DAREN of WV News June 28, 2020(E60)
(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, Field Day is over for another year. Wood County Emergency Communications operated Field Day as WC8EC 5A WV at their normal location. There were a few changes from last year which helped cut down on the station-to-station interference. Each of the antennas were installed a couple hundred feet from the operating stations. All of the stations were set up under the 24 by 40-foot canopy. Last year there was a power problem since we tried to plug each of the power distribution boards together using Anderson Power Poles, but they didn't work too good because of the voltage loss for the amount of current we were using. Additional distribution boards were put together and connected using number 4 cable bolted to the boards. Each of the distribution boards has 12 Anderson Power Pole connectors to supply 12-volt power to anything that needed it. The distribution boards also had four 3 Amp batteries plugged into them. The whole power system was powered by one 50 Amp power supply. At least when the generator was shut down for maintenance the radios stayed operational. I've already started making a list of problems that were found and hope we don't repeat them again next year. From 1100 Zulu/GMT until the end of the event, the 12-volt power system was switched over to the solar panel system which provided about 23 amps of current. Since the Solar system was a couple hundred feet away for the operating positions, the Solar power was converted to 120 volts AC, transported via some number 10 extension cords, and then converted back to 12 volts. The system worked real good last year, so we decided to do it again this year. For show-n-tell, and demonstration this year we set up one of the HSMM (High Speed Multimedia) 2.4 GHz system nodes at the operating canopy. The HSMM station was able to connect to the node that was installed on the newly finished 95 foot tower near the Field Day site, and to the HSMM node that is located at my house which is about a mile away. Those seeing the demonstration are wanting to see the rest of the system get put into operation.
There were 38 check-ins to the Statewide DAREN Net this week. Tricia Magyarosi, KC8VLI, who has been participating in the net since December 28, 2002, has completed 850 check-ins. And, Madison Sweitzer, KB3URT, who has been participating in the net since October 2, 2010, has completed 350 check-ins. Due to a copy and paste error last week, I said it would be 300. Sorry. Both operators will be receiving their certificates. Krista Mills, KC8VLJ, needs only one more check-in to make 850. And, Jim Woodford, KC8MLK, needs only one more check-in to make 800. I want to welcome Alan Currence, N8POB, back to the net. Alan's last check-in was September 7, 2002, when he moved out of the area, but has since moved back.