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                   D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   January 1, 1995            (.129)
          by Ken Harris WA8LLM (304) 679-3470 (HOME) or 485-3828 (EOC)
          WOOD COUNTY RACES, 1810 STAUNTON AVE., PARKERSBURG, WV 26101

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
information about the network, they would like to share with others, may send
it to WA8LLM @ DAREN, or put it on PKBGWV on 145.05, .09, or .69 Mhz.
Outside the DAREN system, it may be sent to WA8LLM @ WA8OMR.WV.USA.NA.
D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV is posted on at least 13 High Memory DAREN PBBS', and
on the regular BBS system @ ALLWV.  A State Wide DAREN NET is held every
Saturday from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm.  DAREN NET Announcements, showing the Net
Control Station, and the previous week's check-ins, are posted by Thursday on
most of the MAIN county PBBS'.  When you have traffic to get delivered, think
about using the DAREN PBBS, located in Glenville, WV., accessible via GLENWV.

      NOTE!!!     * * * Out of service NODE/PBBS': * * *     NOTE!!!
                       FAYEWV/OAKHWV BARBWV/PHILWV

                     H A P P Y    N E W    Y E A R

While the fog was in the area Tuesday and Wednesday, and the band was up, I
was able to talk to Rob, WM8S, in Charleston through our Parkersburg voice
repeater.   He said the Charleston METRO station up and running permanently.
It's not a Kantronics Controller so all it has is a Digipeater, Mailbox, and
Keyboard.  The Mailbox is METRO, the Digipeater is CHASES, and the Keyboard
is WM8S-3.

I talked to Skip, K8SOR, on the telephone, and since he has changed jobs and
moved to Jackson County, he is turning control of the Nicholas County station
over to another operator.  I not sure who the new SYSOP is, or will be, but
Skip is working with Mike, N8WMU, to get the new SYSOP acquainted with the
station.

Dave, KA8ZXP, left me a message stating there's a message on DAREN that is
trying to get forwarded to DANVWV, but the path to DANVWV, in Boone County is
very marginal, to the point that it is almost not there.  If there is anyone
that can help get a better path to DANVWV, it would be very much appreciated.
To help on the station, contact needs to be made with the Boone County
Emergency Services Director and see if they will provide the equipment.  In
the mean time the message is still on DAREN.  The message must be a PERSONAL
message, since I am not able to see it when I list the messages.  This is the
biggest reason we ASK that all messages, on the DAREN System be sent a ST
(SEND TRAFFIC).

Alan, N8POB, was NCS to this week's State Wide DAREN Net, and was operating
from Snowshoe Ski Resort, in Pocahontas County, and reported 79 check-ins.
You can sure see who does, and doesn't read the Net Announcements, DAREN News
and use the DAREN System on a regular basis.  Several operators tried to use
the same routes they use every week, no matter where the Net Control Station
is located.  Some stations must have one of the old DAREN Path Maps, since
they kept trying to connect to FAYEWV, which has been off the air for six
months after it was stolen when the building it was located in got broke
into.  At least two other stations connected to the NCS at least 15 times.  I
don't know how many time I have to repeat myself, but here I go again: YOU
HAVE GOT TO HAVE PATIENCES DURING THE STATE WIDE DAREN NET.  IF YOU DON'T GET
A "RETRIED OUT" MESSAGE, YOUR PACKET STATION, AND ALL THE NODES YOU ARE
CONNECTED TO IN THE SYSTEM ARE STILL TRYING TO GET YOU THROUGH.  YOU JUST
HAVE TO WAIT.  IF YOU FORCE A DISCONNECT BECAUSE YOU THINK IT'S TAKING
TOOOOOOOOO LONG, YOU ARE JUST CAUSING YOURSELF, AND EVERYONE ELSE MORE
INTERFERENCE.  EVERY TIME YOU FORCE A DISCONNECT AND THEN RE-CONNECT, ALL YOU
HAVE DONE IS ADDED ANOTHER STATION THAT HAS GOT TO BE PROCESSED.
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                   D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   January 8, 1995            (.130)

      NOTE!!!     * * * Out of service NODE/PBBS': * * *     NOTE!!!
                       FAYEWV/OAKHWV BARBWV/PHILWV

I'm looking for some ideas on holding a State Wide Disaster Drill on the
DAREN System.  Here are some ideas so far.  I would like to have at least one
operator from each county originate and post several messages on different
PBBS' around the state.  So far the messages would be as follows.  Each
station would post one message on a PBBS one county, two counties, three
counties, and four counties away from where they are at.  Each of the
operators would also send two messages to the State Office of Emergency
Services, one to the State ARRL SEC, and one to the State ARRL DEC.  During
an actual disaster the busiest time is the first two hours, so the drill
should last at least two hours, and maybe more.  The first disaster drill
would be operated however the operators want to send the messages.  They can
all be posted on the PBBS "DAREN" in Glenville, Auto-Forwarded, or placed
directly on the PBBS, where they belong.  The purpose of this drill is to
find out what kind of problems occur when several dozen messages start
flowing through the system.  After the drill, we need to evaluate what all
happened, and the best ways to handle the traffic.  We need to put together a
Standard Operations Procedure for handling traffic during real emergencies.
To watch what is happening on the system, during the drill, there needs to be
7 or 8 operators, that are at fairly high locations, and can see several
NODEs, so they can monitor the frequency, and downward all the information
into a file so it can be looked at after the drill is over.  The best time to
have this drill is during the winter because there should be more operators
available and not out cutting grass.  Which day of the week would be the
best, and what hours?  I don't know of any network that would be handling
this much traffic, going to so many places in such a short period of time, so
we need to know what happens.  After the traffic gets to the terminating
PBBS, it needs to be removed and logged.  I'd like to hear from as many
operators as possible about the drill and their ideas.  Send me a message on
PKBGWV telling me your ideas, PRO or CON, and If you want to participate.
The system has grown as fast, and as large as it's going to for awhile, and
now we need to know how to use it in a real disaster.  Please send me your
ideas.

I have been asked to come to the Fayetteville Hamfest February 26, 1995 to
present another DAREN Forum.  I'm hoping I can make it.  There's been some
changes in DAREN since the last time I was there 2 years ago.  I should know
in the next few days if I can make it.  I'll keep you informed.

The call N8WMU is no longer any good.  The call used to belong to Mike, but
his new call is KG8NV, congratulations on the upgrade Mike.

During the net, I noticed the path between my station (NET), and JACKWV was
very marginal.  All the stations that connected to NET from JACKWV got
checked in, but may not have got the CONNECT TEXT back.  There was 75 check
ins to this weeks State Wide DAREN Net.
=============================================================================

                   D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   January 15, 1995           (.131)

      NOTE!!!     * * * Out of service NODE/PBBS': * * *     NOTE!!!
                       FAYEWV/OAKHWV BARBWV/PHILWV

Mark, KJ4QQ, says the Emergency Services NODE/PBBS, MERCES/PCTNES, has now
been permanently installed in the new home of the Mercer County E-911 center.
The station was installed Sunday, January 8th, by the Mercer County EC (and
Mercer County E-911 Addresser), Bob, N8RIR, Tim, KE4MFM, George "Hooger",
KD4ZUA, and Mark, KJ4QQ.  The station has battery back-up, in case the
commercial power and the back-up generator both fail.  Future plans are to
install VHF, UHF, and HF stations as funds permit.  The packet station is in
a corner of the dispatch area.  With Bob, N8RIR, working there and Bob, NT8X,
as Dispatch Supervisor, Amateur Radio is well represented at the Mercer
County E-911.

Speaking of Amateur Radio being represented in Public Safety locations,
Aaron, N8NVQ, is a dispatcher at the Wood County Sheriff's Department, and is
trying to get a Packet Station installed there.  On January 23, Duane, N8LDM,
Wood County RACES Radio Officer, well begin working there also.

I've received a few suggestions about the State Wide DAREN System Drill, and
some of them are things I never thought about.  If I don't get any more
ideas, I'll have to go with what I have so far.  Now I need to know who all
is going to participate in the exercise.  The ones that have sent me ideas
and suggestions have already said they will participate.  Please send me a
message and tell me if you think you will be able to help.  The drill will be
held on the weekend, but which day and the times have not been set.  I will
be sending out the information on special messages addressed to "DRILL", as
soon as I put it all together.  If you have any ideas about dates, days,
times or anything else, I need to hear about them.

I received a message from George, K8QEW, who had talked to Pepper, KA8ZOO,
and said there was a Marion County NODE on the air, but I haven't been able
to find it.  It may have just been put on the air temporally for tests.  I'm
sure I'll hear from Pepper, when and if it gets on the air.

Lynn, AI8I, was the State Wide DAREN Net Control this week, and he said he
had 60 check-ins, that's a first for him.  A lot of the stations that checked
in were Digipeating, and was slowing down the rest of the stations, trying to
get checked in.
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                   D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   January 22, 1995           (.132)
  
      NOTE!!!     * * * Out of service NODE/PBBS': * * *     NOTE!!!
                       FAYEWV/OAKHWV BARBWV/PHILWV

George, K8QEW, said that Pepper, KA8ZOO, has informed him the Marion County
NODE/PBBS, MARIWV/FAIRWV, would only be a part time station for now.  It will
be placed in operation at the request of the County Emergency Services
Director.

Brad, WB8MZI, has the Barbour County NODE/PBBS, BRAXWV/GASSWV, upgraded to a
128K RAM station.  He was able to purchase the 128K RAM memory chip for only
cost $15.25.  The station now has 10 NODE Channels, 78K of PBBS, and Auto-
Forwarding.  He's hoping the station will be put back on the hill before the
DAREN Disaster Drill.  In the mean time the station will be operated from his
house.

Several Packet Operators have sent me messages stating they would be glad to
participate in the DAREN Disaster Drill.  Several have sent me some good
ideas.  At the present time we are planning to hold the Disaster Drill in
conjunction with the American Red Cross State Wide Disaster Drill.  The
purpose of the DAREN Drill is to find out what works, and what doesn't.  The
best time to find out what problems there are, is during a drill.  On March
11th, the Red Cross will be holding Disaster Drills in all areas of the
state.  This year, the Red Cross wants to handle ALL of their communications
and traffic via radio, no telephones, no fax.  They're hoping to handle all
of their information via Amateur and Public Safety Radio.  There will be a
lot of Voice Nets, but we want to use Packet Radio as much as possible.  Most
of the Red Cross Chapters will be holding all-day disaster drills, hoping to
demonstrate to the general public what the Red Cross has to do during
disasters.  Those Amateurs wishing to participate should contact their local
Red Cross Chapter, and find out what they will be doing for the drill.  They
should then find out what messages they will need to send and where to send
them.  This is the first time DAREN will be used for a disaster drill since
the Hurricane ZELDA Exercise in 1992, which got the attention of the State
Office of Emergency Services.  Now is the time to find out what problems
there are, and try to work them out.

There were 84 check-ins to this weeks State Wide DAREN Net.  This is the
largest amount of check-in that I've ever had.
=============================================================================

                   D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   January 29, 1995           (.133)
    
      NOTE!!!     * * * Out of service NODE/PBBS': * * *     NOTE!!!
                       FAYEWV/OAKHWV BARBWV/PHILWV

The DAREN Exercise is still coming along.  I haven't had as many messages
about it this week, but there have been some pretty good ideas.  I'm about to
post the first two parts of the drill plans.  When the plans for the drill
are posted, they can be found by typing the "L >DRILL" command when
connecting to any of the High Memory PBBS'.

In the last couple of weeks I've seen a few new Packet operators on the air.
I also notice that some of them are searching through the NODEs, looking for
something to connect to.  Remember that if you see someone connecting to a
BBS that isn't set up as an "Emergency, Priority, or NTS Type Station", or as
part of the DAREN system, you might want to remind them what the DAREN NODEs
are there for.  So far we have been pretty lucky in keeping the DAREN NODEs
free from all of the congestion.  If we don't keep an eye on the system, it
might get out of hand.  When I see a new operators connecting to Non-DAREN
stations, I send them a package of DAREN information so they can see what the
system is all about.  If you know of someone that needs a DAREN package, let
me know, and I'll get it mailed out right away.

Once in awhile some of our DAREN operators, that are also MARS Packet
operators, forgets to change their calls from MARS back to Amateur when they
check into the nets.  I want to make sure that everyone checking into the net
gets credit for it, so I had Phil, K8MHR send me a cross reference of all the
MARS/Amateur calls.  If you do happen to forget to change you call back,
don't worry I should have it corrected for the next week's net announcement.

Some weeks it's hard to find something to write about for the DAREN News.
If you ever have something about emergency communications, especially Packet,
that you think may be of interest, and you would like to share with others,
let me know.  I'd like to keep the DAREN News informative to all of our
users.

Mike, KG8JA, in Huntington, was the Net Control Station this week for the
State Wide DAREN Net.  Mike reported that as the net started they encountered
a significant ice storm which deteriorated all the signals, but he still had
65 check-ins.
=============================================================================
                   D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   February 5, 1995           (.134)
  
I got a message from Bob, W3RUA, the other day that reminded me of one of the
main reasons that DAREN was created.  It was the lack of communications
during the 1985 flood, which caused a lot of death and destruction in the
Eastern part of the state.  He thought I might paraphrase the message, but
since he did such a good job on the message, I'm just going to reprint the
information.
---------------------------- From Bob W3RUA ---------------------------------
   Do you remember the flood of November 5, 1985 ?  The four amateurs then
living in Pendleton County West Virginia remember well the tremendous help
received from many radio amateurs when the county needed it the most.  The
response by amateurs from places near and far was phenomenal, by those who
came into Pendleton County to provide vital communications and by those who
were outside the area and provided outlets for the many messages.

   The four of us wish to do something to commemorate the events of November
5, 1985 and the following days.  We are planning to have a get together in
Franklin, WV on September 9, 1985. Our records of who participated are
somewhat sketchy however careful perusal of logs, messages, slips of paper
notes, and poor memories has identified many calls we know were active in the
emergency.  We have sent letters to over seventy calls but know we have
missed some who helped.  If you helped Pendleton County during the flood and
did not receive a letter please send W3RUA @ FKLNWV your call and address or
a note to P.O. Box 740 Franklin, WV  26807.  We will send all who respond
details in the spring.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the middle of July last year, a lightening storm took the Barbour County
NODE/PBBS, BARBWV/PHILWV, off the air.  Since then it's been sitting in a
shop waiting to be fixed.  The equipment has been repaired and Bob, KC8KV,
received it back on February 1st.  On February 2nd Howard, N8SCS, and Bud,
WA8FFG, went to the hill and reinstalled the station.

Congratulations again to Mike, KG8NV, who was the SYSOP of FAYEWV/OAKHWV,
when it was on the air.  He has upgraded his license again, this time to
Extra.  He's not going to change his call with this upgrade.

While I was talking to Terry, KB8EIR, on the telephone about the upcoming
DAREN Communications Drill, an interesting subject came up.  Terry got in
contact with the local Red Cross in Elkins, only to find out they didn't know
much about their National Exercise.  They had heard something about one, but
didn't know when it was to be held.  Terry talked to them about volunteers,
packet radio, and communications in general.  He feels it was worth while
getting to know them, after all, the Red Cross is one of the many agencies
served by Amateur Radio.  Every Amateur Radio operator should contact their
local Red Cross, to see if they can help in any way.

There were 91 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net.
=============================================================================

                   D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   February 12, 1995          (.135)
 
I need to make a correction in the article that was in last week's DAREN
News.  In the article from Bob, W3RUA, there is a wrong date.  The get
together in Franklin, WV will be "September 9, 1995", NOT "1985", sorry about
that.

Phil, K8MHR, has asked me to put together a list of operators that check the
DAREN PBBS' in their area on a daily basis.  He said he would feel a lot
better posting "NTS Type" traffic on the DAREN PBBS' knowing that someone
will check them daily, and taking care of handling any messages that may be
posted there.  A list is being compiled and will be kept posted on the High
Memory PBBS'.  If you would like to take the responsibility of making sure
that "NTS Type" messages are taken care of, please leave a message to WA8LLM
@ PKBGWV, telling me which PBBS' you check daily and that you will take care
of any messages left there.  I would like to have at least one operator for
each PBBS.  But the more operators there are that check the PBBS' daily, and
will take the responsibility of seeing that messages are taken care of, the
more trust there will be in the DAREN system for handling NTS traffic.

Phil, K8MHR, has also talked to Jim Brandt at the Kanawha County Red Cross.
He's very interested in participating in the DAREN Drill on March 11th.  Jim
would also like to set up a DAREN Station at the Red Cross Chapter House.

I just found out this week the next WV State Amateur Radio Council Meeting is
being held the same day as the DAREN Communications drill, March 11th.  The
meeting will be held in Flatwoods, WV at 1:00 pm.  If you will be attending
the meeting, you might want to get someone else to participate in the drill
in your place.

They finally went to the printers.  The DAREN certificates that I've been
talking about for the last year or so should be finished this week and I can
start sending them to the operators that have completed at least 50 check-ins
to the weekly State Wide DAREN Nets.  I hope you like them.

Larry, KB8ANG, Says they're having a squelch problem with the Cabell County
NODE/PBBS, CABEWV/HUNTWV.  He'll be working on it when weather permits.  If
it's like a lot of radios, the squelch gets a little loose in cold weather,
and just needs to be tightened up a little, it should be easy to fix.

There were "99" check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net, close, but no
cigar.
=============================================================================

                   D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   February 19, 1995          (.136)

The list of operators that will take the responsibility of making sure that
"NTS Type" traffic being left in different DAREN PBBS' will be taken care of,
is getting longer.  I've had several NTS traffic handlers tell me they are
afraid to leave NTS messages on Packet Mailboxes, not knowing if anyone will
pick them up.  If all of the operators check their area mailboxes and PBBS on
a daily basis, a message shouldn't be left there very long.  There will be
times when a message will be left on a mailbox, not because it hasn't been
looked at.  I leave the messages on the mailbox or PBBS, until it gets
delivered, then I will delete it.  If I'm not able to do anything with it,
maybe the next person that looks at it can.

The Drill information messages that I've been putting on the "High Memory"
PBBS' are taking up a lot of space, and I've began to remove some of the
older ones.  Terry, KB8EIR, had a suggestion, and that is to delete, all of
the messages the "day of" the DAREN Drill.  The space may be needed to post
the simulated traffic on.  All of the Drill information messages will be left
posted on three "High Memory" PBBS', and they are "DAREN", "HILLWV", and
"PKBGES".  If the message you are wanting is not on one of the regular PBBS',
then check on one of the above.  To list the drill information messages, just
type "L >DRILL".

A very important part of the drill on March 11th, is the running time.  How
long will you or your group be operating?  Let me know so I can let all of
the other participates know when to quit sending you messages.

The certificates that will be going to the operators that have checked into
the weekly State Wide DAREN Net, in multiples of 50 times, are back from the
printers.  I want to thank Alan, N8POB, for putting on paper what I've been
thinking of.  I've already started mailing some of them out.  If you have
checked into the Weekly State Wide DAREN Net at least 50 times, you should be
getting a certificate in the next couple days.  There are about 35 operators
that have checked in at least 50 times, a few that have checked in at least
100 times, and few that are about to go over 100.  For every 50 check-ins,
you will receive a certificate.

Jim, WD8DMS, says the Greenbrier Emergency Communications Center is new and
almost complete.  It will be in operation during the DAREN Communications
drill.  The Emergency Center was built by The Southern West Virginia Amateur
Radio Association with the assistance of the City of Lewisburg and is under
the direction of Herb Montgomery, KF8ZH.

There were 89 to this week's State Wide DAREN Net.
=============================================================================

                   D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   February 26, 1995          (.137)
 
I ran into a situation this week that needs to be addressed.  Not all
Amateurs operate Packet, or are on the air, so messages that are going to
them should have more than a Callsign and/or a Nickname.  I tried to deliver
a message and all it had was the City, PO Box number address, Callsign, and a
Nickname.  I looked up the call and got the whole name, but the Telephone
Company had no listing for him.  I have never heard the operator on the air.
The message was left in a new personal station mailbox that had only been on
the air less than a week, in a different county than where the message was
going.  The message should have been left in the PBBS in the right county,
which is also one that is checked at least once-a-day, and is on the
"RESPONSIBILITY" list on most of the "High Memory" PBBS'.  If at all possible
a telephone number should have been on the message.  It was posted as "S
zipcode" which makes it was a personal message, and the only persons that
could see it were the SYSOP, the person putting it there, and the "zipcode",
if he would ever happen to check in, which is very unlikely.  I've heard
several comments about not trusting Packet Radio for handling traffic
messages, but I think a lot of the responsibility is in the hands of the
traffic handler.  You've heard the old saying "Garbage In, Garbage Out",
mailboxes don't have a mind of their own, they will only do what you tell
them.  If a traffic handler would use mailboxes that are well established &
checked often, and not go around looking for some off-the-wall mailbox, there
would be a lot less lost messages.  Traffic handlers that aren't sure where
to post a message should post it on "DAREN", and someone will find, or try to
find the proper place to put it.

Am I hearing right?  Are there operators out there who are not sure what to
do in the upcoming DAREN Communications Exercise?  If you're worried about
doing the wrong thing, don't be.  The only way to iron out mistakes is to
first make some.  The best time to make mistakes is during drills, practices,
and exercises.  The biggest mistake you can make is not jumping in to help
find problems that we don't know of.  The Communications exercise on March
11th is to identify problems so we can correct them.  Everyone needs to help,
so toss your hat in the ring and say you'll do something, even if it's wrong.
Time is getting close and I need to know who all is going to participate.
Tell me if you're going to participate, what hours, and who you are going to
be representing.  This is only a drill, let's find our problems, before we
have a real disaster.

Those operators wanting to operate in the DAREN Disaster Drill on March 11th
should let me know as soon as possible.  I need to know who you plan to
represent or provide communications for.  I need to know how long you will be
in operation.  I need to know which Mailbox or PBBS to leave messages at.

There were 86 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net.
=============================================================================
                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   March 5, 1995            (.138)

While sitting and watching the net Saturday March 4th, I just realized
something.  The Kantronics TNC parameter "KNTIMER" defaults to 15, fresh out
of the box.  The 15 means that if you are connected to a NODE, and there is
no activity on that NODE Channel for 15 minutes, it disconnects that NODE
Channel.  The purpose of the "timeout" is to keep a stations from just tieing
up a NODE Channel, and not sending any traffic.  During the weekly net, there
are times when operators will sit and wait at least 15 minutes as their
"connects" are being processed through the different NODEs.  If the first
NODE you connect to hasn't seen you type anything for 15 minutes, it's going
to disconnect you, even though the rest of the NODEs in your path are still
trying to get you connected to your destination.  The "KNTIMER" can be set
from 0 to 255.  0 (zero) meaning the timer is disabled, and 255 means 255
minutes, before timeout.  I think a lot of timeouts that occur during the net
is because "KNTIMER" is set too low.  I'm going to set of the NODEs in our
area to a "KNTIMER" of 45 minutes and see if the number of timeouts are
reduced during the next few nets.  Since I've watched the DAREN net over the
last couple of years, I've never seen any stations just connect to a NODE and
sit there, till it times out.  I don't think 45 minutes is too long before
"timeout", and it may help operators get through to the Net Control Station
without getting disconnected after going through several NODEs.  Other SYSOPs
should think about doing the same thing.  DO NOT set you KNTIMER to 0,
because it will never timeout.

This is the last DAREN News before the March 11th Red Cross/DAREN Disaster
Communications Exercise.  There are still some counties where the Red Cross
said they are going to have an exercise, but I don't know if the Amateurs are
going to participate, or provide communications for them, or any other
emergency agency in the county.  A list of the counties that will be
participating will be posted on the high memory PBBSs late Friday evening
March 10th.  Operators that are participating in the exercise should only
send messages to counties or organization on the list.  This exercise is to
swamp the DAREN system with messages, to see if it can handle the load.
After the exercise is over, I need a copy of everybody's log sheet, so I can
compare how long it took to get messages through.  To see an example of the
log sheets, connect to one of the high memory PBBSs, and type "L> drill".  If
you are going to participate I need to know who you are going to provide
communications for and the hours you plan to participate.  Please send me a
message @ PKBGWV, ASAP.

Lynn, AI8I reported 62 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net.
=============================================================================

                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   March 12, 1995           (.139)
 
Brad, KB8MZI, has the Braxton County NODE/DIGI, BRAXWV/GASSWV, back on the
hilltop, but he says it's not as good as it used to be with the other
antenna.  He's not able to hit KANAWV, JACKWV, WOODWV, or PLEAWV, like it
used to.

Since last week's State Wide DAREN Net, some of the NODEs around the state
have had a little change.  To keep from getting "timeouts" while waiting for
the other NODEs in your path to process your "connects" to the NCS, the
timeout timer "KNTIMER" on GREEWV, JACKWV, KANAWV, PENDWV, PLEAWV, POCAWV,
RITCWV, WETZWV, and WOODWV have all been changed to 45 minutes.  This should
reduce the amount of premature disconnects during the nets.  When Lynn, AI8I
is NCS, there are a lot fewer paths to him, and you need to know the best
path.  The purpose of the DAREN Net is to get operators used to finding
different path around the system.  There are still some operators that try to
digipeat through several nodes.  Another problem I've noticed is some
operators are still trying to connect to NODEs that are not in operation.  A
list of the major NODEs that are in operation can be found on most of the
High Memory PBBS' by typing "L> NODES", or send me a message and I'll send
you the latest NODE PATH MAP.

On Tuesday at about 11:27am, the Kanawha County NODE/PBBS, KANAWV/CHASWV, was
last heard until about 3pm Thursday.  Someone went into the building, that
houses the station, and unpluged the power supply, that keeps the batteries
charged up.  The station must have operated on batteries for two days before
they finally died.  This close to the State Wide DAREN exercise begins to
make you worry.

While looking at DAREN Thursday morning, I saw the DAREN Net announcement had
not been forwarded to the Berkeley County PBBS, MRTNWV.  I talked to Mark,
WB8ZLQ, on the telephone that morning, he said that a very bad wind and snow
storm went through the area during the night and may have done some damage to
it.

Well, was the DAREN exercise a big flop in your area?  I was disappointed
that it didn't work better.  The group here in Wood County learned a lot from
the exercise, and how to improve our operations.  I'm open for suggestions
and ideas on how to improve the system.  DAREN is not a system that's trying
to do away with any other systems, it's just another way to pass information,
if operated properly.  I want to thank everyone who participated and hope you
learned something by it.  If we work out some of the problems, maybe we'll do
it again.

There were 81 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN.  This is more than I
had expected after a lot of the operators struggling with the system all day
trying to get their messages through.  Changing the "KNTIMER" to 45 minutes
seemed to have helped, there were very few premature disconnects on the list.
Let me know what you think.  Thanks for the support.
=============================================================================

                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   March 19, 1995           (.140)
 
I guess the DAREN exercise wasn't a complete flop.  I have received several
messages from operators that didn't seem to have as much trouble as others.
If everyone learned a little something about what went wrong, and they plan
to correct it, then the exercise did what it was suppose to do, let us find
our problems before it's too late.

I had a telephone call Monday from George Settles, the Emergency Services
Director of Calhoun County.  He has the approval to purchase a DAREN station.
He needed a list of equipment to buy.  I've sent him the list of equipment he
needs.  Maybe within a few weeks we'll see another station on the air.

A couple of months ago we tried to get into the Hancock County NODE/PBBS to
change the Auto-forwarding path, but the call for the SYSOP commands wouldn't
let us in.  After the communications exercise last week, WEIRWV some how got
locked up and showed a busy all the time.  George, K8QEW, had the station
taken off the hill and given a RESET.  Before they gave the station a reset
he looked at the SYSOP call and found it had been scrambled.  This is the
second time that it's happened.  The Jackson county NODE/PBBS has done the
same thing twice.  I called Kantronics and talked to them about it.  The
first thing they wanted to know was the version number of the EPROM program.
The version of the program is: KPC3-2DF13328-5.1.  The Jackson County NODE
has the same version.  We have the same version program in WETZWV, PLEAWV,
RITCWV, but so far they haven't acted up yet.  But just in case you have a
problem, and have to go to the hill to fix it, you might want to check what
version program you have.  All you have to do is type "VER".  Kantronics is
looking into the problem.

Dave, KA8ZXP, and I talked on the telephone, and he has an idea that may get
operators to start using the BBS, "DAREN" and the DAREN System a lot more.
Even though the DAREN System is primarily to be used to handle Emergency,
Priority, and NTS Type traffic, we are wondering about posting other type of
bulletins.  Bulletins that pertain strictly to Amateur Radio.  Bulletins such
as RACES, ARES, Conventions, Meetings, Training & Classes, License Testing,
Radio Modifications, Hamfests, etc.  We don't want to open the door to
everything, which would defeat the purpose of the system.  Most of the things
I mentioned can be found on the normal BBS system, but they are hard to find,
since they are listed in different ways.  The above information would only be
posted on the BBS "DAREN".  There still would be NO Buy, Sale, or Trade, or
other such bulletins.  For instants, Wood County posts a weekly Wood County
RACES Bulletin on PKBGWV and PKBGES.  We don't post it anywhere else since a
lot of the information pertains only to Wood County.  However someone may get
something out of it.  Other counties could do the same thing.  I'd like to
hear what the rest of you think, whether we should, or shouldn't, and if so,
what kind of bulletins.  We don't want to turn the DAREN System loose, and
let it get out of hand, so there would still be rules that must be followed,
but the system needs to be used on a daily basis, to keep all users familiar
with the network.

There were only 75 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net.
=============================================================================

                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   March 26, 1995           (.141)
  
I'm not finished going over all of the logs and messages that I have received
from the DAREN Communications exercise yet, but I have noticed a few things.
The backlog of traffic that was using the Auto-Forwarding system slowed down
traffic in, out, and through Wood County.  During the exercise, it took quite
awhile for us to transmit messages to anywhere else in the state.  With the
setup of all Auto-Forwarding PBBSs, all Auto-Forwarded traffic was routed
into PKBGES, and then it was sent to "DAREN", the Central Message Center.
This week, I've re-routed as many of the Auto-Forwarding PBBSs, that I could,
so they go as direct as possible to "DAREN".  I hope this will reduce the
amount of time that the Auto-forwarding PBBSs are tied up, and they will be
able to forward their own messages.

I've received very few messages about the uses of the Central Message Center
"DAREN".  Last week I wrote an article about using "DAREN" to post messages
that are strictly Amateur Radio related.  We were curious how the users of
the DAREN system felt about posting those type bulletins.  The operators that
sent me messages felt it was a good idea, as long as it didn't get out of
hand.

All counties don't have a main PBBS, or Mailbox for leaving messages, and
some of the counties have a PBBS, but don't have someone responsible for
seeing that NTS Type messages are taken care of.  The most important thing to
remember is to get messages delivered.  If you find a message in a PBBS for
someone in a county that doesn't have a PBBS or Mailbox, try to contact
someone in that county by voice or by telephone if it's not long distance.
Please don't just leave messages sitting, try to get them delivered.

There were 87 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net.
=============================================================================
                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   April 2, 1995            (.142)
  
I'm not a very good news reporter, I didn't take any notes, so I hope I get
most of the story correct.  Terry, KB8EIR said the two packet stations that
were purchased by the Davis Memorial Hospital in Elkins paid for themselves
March 24th when a structure fire cut off communications into and out of
Randolph and Tucker Counties.  The fire damaged a telephone fiber optic cable
isolating the two counties from the rest of the world.  With no telephone
communications the Davis Memorial Hospital could not tell the Tucker County
Emergency Ambulatory Center, or anyone else what had happened.  Terry was
able to establish a Packet radio link between the two emergency departments
for about three hours during the telephone outage.  He tried to make contact
with someone in Morgantown, but was unable to do so.

The incident in Randolph County got me to thinking about what could have been
done if Terry had been able to contact someone outside of the isolated area.
Telephone calls to other hospitals and radio operators could have established
other radio links and nets.  We keep a list of operators that check the PBBSs
in their area on a daily basis for messages that need to be delivered, what
we need now is a list of operators and/or stations that have someone within
seeing distance of the TNC.  If there had been a list of operators that he
could have chosen from, he could have let the hospital in Morgantown know
what was happening.  I'm going to modify some of the stations in our area
with an external alerting system.  For instance, the station at my house will
have a sounding device that will sound when someone connects to the station
callsign.  I know I've missed calls when someone has connected to my station
while I was away from it watching television or sleeping.  Even at night I
could be alerted to a possible emergency.  The station at the Wood County EOC
will have external lights that will be located on the Emergency Services
Director's and Secretary's desks.  If the light comes on, they can contact
one of the packet operators in the county so they can found out what is
happening.  If you think it's a good idea, and modify your station, let me
know how it alerts and how much of the day it might be monitored.  If we
could get stations installed in locations that are manned 24 hours a day,
just think how reliable it would be to contact someone anywhere in the state.
Just a thought.

The boys in Tyler County have purchased a 128K RAM Chip, so the NODE/PBBS,
MIDBWV/TYLEWV should soon be upgraded to a little larger PBBS and more NODE
channels.

There were 76 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net.  Next week's
NCS will be Ken, KA3SKW.  Ken is located is located Garrett County, Maryland.
He has paths to several NODEs such as RANDWV, TUCKWV, MINEWV, PENDWV, PRESWV,
and MONOWV.  If the net goes good for him, maybe we can get him to be NCS
from time to time.
=============================================================================

                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   April 9, 1995            (.143)
     
Ray, KA8GOH, has the Tyler County NODE/PBBS upgraded to 128K RAM.  The PBBS
now has 16K of memory and the NODE has 24 Channels.  He also has the KN timer
set for 45 minutes.  There has been a large increase of Amateurs in Tyler
county, and lot of them are on Packet.  There shouldn't be any trouble
getting into, out of, or through Tyler County.

Since the rules for the use of the Central Message Center "DAREN" has been
relaxed a little, it hasn't been abused any.  I would like to post the
California RACES Bulletins on it like I was doing for awhile, but for some
reason the bulletins either haven't been getting posted in California, or
they are just not making it to West Virginia.  Anyone having bulletins,
pertaining to Amateur Radio and Emergency Communications, items like VE
Testing, Hamfests, Special events, etc., are welcome to post them on "DAREN".

It's getting that time of the year again to start checking your local and
remote stations for proper grounding.  The lightening will soon start coming
our way, and it has NO mercy on electronic equipment.

Since I wrote the article about external signaling using sound and lights for
stations that connect to your TNC, I've had a few operators who told me how
often they are around their computers and stations.  I've been studying the
drawings for the Kantronics KPC-3, and it looks like it should be very easy
to connect external alerting devices to them without doing any modifications
to the TNC itself.  As soon as I build one for my station, I'll let you know
how easy it is and how it can be done.  If there are operators who already
have external signaling devices connected their station, let me know and we
will start a list.

It's been awhile since the State Wide DAREN Net Control Station has been
outside the state of West Virginia.  Ken, KA3SKW, who lives near Oakland
Maryland was Net Control this week.  Remember, the State Wide DAREN Net is
not limited to just West Virginia, and the Net Control can be anywhere which
gives operators a chance to connect through different paths to the NCS.
=============================================================================

                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   April 16, 1995           (.144)
 
                           H A P P Y    E A S T E R

News is real scarce this week.  Everyone must be enjoying the outdoors.  Has
there been any activities in your area involving packet radio and/or the
DAREN system?  I haven't finished looking over all the information of the Red
Cross/DAREN exercise held March 11th, or I could give a report on that.

Bob, WB8OIF, sent me a message saying there will be an exercise in Berkeley
County, and they will be sending messages, via DAREN, to the State Office of
Emergency Services.

Does anyone have any ideas for bulletins.  Duane, N8LDM, Wood County RACES
Radio Officer, ARES EC, is always looking for something to write bulletins
about.  If you have any ideas, or just want copies of the past Wood County
RACES Bulletins, let us know and we will send you a copy of them.

As you can see, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to come up with
something to write about.  I've been writing the D.A.R.E.N. News since July
1992, and this week has been the hardest week of all to find something to
write about.  If you have been saving the D.A.R.E.N. News, and are missing
any, just me know and I'll get you a copy.

Be sure to connect to the PBBS "DAREN", from time to time.  It now has
listing for HAMFESTS, VE Exams, and other Amateur related items.

I'm going to quit for now, and maybe I'll do better next week.  If you have
something to tell the other DAREN users, let me know and we'll try to pass it
on.

There were 74 check-ins to this weeks State Wide DAREN Net.  There were three
first time check-ins, WD8MTN, KB8LSR, and N8MDZ.
=============================================================================

                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   April 22, 1995           (.145)
    
I got a message from Pat, N3AAS.  He suggested that stations or groups that
are planning to operate Field Day this year let other stations know what they
plan to do.  This year for Field Day, as in the past, the DAREN system can be
used to make Packet contacts.  Those stations that will have a Packet station
set up should let others know where they are going to be, what callsign they
will be using, and the best NODE they can connect to.  Field Day is the one
day that BEACONs can be used for letting other stations know where you are
at.  If you have a KPC-3 with the new 6.0 version firmware, you might like
one of the new Parameters it has.  You can have your station BEACON four
different ways, with four different messages.  Just remember, normally,
BEACONs, on the DAREN System, should only be used when it's necessary.  There
will be more information on Field Day as the time gets closer.

I haven't heard any more from Bob, WB8OIF, about the exercise they are
planning for Berkeley County.  All I know is they were planning to pass
messages to the State Office of Emergency Services via DAREN.

George, K8QEW, said they were planning an exercise on the river at Beaver,
Pennsylvania.  The exercise was in cooperation with the Coast Guard, and
there would be ARES/RACES radio operators on the boats.  The exercise was to
be held Saturday, April 22.  Maybe George can give us a report in the next
week or two.

Bob, W3RUA, in Franklin, WV, will be on the road visiting friends and
relatives for the next six weeks or so.  He will be in Montana, Oregon,
Oklahoma, Iowa, Minnesota and Texas.  Bob is one of the Amateurs that is
trying to put together a reunion of all the Amateurs that helped Pendleton
County, West Virginia, during the flood of 1985.  There was an article in the
D.A.R.E.N News dated February 5, 1995.  If you have any messages for Bob
while he's gone, either hold them till he gets back, or send them to him @
PKBGWV, and I'll hold them till he gets back.  If you talk to anyone about
the flood, you might want to tell them to get in contact with Bob.  They are
planning to hold the reunion September 9, 1995, in Franklin, WV.

There were 87 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net.  There were
two first time check-ins this week, N3BHY and N3TGL.
=============================================================================

                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   April 30, 1995           (.146)
    
I just noticed the date was wrong on last week's D.A.R.E.N. News.  I had the
date as April 22nd, instead of April 23rd, oh well! that's the first mistake
this year, Ha Ha.  I've been looking over the old D.A.R.E.N. News, and adding
a three digit number to them in addition to the date.  The three digit number
starts with the July 19, 1992, D.A.R.E.N. News (.001) and continues from
there.  This week's News is (.146).  If you want to read and/or download the
old D.A.R.E.N. News, they can be found on the Central Message System "DAREN".
Little by little I'm uploading them into the file called "DARENBUL".  To read
or download a file from "DARENBUL" you must use the download command.  As an
example, if you want to download the first D.A.R.E.N. News, you must type:
D DARENBUL.001 .  The articles have not been edited, except for the
addition of the three digit number, and the same dumb mistakes are still
there.

I received a message from Bob, WB8OIF, and he said the exercise in Berkeley
County was going to be held somewhere around June 6th, 7th, and 8th, but
didn't know for sure what it was going to be.  While I was at the Emergency
Services Director's meeting on Tuesday, they talked about an exercise that
would be held June 6th, 7th, and 8th.  The exercise will be weather related,
and will cause flooding from a simulated hurricane named "NANNA".  The
counties, participating in the exercise will be: Barbour, Berkeley, Grant,
Hampshire, Hardy, Harrison, Jefferson, Lewis, Marion, Mineral, Monongalia,
Morgan, Pendleton, Preston, Randolph, Taylor, Tucker, and Upshur.  If these
counties sound familiar, they should, they were the same counties, at least
most of them, as the "Flood of 85".  Items to be tested during the exercise
will be: Alert Notification, Communications, Coordination & Control, Damage
Assessment, Emergency Public Information, Evacuation & Sheltering, Health &
Medical, Public Safety, Public Works, Resource Management, and Warning.  For
a little history lesson, it was an exercise in 1991 about a simulated
hurricane named "ZELDA", that started the DAREN system to grow state wide.

I received a message and a letter from George, K8QEW, about the river
exercise held in the Weirton area, April 22nd.  I haven't had a chance to
read his report, so I'll tell you about it next week.

Even though I put the wrong date, yes another wrong date, for this week's
State Wide DAREN net on the net announcement, there were still 76 check-ins.
While at the Dayton Hamfest, I saw several operators who normally check-in,
so the net was down a little.  There was one first timer check-in this week,
KB8VOQ.
=============================================================================
                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   May 7, 1995              (.147)
 
There may be a path problem between the NODE/PBBS WYOMWV/PINEWV and NODE/PBBS
RALEWV/BECKWV.  For the last three weeks the PBBS "DAREN" has been unable to
post the DAREN Net announcement.  When I try to post it manually, it either
retries out or takes more than half-an-hour to get it posted.  The best path
I've found to RALEWV/PINEWV is going through the NODE GREEWV.

The NODE/PBBS GILMWV/GLENWV seems to be having a little trouble.  It has been
up and down for the last couple of days.  Since GILMWV is the only path to
the PBBS "DAREN", the Central Message Center, be careful when posting
messages using AUTO-FORWARDING.  If the message has to go through "DAREN" to
get to it's destination, you might want to check a little later to be sure it
got there.  Remember, AUTO-FORWARDING isn't 100 percent reliable, so if you
want to make sure your messages get to their intended destination, you might
want to post them directly on the destination's nearest PBBS.

I got a letter from George, K8QEW, about the Coast Guard disaster exercise
that was held on the Ohio River April 22.  The drill was an explosion on a
river boat carrying 200 passengers.  The Hancock Emergency Operations Center
the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) was activated and various
Fire and Rescue teams responded with rescue boats.  One RACES operator was at
the EOC, and three were on the river.  Ohio and Pennsylvania emergency
response teams were also involved in the drill.  Several other RACES and ARES
radio operators were also on standby.  Even though the DAREN system wasn't
used, it's nice to hear about other disaster exercises.  If you have one that
you would like to tell about let send me the information.

There were 71 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net, and one first
time check-in, N9GAB.  One station, K8QEW, made his 100th check-in and one
station, N8QJL, made his 50th check-in.
=============================================================================

                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   May 14, 1995             (.148)
     
The Gilmer County NODE/PBBS, GILMWV/GLENWV were off the air for about a week.
Dave, KA8ZXP, reported the old radio and power supply are history.  He had to
replace the equipment to put it back in operation.

George, K8QEW, is looking for a old version of DOS.  He has an IBM laptop,
model 5140, that he would like to get working.  The boys at IBM suggested it
will take an old version of DOS so the system will run.  If anyone has an old
version of DOS, they might get in contact with George and give him a hand.
An old version of DOS might be anything prior to 3.0., I don't know.

There were 84 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net, and three of
them were first time check-ins, WB8SJR, KB8YIX, and K8MBH.  Two stations,
WB8OIF, and N8PFY have both checked into the net 50 times each.  You notice I
didn't say "his" this time.  Last week I made the mistake of saying "his"
when Darla, N8QJL, made "her" 50th check-in, sorry about that Darla.
=============================================================================

                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   May 21, 1995             (.149)
  
At the Wheeling Hamfest last Sunday I talked with Pepper KA8ZOO, Dave KA8ZXP,
and George K8QEW.  Several interesting DAREN subjects such as replacement
equipment, Auto-Forwarding, and a SYSOP meeting were talked about.  We are
planning to have a DAREN meeting the state convention at Jackson's Mill.  All
SYSOPs and DAREN operators interested in coming are welcome.  Bring your
ideas and have them heard.  The exact time and place hasn't been set yet.

Phil K8MHR, said the TNC of the Putnam County NODE/PBBS PUTNWV/HURCWV has
been upgraded to a 6.0 version firmware.

Phil also said that with the move of the weather service on Eagle mountain
road to their new location, the Packet station that operated on 145.05 Mhz
would now be operated on the DAREN system.  The Kantronics TNC they are using
has a printer port, and messages to the weather service can be sent direct to
them.  The personal at the weather service should be able to just "Rip and
Read" the messages.  If this is the case, we may want to have the weather
service tell us what kind of format they want the messages in.

There was a temporary NODE/PBBS placed in operation to help cover packet
communications for a bike ride sponsored by the American Diabetes
Association.  The NODE was placed in service May 17 for the bike ride that
will be held today.  The ride will cover sixty miles in Wood County, West
Virginia and Washington County, Ohio.  The alias for NODE/PBBS is WASHOH/-
MRTAOH.  The NODE will be left in operation until the equipment is needed
somewhere else.  Maybe it will stir a little interest in the DAREN in Ohio.

Thursday morning after this week's net announcement, had been posted,  I
noticed that a couple of PBBS' hadn't got their announcement.  I tried to
connect to both station but was unsuccessful.  It looks like the Cabell
County NODE/PBBS, CABEWV/HUNTWV and The Lewis County NODE/PBBS, LEWIWV/WESTWV
are both off the air, possibly from the storm that went through the state on
Sunday the 14th.

I got a message from Phil, K8MHR reminding everyone about posting messages to
the State Office of Emergency Services.  Just because your county has
activated your Emergency Operations Center doesn't mean the State OES has
been activated.  If the State OES is operating on a day-to-day basis, they
may not have someone available to check the Kanawha County PBBS, CHASWV,
where their messages should be posted.  If you have a message that you need
to get to them, you might want to call them on the telephone.  If the message
has a lot of information which would be easier to have printed out, you might
call them on the telephone, and let them know that you are going to post the
message on the PBBS, CHASWV.

There were only 70 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net.  No one
went over 50 or 100 check-ins, but three just made their 49th check-in.
=============================================================================

                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   May 28, 1995             (.150)
  
Does anyone know what has happened to the Lewis County NODE/PBBS,
LEWIWV/WESTWV, or the Cabell County NODE/PBBS, CABEWV/HUNTWV stations?  I
haven't been able to connect to them for over two weeks now.

Some of the paths have started to change with the coming of Spring and
Summer.  I notice the path between PENDWV and POCAWV has become very
marginal.  Lynn, AI8I says the Pocahontas County NODE/PBBS, POCAWV/MARLWV,
now has battery back-up in case of commercial power failure.  Another good
reason to have battery back-up on all station, whether it is a major NODE in
the system or you own station at home is intermittent power spikes.  If the
power just takes a sudden drop and then come back on, your station TNC,
radio, and power supply can be effected.  Your TNC and radio can be glitched
and lose all their memory, or just be scrambled to the point they will have
to be re-programed.  Your power supply could blow a fuse or have the circuit
breaker tripped and have to be reset.  If you have a battery setting across
the power supply, it should take any sudden voltage changes and protect the
radio and TNC.

Ray, KA8GOH, told me the Tyler County Amateur Radio Organization will be
holding a Special Event at the Tyler County Fair.  The Special Event station
will be operating from 11:00am to 6:00pm August 11th and 12th.  The station
will be operating voice in the lower part of the 40 and 20 meter General
Band.  There will also be a packet station operating on 145.69 Mhz so that
operators having Packet capability can check in via the DAREN system.  The
Special Event Station will be under the call of KA8GOH.  Certificates for
working the station will be available.  More information should soon be in
the ARRL QST.

There were 86 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net.  N8VJS has
checked into the DAREN Net 100 times, K8ZPR, N8RH, N8SNR and W3RUA have each
checked in 50 times.  KB8KKV and KF8ZH have just one more to go to make 50
check-ins.
=============================================================================
                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   June 4, 1995             (.151)
  
      NOTE!!!     * * * Out of service NODE/PBBS': * * *     NOTE!!!
                       CABEWV/HUNTWV LEWIWV/WESTWV

Gary, WV8D, and Mike, N8VXL, says that on May 19th, a Terminal Station was
installed at the club's new communication center in the Greenbrier County
Office of Emergency Services.  The NODE is GREEES and the PBBS is LSBGES
under the callsign N8VXL-7.  They say the station seems to be working fine.
In the next few weeks the City and County fathers will be invited in and the
station will then be demonstrated to them.

Nothing is still being heard from either the Cabell County NODE/PBBS,
CABEWV/HUNTWV or the Lewis County NODE/PBBS, LEWIWV/WESTWV.  There's a good
chance they were made inoperative by the lighting storms that passed through
the state the weekend of May 13th.  However, the Lewis County EOC NODE/PBBS,
LEWIES/WESTES is still in operation and traffic into the Weston, WV area can
still be left there.  The only NODEs that have a path to LEWIES/WESTES are
GILMWV and UPSHWV.

A year or so back, it was mentioned there should be a savings account put
together by funds collected as dues from County Emergency Services that are
participating in the DAREN System.  The funds would be used to either replace
or repair equipment damaged by some storms, fires, etc.  If there's enough
interest in such a savings, I will contact each of the County Emergency
Services with some kind of proposal.  Since the DAREN system was first
started several stations have been, or are still, off the air for various
reasons: BARBWV/PHILWV power supply, radio = repaired, CABEWV/HUNTWV power
supply, radio, TNC = replaced, GILMWV/GLENWV power supply, radio = replaced,
FAYEWV/OAKHWV radio, TNC, power supply = stolen, not back in operation yet,
MINEWV/KEYSWV antenna = replaced.  There may be others that I can't think of,
but, as you can see, there needs to be a way to keep the stations on the air.

Remember, the FEMA exercise "NANNA", involving a large part of Eastern West
Virginia, will be held June 6th, 7th, and 8th.

An interesting article from Shannon, KG8GN, will be in next week's News.

There were 78 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net.  KB8KKV and
KF8ZH have checked into the DAREN Net 50 times each.
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                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   June 11, 1995            (.152)
    
      NOTE!!!     * * * Out of service NODE/PBBS': * * *     NOTE!!!
                       CABEWV/HUNTWV LEWIWV/WESTWV

Short articles like the following are always welcome:

Heartland Nursing Home in Keyser, WV was evacuated on Friday May 12 due to an
odorless gas causing sickness in the building.  The residents and nursing
staff were transported to the Keyser National Guard Armory.  About 2:30 PM,
Mineral County 911 Center contacted Allegany County Emergency Management to
ask for volunteer amateur radio operators to set up communication stations at
three locations in Mineral County.  Within an hour stations were setup at the
Keyser Armory, Potomac Valley Hospital, and at the Mineral County 911 Center.
These stations were manned throughout the night and into the next day unto
5:30 PM.  The building was inspected and the residents were moved back into
the home from 1 PM to 5 PM Saturday.  After the people were returned to the
home the director of the 911 center relieved the amateurs.  There were 12
Mineral County hams, 18 Allegany County hams, and 1 Morgan County ham to
operate three stations a 26 hour period with a total of 31 operators.  All
traffic was operated on the K3MWI repeater, 145.45 which is owned and
operated by the Mountain Amateur Radio Club in Cumberland MD.  The Following
is a list of the operators: W3DFW, WA3SYE, KG8GN, N8YIB, WB3KOZ, N3ISA,
N3TDM, N3MGP, KB8WXB, N3UNN, N3LJS, AJ3X, N8VAB, N8RBD, N3BJP, N8RCG, N8VRO,
N8UZY, N3JFF, N8RVM, KB8ISI, WA8TOM, WB3AXV, W3AKR, K3MWI, N3AAS, N0BSD,
N3RJA, KA8YLO, N3KZC, AND N8ODZ.  Thanks goes out to all who helped or stood
by listening that were able to give a hand.  73 Shannon KG8GN

Bret, N8FXC, says the Calhoun County Emergency Services has all of the
equipment needed to install a NODE/PBBS.  He's not sure where the station
will go, whether it will go in the Emergency Operation Center or on the
hilltop.  We think it would be better to go on the hilltop so that operators
in the county would have a better chance of getting into the system.  A
temporary station could be taken to the EOC when it is necessary.

Information about the West Virginia State Convention can be found on the PBBS
"DAREN".  The message number is 6633.  Even though there is nothing about a
DAREN program on it, we are hoping to have an informal meeting of as many
DAREN SYSOPs and other users as possible sometime during the Convention.  I
got a message from Bill, W8FZP with an idea of having a 75 meter round-table
discussion about the operations and problems of DAREN.  Nothing has been set
up yet, but when it is, I'll get the word out.

There were only 66 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net, several
that didn't check in may have been in the area of the severe storms and
lighting.  There were no stations that checked in the 50th or 100th time, but
one station made his 49th check-in.
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                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   June 18, 1995            (.153)
        
      NOTE!!!     * * * Out of service NODE/PBBS': * * *     NOTE!!!
          CABEWV/HUNTWV LEWIWV/WESTWV MONOWV/MGTNWV TYLEWV/MIDBWV

I don't know if it's band conditions or not, but there seems to be a lot of
problems with stations getting connecting to other stations.  As an example,
it's almost impossible to connect to RALEWV/BECKWV from any where but GREEWV,
and I was unable to do that this week.  The path between PENDWV/FKLNWV and
POCAWV/MARLWV was so bad Thursday morning that the Central Message Central
"DAREN" was unable to post the Net Announcements on MARLWV, HILLWV, and
LSBGWV.

Last Sunday the DAREN News could not be posted on the Berkeley County and the
Monongalia County PBBSs.  I seems they were both off the air.  The Monongalia
County NODE/PBBS, MONOWV/MGTNWV is still down.  I think there's a "PRIVATE"
message on the PBBS "DAREN" that's going to Morgantown, but I'm unable to
tell who it's from, or going to.  Since the message was sent as a "PRIVATE"
message, the person that sent the message, the person it is intended for, and
the SYSOP of "DAREN" are the only ones who can see it, I just keep seeing
"DAREN" trying to connect to MGTNWV, which is off the air.  This is a good
example of why messages should be sent a "ST" (Send Traffic) as opposed to
"S" or "SP" (Send Personal).  It's been trying for about 3 days now.

I've gotten one telephone call, and a few messages about the DAREN funding
project.  I have a letter just about ready to go to each of County Emergency
Services Directors.  The letter is not a bill, nor is it asking for money.
The letter was written up as a feeler to see how the Emergency Services
Directors feel about paying an annual registration dues to help maintain the
NODE/PBBSs in their counties.  If the directors like the idea of the project,
he/she can register the stations in their county.  If there's enough station
registrations returned, a bill will be sent to those who have registered.

The Tyler County NODE/PBBS, TYLEWV/MIDBWV, took a lighting hit during a storm
that went though the area Wednesday.  The TNC seems to be ok, but the radio
had a blown fuse and had it brains scrambled.  Ray, KA8GOH is trying to get
the station back on the air.

If any one knows why any of the above stations are out of service, let me
know so we can pass the word.

There were 75 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net.  NQ8B has
checked into the net 50 times.  KB8DXI and N8ER have one more check-in to
make 100.  WD5GKE needs one more to make 50.  There was one first timer that
checked in, and that was KB8HPZ.  If there are any special event stations
coming up and you would like to be Net Control for the State Wide Net, at
that event, let me know.  Net Control can be anywhere the system is at.
=============================================================================
 
                     D.A.R.E.N. NEWS of WV.   June 25, 1995            (.154)
    
      NOTE!!!     * * * Out of service NODE/PBBS' * * *     NOTE!!!
                CABEWV/HUNTWV LEWIWV/WESTWV TYLEWV/MIDBWV

The severe storms going through the state in the past few weeks have in some
way or another disabled a few of the DAREN NODE/PBBS'.  This past week
WETZWV/NMARWV and, GILMWV/GLENWV were off the air for a day or so.  Also
users were unable to connect to the PBBS "DAREN" for a short period of time
after GILMWV/GLENWV came back up.

With the loss of some stations, the Auto-Forwarding method may not pass
traffic through the system.  As I stated last week, it is very important to
post your messages as "ST" so they have a better chance of getting delivered.

I notice that the Monongalia County NODE/PBBS, MONOWV/MGTNWV is back in
operation.  I don't know why it was off, but I'm glad to see it back.

Bob, KB8TBF, told me the radio for the Tyler County NODE/PBBS, TYLEWV/MIDBWV,
was beyond repair and a new one has been ordered.  The station should be back
in operation soon.

I received a real nice message from Roy, N8RH, about his certificate and the
additional material that was sent with it.  He says the "DAREN News Special"
that I enclose with every certificate is very helpful.  The "DAREN News
Special" is a combination of little tidbits that I've picked up over the
years.  I've sent the information out in four parts as a regular "DAREN News,
but I will post the "Special" on the PBBS "DAREN".  Since it is quite long, I
will post it in three parts.

I wasn't really going to operate Field Day this year since most of the RACES
group here was either working or out of town, but the ole bug bits.  I
started getting connected to by some of the regular DAREN users, so I started
operating from the mobile in front yard.  I hope everyone else had as much
fun as I did on Field Day.

There were 76 check-ins to this week's State Wide DAREN Net.  N8ER has
checked into the net 100 times, WD5GKE has checked in 50 times, and KJ4QQ
needs 1 more to make 100 check-ins.  There were 12 first timers to the net.
They were probably operating at a Field Day site, and got their first time
look at the DAREN system.  I want to welcome them back to check-in, and see
what the system is like.  Their calls are: AA8SO, AA8V, KB8WMP, KB8NMC,
KD4WOQ, KD4ZUA, KE4MFN, KE4MFM, KE4RYG, N8UJQ, N8WRH, and NT8X.
=============================================================================