DAREN of WV News October 13, 2019(E23)
(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.
Well, the Parkersburg/Wood County Hamfest is over for another year. I don't know the exact numbers yet, but it looks like it may have been down some from last year. We still had a good turn out, and I want to thank everyone who attended. After the Hamfest was over the officials talked about any problems that occurred and hope they can correct them for next years Hamfest. We had never notified the local TV Station, but some how they found out about the Hamfest, and asked if they could take some video and have an interview.
I just got home from helping put up and taking down a 24 by 40-foot canopy for a Hospice Memorial. WCEC (Wood County Emergency Communications) was ask a few weeks ago, if they could borrow the canopy for the memorial for those they served in the past. They only needed the canopy for a few hours today.
At the Hamfest yesterday, Bill Davidson, N8JXO, said that he was going to be off work on Monday, and thought that might be a good day to dig the holes for the anchors and base of the new tower that will be going up. Bill will bring his tractor with a backhoe to dig the holes. After the holes are dug there will still need to be some additional work before the tower starts up. We are hoping to pour the concrete for the anchors and tower base next Saturday, and hope to put up the first 45 feet of tower the following Saturday. It all depends on the weather. If the weather stays good, we might even be able to have to tower completed before winter gets here. The tower will be used for a lot Amateur related projects. Some of the projects will be back-up transmitters for the local Amateur voice repeaters, DAREN Packet stations with 10 element beams, a UHF voice repeater, and a Node for the Multimode High Speed 2.4 GHz Mesh system. We hope to power the site by wind and solar power.
Not much else to report this week. WCEC only has one more public service event before the end of the year. The group has been asked by another organization for the use of one of their 24 by 40-foot canopies for an event on October 26th. They may also be wanting the use of the group’s tables and chairs, but nothing has been finalized on them yet. Organizations that borrow the WCEC canopies, tables, and chairs usually give a donation.
The Statewide DAREN Net was down this week. There were only 25 check- ins to the net. If the net participation keeps dropping, there won't be much use to hold it. It looks Packet Radio activity is dying off in West Virginia. We need to get more Amateurs involved with Packet Radio. It's not hard to get on Packet. Computers are free, or dime a dozen, the Sound Card Packet programs are free. A lot of new Handheld radios can be purchased for well under $50, and they have VOX (Voice Operated Transmit). With VOX operation there's no need for a computer-to-radio interface device.