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Author Topic: Dilemma on adding EchoLink or similar  (Read 1417 times)

KD2E

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Dilemma on adding EchoLink or similar
« on: October 03, 2018, 12:26:45 PM »

Any thoughts here??  The company I work for has a 440 repeater that the club put together.
Sadly, I can't use it.....'cuz I'm in another state!
I suggested tie it in to EchoLink. But the problem with that is the company's security about tapping in to
our network. Bring in an external, unrelated network??  Too costly.

Any suggestions on what else could be done?  Echolink, or even one of the digital-type connections. But I'm thinking any will
require an internet connection.
What about a remote, reverse repeater at someone's house...connected to their internet??   Too complicated?
Just wondering what ideas anyone may be able to provide.
Thanks, and 73!
....Dave
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K5LXP

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RE: Dilemma on adding EchoLink or similar
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2018, 03:41:55 PM »

Long before the internet I used to call into my repeater through the autopatch.  It would answer, you put in a PIN and you were on the air.  The downside is it would key up the repeater as long as you were connected, so you couldn't just sit and monitor.  But it was cool to be on a trip or at work, dial up the repeater and work the locals.  Point being, you may not be able to get an internet connection but they might give you a POTS line for an autopatch.

One of the repeaters here in town does have an echolink "remote" at someone's house.  You would have to find someone that would host it and maybe poke it in the eye once in a while.

Mark K5LXP
Albuquerque, NM
 
« Last Edit: October 03, 2018, 03:43:56 PM by K5LXP »
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K4JJL

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RE: Dilemma on adding EchoLink or similar
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2018, 09:54:14 AM »

Long before the internet I used to call into my repeater through the autopatch.  It would answer, you put in a PIN and you were on the air.

DRC-186?  My old club had one.  What a wonderful controller!  Each user had their own unique PIN, and you could leave recorded messages in mailboxes.  The PLAs finally died in it after 25 years.  We tried to get it back on the air but no luck.
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N6DSP

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RE: Dilemma on adding EchoLink or similar
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2018, 02:06:02 PM »

Any thoughts here??  The company I work for has a 440 repeater that the club put together.
Sadly, I can't use it.....'cuz I'm in another state!
I suggested tie it in to EchoLink. But the problem with that is the company's security about tapping in to
our network. Bring in an external, unrelated network??  Too costly.

Any suggestions on what else could be done?  Echolink, or even one of the digital-type connections. But I'm thinking any will
require an internet connection.
What about a remote, reverse repeater at someone's house...connected to their internet??   Too complicated?
Just wondering what ideas anyone may be able to provide.
Thanks, and 73!
....Dave

For our club, we use a 2.4 ghz point to point connection to get internet between locations. Obviously line of sight, with only ~ 2-4 milliseconds of delay determined by pinging between both locations. Works great for our EchoIRLP node. If you can find someone to host, you can purchase a kit that comes with both data radios/bullets, etc. and antennas to get internet at your location. You will need either a dedicated node of some sort to interface to your repeater.
73, Duane N6DSP
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N8GD

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RE: Dilemma on adding EchoLink or similar
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2018, 11:06:51 AM »

Your last idea is what would work easiest and cheapest.

Our local repeater is sited at the local TV station - nice antenna height.  However, we did not want to approach them about tying into their local network for Internet, since we are sure they would have security issues (as you do).  I wanted EchoLink connectivity through the repeater, so I set it up at my home QTH, about 7 air miles from the TV station.  All I use is a dedicated Windows PC (nothing fancy) to run EchoLink, an FM transceiver on the same frequency as the repeater (normal offset and not reverse, with appropriate PL tone), and an interface box between the PC and radio (for audio and keying).  Setup an EchoLink account and use the -R (repeater) designation.  I have the radio running at low power (5 watts) fed into a 5 element beam pointing directly at the repeater.  The Internet connectivity at my home QTH provides the EchoLink access to the repeater remotely.  It all works great!
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