DAREN of WV News July 12, 2020(E62)
(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 State Wide 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've been sitting here trying to think of what to write about. I still need to get the WCEC (Wood County Emergency Communications) Field Day Report sent in. Before I can send it in I need to get some more of the pictures that were taken by some of the members. I still have a couple weeks to get it in, so I hope I can get the pictures by then. I've been watching for any advertisement of the Hamfest we hope to hold on October 10th, but I hadn't seen anything. In March I sent an application to the ARRL, but I had not heard back from them. I did get an automatic response back, but nothing else. I sent an E-Mail to Dan Ringer, K8WV, who is the WV ARRL Section Manager. In the E-Mail I forwarded a copy of the automatic response. He said that in March was when most of the Officials at the ARRL was starting to work from home because of the COVID-19 outbreak. It may have got lost somewhere. He forwarded the automatic response to the ARRL. He suggested that we think about postponing the Parkersburg/Wood County Hamfest until next year, or at least keep an eye on what is happening with the virus. Our group will wait until our September WCEC Meeting to make a decision on holding or postponing the Hamfest. In the mean time we are going to keep getting the main prizes and the door prizes put together.
While it's too hot to be outside cutting grass, I think I'll try to get the State Wide DAREN Net Certificates printed up and mailed out. Since we have lost several of the DAREN Nodes this past year, there seems to be less Amateurs checking into the weekly net. I'd like to see the DAREN system start to grow again. If you know of anyone wanting to get involved with Packet Radio, you might let them know about the DAREN system.
I've been building an outrigger to mount a Solar Panel for the 95 foot tower. It is about finished; all I need to do is paint it. The Solar Panel will be used to power the HSMM (High Speed Multimedia) 2.4 GHz system node that is already mounted on the tower. I hope the single panel will power the node. It will be an experimental station to see how it works. If it works the way I hope, that will be how a lot of the HSMM Nodes will be installed on hilltops where there is no commercial power.
There were 36 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Gene Roy, N8ER, needs only one more check-in to make 1400. Randall McGill, N7WWA, needs only one more check-in to make 50.