DAREN of WV News June 2, 2019(E04)
(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 Statewide 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.
It's been another quiet week, but a busy week. Even though Field Day is still a couple weeks away things need to get ready. In the last couple months, I was able to pick up some thin, but very strong aluminum pieces of tubing about two foot long. Actually, they were some of the legs from the old county voting machines. When the county replaced the old machines the storage cases and the aluminum legs were to be taken to be recycled, but I managed to cabbage a bunch of the legs. Each leg had two pieces; one would telescope inside the other. I thought they would be great for building antennas of some type. After playing with them for a while I decided to build some rotatable dipole antennas. I figured the lowest frequency and the biggest antenna I would work on would be 20 Meters, so I started there. Since 20 Meters would be about 33 feet, each element would only need to be about 17 feet long. The aluminum is light enough and strong enough 17 feet weighted almost nothing. The elements droops down some, but that can be taken care of by using a string or light weight rope to hold them up. I guess I'll see how the work in a couple weeks.
Don't forget you can get extra bonus points by sending the ARRL Section Manager (SM) and/or the ARRL Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) a message, in the form of an ARRL RADIOGRAM. Conard Richardson, KE8HLU, has his WAVEWV Packet Radio system working very well. The system has a lot of features, but the main one you want to get used to is the Packet-to-Internet feature. Field Day rules says that a RADIOGRAM Field Day message to the SM and/or SEC must leave the Field Day site via Amateur Radio during Field Day. The last time I checked the DAREN system and Packet Radio are Amateur Radio. To use the WAVEWV system, connect to WAVEWV from the NODEs of RITCWV, WIRTWV, WOODWV, or WOODWV-1. When you get the Command Prompt, type an "M" for mail. To send a message use the format of: S (E-Mail address) press <enter>, then put in the subject line, press <enter> then send the message. When you are finished sending the message press <enter> followed by a /EX. It's about the same as posting a message on most of the DAREN PBBSs. Example: S wa8llm@yahoo.com <enter> Field Day Message <enter> then send the message <enter> /EX <enter>. There is nothing special, no password, nothing, you can use extras <enter>s to keep from having one long line. Practice with the system before Field Day to get used to it. Conard has worked hard on the system and would like to see it used.
There were 31 check-ins to the Statewide DAREN Net again this week. Frank Hughes, WD8DEP, who has been participating in the net since November 24, 2004, has completed 700 check-ins and will be receiving his certificate. My wife Dot, KC8HAI, needs only one more check-in to make 1150. My son Kevin, KC8OXY, needs only one more check-in to make 950.