DAREN of WV News September 6, 2020(E70)
(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.
On Wednesday, I made a trip to the Ritchie County NODE/PBBS of RITCWV/HRVLWV tower site. Since the NODE/PBBS and the Wood County Emergency Communications voice repeater, which are at the same site, had been down for almost a week. When I got there the problem wasn't a commercial power failure. The first thing I found was the NODE/PBBS TNC was on, but Transceiver was off. I turned the Transceiver back on which may have been the only problem. The Transmitter, the Link Receivers, and the Voter for the Voice Repeater showed there was power to them. The Link Receivers, and Voter seemed to be working okay, but the Transmitter wasn't transmitting. Putting a microphone on the Transceiver showed the Transmitter was transmitting. The only thing left was the repeater controller. I thought it might be a blown fuse. When I checked the power coming out of the fuse, it showed only about 8 volts. When I checked the voltage on the buss bar feeding all of the equipment, that showed only about 8 volts too. When I checked the 75 Amp Power Supply, powering the buss bar and batteries, I found it was dead. I had brought a couple batteries and a small power supply just in case. By installing the batteries and the Power Supply brought all the Amateur Equipment to life, but any commercial was off. I contacted the owner of the Power Supply, and they said they would take care of it.
On Friday I received a telephone call from Larry Cook, KC8ZRE, with the Jackson County Amateur Radio Club. Larry made a trip to the tower site where their voice Repeater, and the Jackson County NODE/PBBS of JACKWV/RPLYWV are located. Larry said the NODE/PBBS Transceiver and TNC were powered, up and on the right frequency. While he was watching the TNC I tried to connect to the station. Larry could see the Receive Light on the TNC flashing like it was receiving audio from the Transceiver, but it wouldn't transmit. That tells me the TNC has lost its memory and doesn't know who it is. The first chance I get to visit that tower site, I'll take another TNC to replace the one that is there. I want to thank Larry for doing some tests with me.
There were 31 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week.