DAREN of WV News July 19, 2020(E63)
(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.
Yesterday, Kendale Peterson, KD8QAK, and I went to the Hendershot Farm tower site to install the solar panel on the 95 foot tower. The panel is located at about 50 feet up the tower, which has a clear view of the sky and no trees that would cause any shade. The panel will be used to keep the battery charged for the HSMM (High Speed Multimedia) 2.4 GHz system node. We ran a pair of wires from the panel to the bottom of the tower, and wired them to a power step down converter. The down converter drops the voltage, coming out of the solar panel, from about 23 volts down to about 12.7 volts to keep battery charged. Since there is no commercial power at the tower site the node needs to operate from 12 volts. I couldn't find a POE (Power Over Ethernet) Cat 5 power unit that would operate from 12 volts, so I built one. The regular POE unit that is normally used to power the Ubiquiti Bullet M2-HP is operated from 115 volts AC. I built a POE power unit which has a voltage booster placed in it. The booster converts the 12 volts from the battery up to 24 volts to power the node.
I didn't get the State Wide DAREN Certificates started yet for those who have been waiting for them. I've had some vehicle problems that I need to get fixed. Maybe in the next few days I can get started on the certificates. I still have to get the Wood County Emergency Communications Field Day Report sent to the ARRL. I've been too busy with a bunch of projects that I can hardly find time to complete the report, and get it sent in. I will just have to make time to finish it, since it needs to be sent in by July 28th.
There were 31 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Gene Roy, N8ER, who's been participating in the net since May 1, 1993, has completed 1400 check-ins, and will be receiving his certificate.