April 13, 2008 (.822)
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, 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 wc8ec.com website.
Mike Tyler, WA8YWO, sent me an E-Mail about the Nicholas County NODE/PBBS of NICHWV/RWODWV. Mike said the NODE/PBBS is down due to a severe storm that went through the area in the last few days. He is going to get it back in operation as soon as he can.
There's an article on page 35 of the April 2008, issue of QST about a program called "Outpost: Packet Radio for Emergency Messaging." It's kind of like the Winlink 2000 version of Airmail, which is the Packet Radio version of Internet Explorer, or some of the other Internet E-Mail programs. Bob Ott, WB8OIF, has been doing a lot of research trying to find a good program that can be used in Emergency Operation Centers or Disaster Sites that will allow Amateur and Non- Amateur operators to send and receive E-Mail messages via the DAREN system, without having to know a lot about Packet Radio. Bob sent me his latest findings. I thought it would be better if I just attach his E-Mail in this issue of the DAREN News. I want to thank Bob for all of the work that he has put into the research. This will help a lot of operators that are trying to set up the same type systems. This will be part 1 of 2, of his findings.
Part 1 of 2 DAREN News 4/13/2008, from Bob Ott, WB8OIF:
I have evaluated both AirMail and Outpost with a view towards EmComm use. There are pluses and minuses to both. The biggest factor I found was being able to use nodes and more specifically to use node aliases. AirMail will allow the use of nodes, but the path must be entered manually until you are connected to the TelPac node, at which time you can then switch to "automatic handshaking" for sending and receiving mail. AirMail WILL NOT allow node aliases however. This all but precludes its EmComm use in WV, unless you can direct connect to the required TelPac node. AirMail will allow attachments, which is of benefit if pictures of a disaster area needed to be sent, for instance. Outpost allows the use of nodes so if the path is pre-defined there is no manual intervention needed. That is to say, that if you pre-define the path to the TelPac node then when messages are to be sent or received, the program makes the connection in the background without operator intervention. Outpost WILL allow nodes aliases to be used! That is great news for users of the DAREN system in WV. Outlook WILL NOT allow attachments. This is a serious drawback in my opinion, but given the fact that it is the only one of the two programs that will operate well on DAREN; we may have to live with it for the time being. Outpost can be configured to work with other BBSes as well as TNC PBBSes for leaving or retrieving mail. End part 1 of 2
There were 69 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. Judy Peterson, N8UFQ, who's been participating in the net since October 31, 1992, has completed 800 check-ins. And, Paul Roy, N8PER, who's been participating in the net since April 28, 2007, has completed 50 check-ins. Both of these operators will be receiving their certificates. Tom Martin, WW8TM, needs only one more check-in to make 550. There were a couple of stations trying to check into the net just after I had closed it down, but since I saw them trying to connect, they were added to this week's list.