HRVLWV and changed out the TNC. When I got to the site I wasn't even able to communicate with the TNC through the RS-232 port. I just changed out the TNC, set most of the parameters and checked to see what I could connect to. While I was at the site I checked out the antenna and power. I think I have an antenna problem since I was only getting 35 Watts forward and 8 Watts reflected out of a 50 Watt radio. Sometime this summer I will go up the tower and change out the antenna and/or coax.
After I got home, I just gave the old Ritchie County TNC a Hard Reset to make sure that it was okay. While I was at it I started upgrading all of my spare KPC-3 TNCs to 512K of memory. My plans are to take the TNCs to my nephew, Sammy Mercer, N8SVXs house tomorrow and try to upgrade the TNCs from Version 5.0, 5.1, 6.0, and 6.1 software to Version 8.2. If we can do what we want, I will start upgrading all of my remote stations when I make trips to them.
While I was working on the Kantronic KPC-3 TNCs, I started working on the old MFJ 1270, 1270B, 1270C, and 1274 TNCs. Over the years I've been picking them up at Hamfests just to have something to play with. Some of them are bad, but I've been able to take parts from some to make others work. They are still good for those who want to get started on Packet and don't need all the options.
Michael Tyler, WA8YWO, sent me an E-Mail telling me that he has the Nicholas County NODE/PBBS of NICHWV/RWODWV back on the air. He says he hopes it will stay on the air for awhile with all the work he had to do to get it back on.
There were 36 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Terry Mills, KC8TUE, who has been participating in the net since October 19, 2002, has completed 750 check-ins and will be receiving his certificate.