April 20, 2008 (.823)
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.
Part 2 of 2 continued from DAREN News 4/13/2008, from Bob Ott, WB8OIF:
There are some configuration issues with both programs. An understanding of what the nodes return to you for various situations is required for Outpost (example, what string is returned for a successful connection, what is returned for an unsuccessful connection, etc.). If you are within direct connect of the TelPac node or are using HF to get into WinLink, then Airmail is the way to go. Given the fact that, if you are in an area that has an emergency, you cannot be guaranteed that the local TelPac node will even be available! My suggestion is that those operators that will to use DAREN to supplement their county's e-mail capabilities in an emergency, they at least should have Outpost installed and configured ahead of time. It will be one more feather in our cap if and when the local internet goes down and the EM folks need to get an e-mail sent, that we can "get-r-dun"!
Just this morning I got an E-Mail from Bob saying he used the Outpost program to send a Test Message to key Emergency Communicators in the state. The purpose was to see if Outpost, DAREN, and the Winlink system would be a good media to use to get messages to everyone. Bob said he got a very poor response back from those he sent the Test Message, via DAREN/Internet to. He's not for sure where the failure of getting responses back was an E-Mail Client, such as Outpost or Airmail, the DAREN system, or the Winlink/Internet interface. At this time he's not for sure if this communications media would be any good in a real emergency, and the local Internet service was disrupted. I want to thank Bob for all the information. If you have any questions about setting up the Outpost program, I'm sure that Bob will try to answer your questions.
Two weeks ago a new station checked into the State Wide DAREN, and that was Matt Mitchell, KB8UVN, from Worthington, Oh. I wondered how he was able to get from Worthington, Ohio, into the DAREN system. While I was playing with the K8KHW-7 NODE on the DAREN system, another NODE, operated by Randy Thomas, K8KHW, I happen to see the KB8UVN callsign. A little later I found out that Randy was back in the country, and I talked to him about Matt. Randy told me that Matt also operates a Winlink Telpac NODE in Worthington, Ohio, which, is also accessible through the K8KHW-7 NODE. To access the KB8UVN Telpac NODE from K8KHW-7 is easy. Once you connect to the K8KHW-7 NODE, connect to the ALIAS of CMHTPC. You are now connected to the KB8UVN Winlink 2000 Telpac near Columbus, Ohio. Randy also told me there are other ports on the K8KHW-7 NODE which has access to HF, 145.09 MHz, and 145.01 Mhz. I told Randy that I need to sit down with him and try to draw out what all Packet equipment he has in operation. In a future DAREN News I'll try to explain what all systems are available on the DAREN system because of Randy.
There were 61 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. Tom Martin, WW8TM, who's been participating in the net since December 31, 1999, has completed 550 check-ins and will be receiving his certificate. Paul Derosky, K8GLA, needs only one more check-in to make 500.