June 17, 2007 (.779)
Kenneth Harris WA8LLM (304) 679-3470 wa8llm@yahoo.com
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS, P.O. BOX 3328, PARKERSBURG, WV 26103 http://www.wc8ec.com
Butch Sayers, N8RCG, sent me an E-Mail reporting that Lorn Rawlings, N8RBD, has passed away. Lorn wasn't real active on the DAREN system, but he did know about the system. Lorn passed away on Thursday, June 14th. Lorn will be missed.
There's not much news this week, but there must have been some kind of Special Event activity over the weekend. There were several new check-ins to this weekend's State Wide DAREN Net. I know there was a Kids Day activity and that may have been the reason for all of the additional check-ins to the net.
Remember Field Day is this coming weekend. The State Wide DAREN net will be in operation for a least 24 hours during Field Day. The net won't be shut down until at least 2:00 pm on Sunday, June 24th. This should allow everyone plenty of time to get checked into the net. The Wood County Emergency Communications group, WC8EC, will also be operating a VHF Packet Radio station during Field Day. The "DAREN Chatroom" will be in operation. If everything works out okay there should be someone at, or near, the keyboard all the time. To connect to the chatroom, connect through the DAREN system to reach the Ritchie County NODE of "RITCWV". From there, connect to the chatroom callsign Alias of "DAREN". After you get connected, type the letter "T" (talk). From there you can talk to whoever might be there, and pass your Field Day exchange information. To keep from having more stations on the air than your activity is using, be sure to check into the "Field Day Chatroom Net" when there is at least a 15 minute space between other contacts. Remember you are supposed to stay on each band for at least 15 minutes. When you're finished passing your Field Day exchange, type a "/EX", that will allow you to exit the Chatroom. All you have to do after that is type a "B" (bye), and you should be disconnecting out of the DAREN system. Good Luck on Field Day and hope to see you on the Chatroom.
There was 71 check-ins to this week's State Wide net. Bobbie Wells,
KB8TBF, who's been participating in the net since July 30, 1994, has
completed 400 check-ins and will be receiving his certificate. I want to
welcome Larry Eller, KC8PZR, back to the DAREN system. Larry has been
missing from the net since September 14, 2002. The new stations that
checked in the net this week were: Patrick Shea, N8MIN, from Weston;
William Evans, WE8X, from Belington;
Jeffrey Moore, KC8YVV, from Junior; Dale Jamison, KC8ZHQ, from Grafton;
Michael Moore, KD8BGI, from Junior; and Jeffrey Siers, KD8DQK, from
Buckhannon. I figure these operators were participating in some kind of
Special Event and have just been exposed to Packet Radio. If this it the
case, I hope they enjoyed it and hope the get more involved. In any case,
I want to thank them for participating and hope to have them come back
as often as possible.