DAREN of WV News June 21, 2020(E59)
(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.
Summer is here, but it looks about the same as Spring. The only thing that is different, there may be less rain, and the days will start getting shorter. Since the weather was good yesterday, several members of the WCEC (Wood County Emergency Communication) group worked on the tower project that was started last fall. The tower was only up 65 feet until yesterday. The last three sections of tower were installed, and three 2 Meter J-Pole antennas were put in place at the top. Also placed on the top of the tower was an access point node for the HSMM (High Speed Multimedia) 2.4 GHz system that we are starting to establish in Wood County. Even with the ground elevation at about 900 feet, and the tower at 95 feet, from the top of the tower we are still looking into hills that are taller, some where around 1000 feet. Operating at 2.4 GHz, we need line of site paths to other access points in the system. One of the 2 Meter J-Pole antennas that we installed will be used for a DAREN Packet Radio station. A couple inverted V HF antennas, one for 20 Meters, and one for 40 Meters will be installed that will be used for Packet which will be tied into the DAREN station. The tower site will also be used as a back-up system for any of the voice repeaters in the area that may go off of the air for any reason. Since this tower site is about one air mile from another tower, voice repeaters can be put on the air without the use of any duplexers. A 443 MHz UHF voice repeater will be installed at the site. Just because the tower is up doesn't mean the project is completed. We still need to build a building to house the radio equipment and power sources. There is no commercial power at the site so we need to install solar panels and a wind generator.
There were 32 check-ins to the Statewide DAREN Net this week. Anna Hendershot, KC8JWW, who has been participating in the net since May 9, 1998, has completed 1150 check-in, and will be receiving her certificate. Madison Sweitzer, KB3URT, needs only one more check-in to make 300. And, Tricia Magyarosi, KC8VLI, needs only one more check-in to make 850.