DAREN of WV News March 21, 2021(E98)
(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 wrote about Harold (Sonny) Jobe, WC8L, putting together a DAREN station in Doddridge County. Sonny now has the station together and on the hill, but not without some trouble. He got the first station together just fine, but the second had problems. When he connected the second Kantronics KPC-3 Terminal Node Controller to the second Yaesu FT-2980, it powered up. but then it powered down. He tried the same cable and TNC on the other FT-2980 and it blacked out, and was dead. Kantronics said they would replace the cable, but wouldn't pay for the repair of the transceiver. He said that he was a little frustrated, but was lucky. He said that HRO (Ham Radio Outlet) will replace the radio with a new one at no cost. HRO even included a return box for the bad radio, he thought was pretty good service. I connected to the Doddridge County NODE of DODDWV from Randolph County with no problem. Sonny just needs to set up a few commands and the station will work great.
I received a message from Hank Kenealy, K1DOS, about his DAREN packet NODE/PBBS of HAMPWV/RMNYWV antenna. Hank said the antenna has been moved from 30 feet up to 60 feet on the tower on Romney Mountain. The DAREN station is on the same tower as his 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN) HSMM (High Speed MultiMedia) systems.
I received a telephone call today from Butch Sayers, WV8BS, about his Mineral County NODE/PBBS of MINEWV/KEYSWV. He says that when he connects to the NODE, all it does is transmits a bunch of E's. He's unable to connect into the station by remote to give it a reset. He's unable to connect to the PBBS either. He is able to digipeat through the station. He said it may be a week or more before he can get to the mountain to work on the station.
There were 32 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net this week. There was one new participate to the net this week and that was Harold (Sonny) Jobe, WC8L. I want to welcome Sonny to the DAREN system, and hope he participates in the net as often as possible. I Also want to thank Sonny for installing a DAREN station in Doddridge County and trying to get other Amateurs interested in Packet Radio and other digital modes.