September 21, 2008 (.845)
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.
Don't forget the NCS (Net Control Station) for the Statewide DAREN Net this coming Saturday, September 27th, will be located in Preston County at the Buckwheat Festival. The only NODE that you can connect through for sure is the Preston County NODE of PRESWV. There may be other NODEs or Digipeaters that you may be able to use, so you may have to try different paths. Since there are only a few NODE channels on PRESWV, you may have to digipeat through that station. The NCS may only be operational between the hours of 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm on Saturday, so you may want to start to check in early. There's also an SES (Special Event Station) being operated at the Buckwheat Festival. Since I've not heard anything different from Larry Slagle, KB8CVP, I assume the information here is correct for the SES. The times will be from 1400Z to 0200Z. The SES will be operating Phone and CW on 40, 20, 10 meters, about 25 KHz up from the bottom of the General Phone and Novice CW bands. They will also be operating PSK on 20 and 10 meters. Request for a SES Certificate can be mailed to Bill Beardslee, NN8W, 109 Western Dr. PO Box B5, Kingwood, WV, 26537.
Shane Harper, KD8BMX, sent me some additional information about the Forest Festival. The festival runs from September 29th through October 5th. The Fireman Parade is on Friday, October 3rd, and he says it's huge. The Forest Festival Grand Parade is on Saturday, October 4th, and will last about two hours. Shane is still looking for help for Forest Festival Grand Parade only, on Saturday. Amateur Radio operators will be providing the communications for the Grand Parade. Shane is hoping to use the DAREN Chatroom for parade coordination, so he would like to have some volunteers that have, and can use portable Packet. If you can help please contact Shane and give him a hand. It would be good practice to use Packet Radio for events like this one. Additional information about the festival can be found on the website: http://www.forestfestival.com/
Well, it looks I'm going to start getting busier than I have been. Ann Rinehart, KA8ZGY, who is the ARRL SM (Section Manager) for West Virginia, has ask me to be the SEC (Section Emergency Coordinator). I'm not for sure what I'm getting into, but for the last three days I've been getting the list of EC's (Emergency Coordinators), and DEC's (District Emergency Coordinators), and their E-Mail addresses, and putting them in my address book. Since 1991, Wood County Emergency Communications has been publishing a weekly ARES Bulletin which has only been going out to Wood County, and then to ARRL District 3. As soon as I get my ducks in a row, I will be sending the bulletins to all the WV EC's and DEC's so they can pass it on to their volunteers.
There were 63 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. There were two new participants to the net this week and they are: Brent, KD8GKR, and Brandi, KD8HJL, Hathaway, from Philippi. I want to welcome Brent and Brandi to the DAREN system, and hope they can check in as often as possible. There was one station that checked into the net with the callsign of BARBEC. If you don't see your callsign on this week's Net Announcement, and think it may be yours, let me know so that I can correct your check-in records.