June 03, 2007 (.777)
Kenneth Harris WA8LLM (304) 679-3470 wa8llm@yahoo.com
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS, P.O. BOX 3328, PARKERSBURG, WV 26103 http://www.wc8ec.com
DAREN News, are articles and information about the Digital Amateur Radio "Emergency" Network of WV, which operates on 145.9 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'.
Not much news this week. I think outside activities have been causing operators to be away from their radios, and I can't blame them. I know I've been busy trying to take care of my garden, but if we don't get some rain before long, I'm not going to have a garden. It's been about a month since we've had any rain in this area. It has sprinkled a few times, but not even enough to do anything.
I was asked the difference between "digipeating" and "NODE connecting". The reason for this was because one of the DAREN NODE/PBBSs in the Southern part of the state was having problems when you connected to the NODE. When you would connect to the NODE all you got was a bunch of R's. It has since cleared up and seems to be working okay now. Here's the main difference between NODE connecting and digipeating. The most important thing about Packet Radio is the fact that t is almost error free. I didn't say that Packet Radio is error free, but it comes close. The reason that it's close to error free is the fact that "connected" stations verify the data before it's either passed on to another station, or displayed on the users screens. The only verification of data is between "connected" stations. If NODE connecting is used in a path to a distant station, there can be several "connected" stations in the path. That means that each "connected" station will verify the data before it is passed on to the next station. When digipeating is used, the only place that data is verified is at the stations on each ends of the path, they are the only ones that are "connected". When digipeating between stations on each end of a path, each digipeater just passes on the data as it's received, with no error checking, or correcting. That means if an error is introduced somewhere in the path, it won't be verified until it is received at the distant end. If there's an error in the transmission, then the station receiving the error must request a correction. If the Packet route has a noisy path, between two digipeaters, it may take several retries before the data is passed correctly. NODE connecting verifies the data between each NODE, since they are "connected", so will it take less time to pass the data. You should try to use NODE connecting as opposed to digipeating, but sometimes it's necessary to digipeat through one or more digipeaters. To NODE connect you need to connect from NODE, to NODE, to NODE. To digipeat, you use one connect command, example: C STA1 V DIGI1,DIGI2,DIGI3,DIGI4. It may be a shorter connect procedure, but it may take longer to pass your information. You can either NODE connect or digipeat through any of DAREN NODEs names. You can also use a combination of NODE connect, and digipeat to reach your distant station.
There were 55 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN. Lisa Hendershot, KB8UER, who's been participating in the net since August 20, 1994, has completed 650 check-ins and will be receiving her certificate.