DAREN of WV News October 28, 2018(.D73)
(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.
We just had a thunderstorm come through the area. After the storm was over, I started checking different radio systems. I found there were at least four systems that are down. We have three Amateur systems at one tower site and they are all down. One of the systems is the Ritchie County DAREN NODE/PBBS of RITCWV/HRVLWV. There are several commercial systems at the same site, but I only have access to one of them, and it is also down. I'm hoping the problem is just a power outage. Since there are very few electric customers on that section of the power line it may be a few days before the power comes back up, if that's the problem. If the systems aren't back up by Tuesday, I may stop by the tower site to make a quick check. I will be going past the tower site on my way to Clarksburg to meet up with Frank Hughes, WD8DEP. Frank has a bunch of old computer equipment that he is getting rid of. My nephew Sammy Mercer, N8SVX and I, review the equipment to see what is still usable and what's not. If it's usable, or repairable, we fix it up for use by anyone who needs it. If it's not repairable, we disassemble the equipment, remove, and save the parts to repair, or build other things.
I'm getting the equipment ready to go work on some of my DAREN stations that are down. Right now, the DAREN stations that I have down are: JACKWV/RPLYWV, ROANWV/SPNCWV, and WETZWV/NMARWV. Some of the stations have been off the air for a long time, and I don't know what I'll be getting into. I would like to get them back in operation before the snow starts falling. I'm still wanting to upgrade the APRS station of WC8EC-7, which is located here at the home location. At least I don't have to go very far to go to work on it. Since I'm not on APRS very much I would like to have someone keep an eye on it, and keep it updated. Just let me know if you're interested and I'll give you the password.
There were only 29 check-ins to the State-Wide DAREN Net this week. I hope everyone who has been waiting for their certificates, now have them. If you were expecting a certificate, and haven't received it, let me know.