June 10, 2007 (.778)
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'.
I don't know if it's the weather or not, but activity has sure been down on the DAREN system. I haven't seen but a couple of messages passed over the network the past few weeks, and the check-ins to the State Wide DAREN Net has also been down. I know I haven't felt like doing much myself, but I don't want the system to die. A couple members of our communications group, Wood County Emergency Communications, have been trying to acquire grants. Terry Mills, KC8TUE, and his wife Denise, KC8TUF, have been filling out applications for several different grants, one of the grants they're working on is to provide funding for additional Packet Radio stations for the DAREN system. If we are lucky enough to receive the grant we will be looking for Amateur Radio operators who can help locate tower sites to place the Packet stations, and help maintain them. I'll keep everyone informed of the progress.
I'm also getting everything ready for Field Day, but I just don't seem to have enough time. We did get some well needed rain in our area on Friday which helped water my gardens and cool things down a bit. There was a lot of lightening and some high winds, but I think most of the Packet NODEs and voice repeaters made it through okay.
Speaking of Field Day I called the ARRL the other day because I had a question that I wasn't sure of. I asked them if more than one digital mode at a time could be used on a signal band. They think that all digital modes are classified the same. Basically there are just three modes of communications that can be used for Field Day. The three modes are Voice, CW, and Digital. All three can be used at the same time on each band. Don't forget to take the E-mail addresses of the WV ARRL Section Manager, Ann Rinehart, KA8ZGY, and the WV Section Emergency Coordinator, Tina Clark, K8TAC, to Field Day with you. If you happen to forget them, here are there addresses. Ann's E-Mail address is: ka8zgy@suddenlink.net, and Tina's E-Mail is: ta.clark@suddenlink.net. If you send a message to each of them you can take 110 bonus points. If you're unable to pass the traffic on one of the WV Fone Nets, you can pass them over the DAREN system by connecting to one of the Winlink 2000 Telpac Gateways, K8KHW-10 or K8TPH-10. It's still legal since the messages would be passed using Amateur Radio, and it will also give you a little practice using the Telpac NODEs.
There were 54 check-ins to this week's State Wide Dobbie Wells, KB8TBF, needs only one more check-in to make 400.