Daren News (00-01-02)

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D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV. January 2, 2000 (.390) by Ken Harris WA8LLM (304) 679-3470 (HOME)
or 428-9980 (WORK) WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS, P.O. BOX 3328,
PARKERSBURG, WV 26103

D.A.R.E.N. 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'.

We made it into the new century and I haven't seen any changes yet. Our electricity didn't even flicker,
the telephone still works, and I still have running water. Does every one have plenty of groceries to hold them
for several weeks? People sure hoarded a lot of things to make sure they would have enough.
Even Amateur Radio operators were hoarding something too, frequencies. There was one Amateur on 3865 KHz
who wasn't going to give "his" frequency up for anything, even a net. There was another one on 3830 KHz who,
when asked if the frequency was in use, "said that it was", but after monitoring for about fifteen minutes there
was no transmissions or conversations, I guess they just wanted to keep those frequencies to themselves
just in case the Y2K Bug affected the rest of the frequencies. Just think how many computers are out there
now to be picked up for just a few pennies. Now's the time to start watching the wanted ads in the newspapers
for the unused generators that were bought and were never used. There are a lot of people that will be getting rid
of them since they still have their regular electricity and won't have any use for the generator.
A lot of people made a lot of money on the Y2K scare. I think the Y2K scare will go down in history as the
biggest scam of the 20th century. I hope all of the Amateur Radio groups and operators took advantage
of showing their Emergency Services and Public Safety agencies that Amateur Radio was there "Just In Case".
It's hard to prove the existence of Amateur Radio if we aren't used from time to time. Now that the ice has
been broken with some of the Emergency Agencies, keep in contact with them and let them know what you,
as Amateurs, can do. We're starting into another new year with activities that will enable us to use Amateur Radio.
Things like Road Races, Regattas, Field Day, Hamfests, Disaster drills, etc.

Now that the FCC has restructured the Amateur Radio Licensing, by dropping the code speed to
5 Words Per Minute on all classes of licenses and reducing the number of classes to three,
you will see a lot more Amateurs starting to upgrade their license and new ones getting a license.
Take advantage of the new licensees and help them get started the right way.

There were 101 check-ins to the first weekly DAREN Net of the century. There were a couple of strange
calls that checked in. One of them was Y2K and the other one was PCTNES, but we all have to have a little fun.
Three stations checked in that haven't been heard from in quite a while. Ashby, WV8ASH, hasn't checked in
since March 21, 1998, Terry, KB8EIR since August 30, 1997, and the longest gone was N8RIR who hasn't
checked in since July 3, 1993. I want to welcome them back, and hope to start seeing them weekly.
Ken WA8LLM @ PKBGWV
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