August 24, 2008 (.841)
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.
I went to the WV ARRL State Convention, at Jackson's Mill, yesterday and had a pretty good time. I wanted to participate in the Emergency Communications Set- up Competition and maybe pick up some ideas from other competitors in the same class, but I was the only one in the advanced class. The only other competitor was in the basic class, but I was so busy setting up and being judged that I didn't get a chance to check out the other station. The officials were hoping to have at least 5 or 6 other competitors, so I think they were a little disappointed also. I wasn't for sure what the officials were wanting, so I took as much equipment that I could haul, that I thought might be needed in a real disaster to meet their requirements. I set up an HF voice station and two 2 Meter stations using an Inverted V antenna and two J-Pole antennas. Dirk Burnside, WD8PAD, was the judge for my station, and he had a list of equipment that he felt might be required in an incident that a communicator might be required to have, for a three day event. From the list, I think I may have had about ninety percent of the equipment. There was some equipment on the list that I had not thought of, and some of the equipment that I had thought of, but just forgot to bring with me. If they have the Emergency Competition again next year, I'll have a better idea what's involved and be a little bit better prepared. Even though I was the only one in the advanced class, I felt it was a great little exercise, and gave me a little more experience to be better prepared for an actual event.
While I was at the convention I got to see several of the DAREN operators. I didn't think to take a piece of paper and write down the ones I either saw, or talked to. I went over my check-in participation records and have listed most of the DAREN users I saw. I may have forgotten one or two, but here is a list of the ones that I remember: K8RWW, K8TAC, K8TPH, K8VE, K8ZPR, KB8CVP, KB8TBF, KC8FWD, KC8MLK, KC8TYK, KD8ATF, N8ER, N8PER, W8MKH, WB8OIF, WD8DEP, and WV8RG. I'm sorry if I may have missed a couple. I'm just glad that I got to see and talk to as many as I did.
One operator that I talked with for just a minute or so was Larry Slagle, KB8CVP. He wanted to talk to me again for a few minutes after some of the forums, but somehow we missed each other. Larry may have wanted to talk to me about being the Net Control Station at the Buckwheat Festival again this year.
Tim Davis, KC8TYK, sent me a message saying the Barbour County NODE/PBBS of BARBWV/PHILWV was back in operation.
Roy Humes, N8RH, called me on the phone, while I was at the convention, to let me know the Hancock County NODE/PBBS of HANCWV/WEIRWV was back in operation. It had been down for about a week, and he was getting ready to make a trip to the tower site, when it came back up and is operational.
There were 55 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. Dave Wright, N8NWV, needs only one more check-in to make 150.