DAREN of WV News June 9, 2019(E05)
(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.
I received an E-Mail from Matt Koval, KA8YEZ, this past week about the Ohio County NODE/PBBS of OHIOWV/WLNGWV. The station has been off the air for several weeks. Matt say that he has been trying to find time to get with the Bethlehem VFD, where the station is located, and look at it. But, in the meantime they contacted him requesting the DAREN station be removed. He said the fire department is expanding their firehouse and are going to dismantle the tower which the packet antenna is mounted on. Since the fire department is no longer using their legacy VHF fire radio system, they have no use for the tower. The tower is located where the expanded bay is going to be. Matt said that he would retrieve the Packet equipment on June 5th and start looking for a new home for the station. Matt says he realizes that Packet Radio isn't used too much anymore, and he thinks there is hardly anyone in Ohio County that has operating Packet Radio stations. He says; however, Packet Radio is another tool on our tool belt and he will try to get the DAREN station back on the air at a different site. I want to thank Matt for trying to keep the DAREN system available in the Northern Panhandle. I know there are a couple DAREN operators, outside of the Ohio County that used the station to get into the DAREN system, and the Statewide DAREN Net.
Several Amateurs provided the Safety Communications and Racing Clocks for the Chic-Fil-A Road Run yesterday. Providing this kind of service better prepares us for emergencies and disasters. One of the main things that was used is a temporary Remote Receiver in the area of the road race. The temporary Remote Receiver was tied into the Wood County Emergency Communications voice repeater on 147.255 MHz. We tried to use the temporary Remote Receiver at another race a couple months ago and ran into a problem. The repeater voting system didn't like the temporary Remote Receiver because the audio level wasn't balanced with the rest of the regular Remote Receivers, and was it never selected. We figured out how to overcome the problem. We put a different PL Tone on the temporary Remote Receiver, so that it would be the only one that would be used. Since the regular Remote Receivers were still operational, but with a different PL Tone, they wouldn't come up, unless they were selected. That fix cured that problem, but we found another one. More on that later. We are trying to get all the bugs worked out of the system before the Parkersburg Half Marathon on August 17th.
There were 30 check-ins to the Statewide DAREN Net again this week. My wife Dot, KC8HAI, who has been participating in the net since May 3, 1997, has completed 1150 check-ins, and my son Kevin, KC8OXY, who has been participating in the net since July 1, 2000, has completed 950 check-ins. Both will be receiving their certificates. My daughter Cathy Wotring, KC8DJJ, needs only one more check-in to make 1150.