DAREN of WV News November 8, 2020(E79)
(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.
Last week I said the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN) 2.4 GHz HSMM (High Speed MultiMode) Mesh node located on the Wood County Fire Radio tower may have been damaged by lightening. Four Amateurs made a trip to the tower site expecting to change out the complete station. When we investigated what had happened we determined the only thing that had happened to the station is that it had just lost it's identification memory. What it looked like was that during the heavy rain storm that went through the area may have caused some water to come down the computer cable and got into the RJ45 plug. The water caused a short on the plug and caused the station to reset itself. We re- programmed the station and it was up an running. While we were at the tower site we installed another station that will be used as a backup node. The original node is located at about 80 feet. The backup node is located at about 30 feet. Since we started the AREDN project, we have learned a lot about how 2.4 GHz signals work. Some times the higher the station the better, and some times it's not. Higher signals, at that frequency, may go over the receiving stations. So by having a node at 30 it feet may be better for some stations and not for others.
While posting the DAREN News and Net Announcements last week, I found that I wasn't able to connect to the Wirt County NODE/PBBS of WIRTWV/ELIZWV. I tried several times to connect to it, but it seemed to be off the air. A couple days later it was back in operation. I don't know what the problem was. I's possible that an interfering signal may have been blocking the stations receive. Sammy Mercer, N8SVX, is putting together an AREDN station to place on the same tower as the Wirt County NODE/PBBS. While we are at the site, we'll check out DAREN station, and maybe change out the battery, and maybe the power supply. It's been awhile since we have been out the site, so we don't remember what all is there. With any luck Sammy and I will be making a trip to the Jackson County NODE/PBBS of JACKWV/RPLYWV and get that station back on the air.
I hope everyone has a safe Veteran's Day holiday. And, thanks to all of the veterans who have served in the military.
There were 30 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week.