DAREN of WV News June 6, 2021(F09)
(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.
Yesterday the WCEC (Wood County Emergency Communications) group set up a couple 24 by 40 foot canopies for a church picnic. We just got through taking the canopies down, and getting them ready for next week. It's strange how just one year off from activities makes it hard to get back in operation. The WCEC group is getting ready to operate some BINGO games on June 12th and 13th. But, before we can operate the games we need to get the BINGO trailer repaired from the lack of using it, and leaving it out in the weather. We need to get all of the equipment back in working order. If all goes well I'm hoping to do some tower work the following week by changing out the homemade Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN) HSMM (High Speed MultiMedia) system antenna with a commercial one. While on the tower I'm hoping to install two 600 watt wind turbines. The turbines along with solar panels, and batteries, is what we hope will power all of the radio equipment at the tower site.
By the way, did you know the majority of the 18650 Lithium Ion cells inside of bad Lap Top Computers batteries are not bad? Most of the time when a lap top battery can no longer power up the computer the battery just gets replaced, and the old battery gets thrown away. What happens most of the time in the "bad" battery is the electronic charging circuit that is built in them goes bad. When the charging circuit goes bad, the battery will not take a charge, or if the "bad" battery is charged, the electronic circuit won't allow the current to leave the battery. If you have a "bad" lap top computer battery, take it apart and check out the cells. Most of the time the cells have a charge on them. If the cells have some charge on them, you may need to charge them the rest of the way up. I charge my 18650 cells by using a 5 volt power supply and a 22 ohm, 2 watt resistor. As the voltage on the cell goes up, the current goes down. In about 24 hours the cell will have a full charge. By experimenting with the cells you can build your own batteries. You may have a gold mine in cells and batteries on you hands. You just need to remember, the average voltage on the 18650 cells is 3.7 volts. It's an odd voltage to work around, but there are ways around that too. Amazon sales battery holders for the 18650 cells.
There were 37 check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net again this week. Anna Hendershot, KC8JWW, who has been participating in the net since May 9, 1998, has completed 1200 check-ins, and will be receiving her certificate. And, Tricia Magyarosi, KC8VLI, needs only one more check-in to make 900.