Wood County
Emergency Communications

Serving Wood County West Virginia and surrounding areas

DAREN News

September 23, 2007                  (.793)

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 145.69 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 A State Wide DAREN NET is operated every Saturday from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm. DAREN Net Announcements, 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'.

Remember, the State Wide DAREN Net, (NCS) Net Control Station will be located at the 66th Annual Buckwheat Festival in Kingwood, Preston County, this coming Saturday.  The net will only run from about 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm, since the NCS has to close the station down, and leave the fair grounds for the night.  I'm not for sure of how many paths there are to get to the NCS, so you may try different ones.  The main NODE will be the Preston County, PRESWV.  You may get a "Link Busy" message if too any operators are connected to the NODE, but don't forget, you can still Digipeat through the same station.  Even though I'm not a big fan of Digipeating, it can still be used when necessary.  The Buckwheat Festival will run from Thursday, September 27th, through Sunday, September 30th.  It's a great festival, if you get a chance, you should go.  I won't be able to make it again this year, since our communications group is operating the BINGO games at the Volcano Days and Engine Show festival at Mountwood Park, the same weekend.

The Preston County Amateur Radio Operators will also be operating a Special Event Station at the Buckwheat Festival.  The frequencies they will be operating are: 14.040, 7.040, 14.225, and 7.175.  They will be using the Call sign of W8B, which means: We Ate Buckwheat.  To get a certificate, send a QSL to: Richard Wolfe, KA8UEU, PO Box 512, Kingwood, WV, 26537.  If you go to the festival, stop in, and talk the Amateurs who will be there.

While I was at a Health Department Table Top Exercise in Spencer on Thursday, I talked to the Roane County Assistant 911 Director about installing a DAREN Packet station on their county tower.  After the exercise was over, we made a trip to the site to see how to install the station.  There are 2 or 3 antennas that are no longer being used, and he thought we may be able to use one of them for the Packet station.  I'm going to be taking an antenna analyzer to test the antennas, but I'm also building the antenna outrigger, just in case we have to use it to install our own antenna.  I'm hoping to get back down there the first week in October, since I'm going to be busy this week and weekend, getting ready for the Volcano Days festival.  Maybe in a couple of weeks you will still the NODE/PBBS of ROANWV/SPNCWV on the air.

There were 64 check-ins again to this week's State Wide DAREN Net.  Francis Hughes, WD8DEP, who's been participating in the net since November 20, 2004, has completed 100 check-ins and will be receiving his certificate.  John White, W3JTW needs only one more check-in to make 350.