DAREN of WV News March 7, 2021(E96)
(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 have had some success reverse engineering the commercial omni directional antennas that we have been using for the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN) HSMM (High Speed MultiMedia) system. I'm in the process of building part of the antenna now. The only thing I need to figure out is the base load that is used on the antenna. Once I figure it out, we should be able to build the antennas for a lot less then the $140 asking price. I'm also trying to reverse engineer a 2.4 GHz, 17 dbi, 20 element yagi antenna. From one location that we haven't had any luck getting a signal to and from, this antenna lets us see some signal. By putting one of these antennas on each end of the path, we may be able to get a workable signal. It's been fun trying to build antennas that will work at a price that Amateur Radio operators can afford.
I don't have any plans for installing, or working on, nodes for the DAREN or AREDN systems this week. I was planning on checking with the 4-H officials on the use of their building for the Parkersburg/Wood County Hamfest this last week, but I forgot. I'll be making a trip into town on Wednesday, and I'll check on the building at that time. If all goes well, and everything is better this year, we will be holding the Hamfest on October 9th.
There were 34 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net again this week. Delmas Hartley, N8JYS, who has been participating in the net since January 14, 1995, has completed 400 check-ins, and will be receiving his certificate. I have finally got started printing certificates for those who have been waiting for one or more. I should start mailing them out some time this coming week.