DAREN NEWS (00-03-12)

=============================================================================== D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV. March 12, 2000 (.400) 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'.

This is the 400th issue of the DAREN News. The first issue was on July 19th 1992 and talked about the 5 NODE/DIGI/PBBS stations that were in operation at the time. These stations were located in Marshall, Wetzel, Wood, Jackson, and Kanawha Counties, allowing the Ohio River Counties access to each other. Packet operators and Emergency Service Directors from other counties, such as Preston, Pleasants, Monongalia, and Randolph Counties were planning to install DAREN stations in their counties and some Emergency Operation Centers. The DAREN system had already been in operation for almost a year before we decided to start the DAREN News. DAREN News has been a history of how an emergency network got started and has continued to grow, naming many Amateur Radio Operators and Emergency Service Directors who have put a lot of time and effort into keeping the system up and running. Since the DAREN has been in operation, as many as 34 out of the 55 counties in West Virginia, have been in service. The number of DAREN stations vary due to the interest, manpower, and funding of the system. A few years ago an article called "History of DAREN" was written compiling the information from the DAREN News and meeting notes of those involved with the first emergency NODEs and DIGIs. Since the DAREN has grown as big as it's going to, the articles in DAREN News started to include information of Amateur Radio in general. Everyone is invited to have an input to the News. Articles such as Hamfest announcements, Volunteer Examiners Testing announcements, Disasters, Drills, and Exercises that groups have been involved with, whether they used Packet Radio, the DAREN system, or neither. Just send me the articles by Packet or Mail and we'll get them in the News. Past issues of the DAREN News and History of DAREN are available if interested.

While posting this week's net announcement around the state, I found that I couldn't connect to the Mineral County PBBS of KEYSWV. I have tried several times with no luck. I checked the Preston County NODE, PRESWV, to see when it saw the Mineral County NODE last. The last time that it saw MINEWV was on March 5, 2000. I'll try to contact Shannon, KC8GN, to see if he knows what has happened to the station. MINEWV is the only other way to get to the Eastern Panhandle when the Pendleton County NODE of PENDWV is down. Just before Ron, N8HON and Gene, N8ER got the Pendleton County NODE back in operation, I noticed that I was having a hard time using MINEWV to get to the Berkeley County NODE, BERKWV. It's possible the antenna may be damaged at MINEWV. Once when I talked to Shannon, he said the winds on that mountain top does a lot of damage to the antennas at that tower site.

There were only 68 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net. Ken, KB8QPW who's been checking into the net since January 1, 1994, has completed 300 check-ins and will be receiving his certificate. Cathy, KC8DJJ needs only one more check-in to make 200, and Dot, KC8HAI needs only one more check-in to make 150.

73 Ken WA8LLM
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