DAREN of WV News October 25, 2020(E77)
(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.
This past week a couple members of the Parkersburg Amateur Radio Klub (PARK) and I went to the PARK 146.97 MHz voice repeater site to check on the repeater which was having a problem. While we were there, I did some testing with my portable Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN) 2.4 GHz HSMM (High Speed MultiMode) Mesh test system. I didn't get a great signal since the antenna was not above the surrounding trees, but it gave us an idea what it should be able to do when we get an AREDN station up on the tower. Plans are to mount the AREDN station on top of the mast of the four bay antenna, which is about 80 feet on the side of the tower. The ground elevation of the tower is about 1050 feet. In this area height above average terrain is about 700 feet. That should put station about 400 feet above average terrain. With the station that high, it should have coverage over most of Vienna, and maybe some of Parkersburg and Williamstown. I have made an antenna adaptor to mount the station and antenna on top of the four bay antenna. When the weather gets a little warmer and drier, we will install the station.
Conard Richardson, KE8HLU, has his AREDN station connected to the Internet, and to his DAREN station of WAVEWV. With my home AREDN station, I can connect to the WAVEWV station. The DAREN WAVEWV station has a PBBS and a Chatroom. I have even connected to the Wood County DAREN PBBS of PKBGWV from my AREDN station via WAVEWV. I haven't taken the time yet to see what all his AREDN/DAREN system can do. Since I'm able to connect to the DAREN PKBGWV PBBS, I should be able to connect to any DAREN NODEs it can see. It may be possible to connect to the AREDN system from the DAREN system, but I'm not sure how. Conard still has a few problems in his system, but he is working on them. As more of the Amateurs in the area get on AREDN system, we should start seeing more activity on the DAREN Packet Radio system. There are also plans being made to place HF antennas on the 95 foot Hendershot Farm Drive tower to allow Software Defined Radios (SDR) to be connected through the AREDN system.
There were only 26 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. Kendale Peterson, KD8QAK, who has been participating in the net since April 23, 2011, has completed 500 check-ins. And, Jeffrey Hensley, WD4VA, who has been participating in the net since August 27, 2011, has completed 400 check-ins. Both operators will be receiving their certificates.