DAREN NEWS (00-02-13)

=============================================================================== D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV. February 13, 2000 (.396) 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'.

I want to thank Jim, K8AUS for bringing a problem of mine to my attention. Jim had checked into last week's State Wide DAREN and his call didn't show up on the list. When Ken, KB8QPW saw the message that Jim had left for me, he called me on the telephone to let me know that his call, and his wife's call, KC8NLD weren't on the list either. He had checked the list that I had transferred from one computer to another and found it wasn't there on that list either. When I brought up the file that I use for downloading the net, all three calls were there. I transferred the list again to another computer and everything seemed to be ok. When I got to looking at the original download file I noticed that all the calls that were not transferred were those who got connected in on channel "B" of the NET TNC. I have since cleaned up the net check-in file and found there were eight stations that were lost in the transfer of the file. Stations that got checked into February 5th State Wide DAREN list, and aren't shown on the Net Announcement for February 12th net are as follows: W8FZP, N8COG, KB8QPW, KC8NLD, KC8WO, WD8MTN, KB8VLS, and KB8SYE. Instead of having only 73 check-ins to last weeks net, there were a total of 81. The net check- in records have been corrected, with all those stations that I missed updated. I want to apologize to those who got checked in and weren't on the list. An updated check-in list for February 5th will be posted along with the February 12th list on this week's net announcement. I don't know if this was a Y2K problem or not, but I will be giving my computers a going over to make sure that problem doesn't happen again. If at any time you don't see your call on the check-in list, and you're sure that you were checked in, let me know. If Jim and Ken hadn't let me know about the missing calls, eight operators would have missed a check-in credit. Thanks again Jim and Ken.

While trying to post the Net Announcement last Tuesday and Wednesday, I was having a very hard time getting to the Northern Panhandle. I was unable to go direct from RITCWV to OHIOWV, MARSWV, or WETZWV. The stations are all up and running, but the only way I could get to the Northern Panhandle was to connect to MONOWV and then to HANCWV and come down the Panhandle. It's possible that it was band conditions since the temperature did get into the 50's. The Pleasant County NODE/PBBS of PLEAWV/STMYWV, and the 145.01/145.09 mHz cross-over of N8JXO-2 are back in operation. Ken, KB8QPW and I went to the tower site yesterday to correct the problem. The power supply was dead, and the batteries have been replaced.

Juddie, KC8CON sent me some information for the DAREN News, which I will spread over a couple of weeks. The Plateau Hamfest Committee has met and have been making final plans for the Hamfest to be held March 25th, 2000 at the Raleigh County Armory Civic Center, in Beckley, West Virginia. The main door prize this year will be an Alinco DX77T HF transceiver. There may be two other smaller door prizes (like a 24 hour clock and maybe a 2 meter antenna). (continued next week)

There were only 70 check-ins to this week's DAREN Net. One station, N8RKU, who hasn't been heard from since December 7, 1996 made it back into the net. ===============================================================================