Fwd: Internet/amateur radio interface: a first squawk

Jack K. Horner [hidden email] · Sat, 11 Oct 2014 17:57:11 -0600

Some of this thread may be of interest to you.

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Today I played with EchoLink (http://www.echolink.org/), an 
Internet/amateur-radio interface I recently installed on my computer and 
amateur radio station.  The default high-level communication structure of 
that system is (RF = radio-frequency)

   amateur-station(s)  <--> RF-link(s) <-->
                    Internet  <--> RF-link(s)  <-->  amateur-station(s)

The intermediate RF-links are typically (sometimes chains of) RF repeaters 
that operate at 140+ MHz, so are good only for a few km at either end.  In 
this scheme, the Internet does the long-distance lifting,  carrying voice 
over IP (VoIP).

EchoLink makes a credible effort to validate the amateur-radio credentials 
of the participants, and in any case, the regime is not attractive to 
poseurs.

My first EchoLink contact was with a ham in New Jersey through a repeater in 
Tel Aviv, which I'm fairly sure is not in New Jersey.  Within a few minutes, 
we were joined by a ham in Tel Aviv, one from from Moscow, and one from 
Brazil.

As expected, the chat reflected the colorations of the various cultures, but 
steered clear of politics, which is largely prohibited turf in the 
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) conventions for amateurs.

If one took the claims of the players at face, we were all, at least at one 
time, technical professionals.

Two of the four participants, they claimed,  were practicing electrical 
engineers.

I've spent an unreasonable fraction of my life trying to spell "Maxwell's 
equations" the same way two times out of three.

The comm quality was  about as good as the RF-links, not surprisingly.  But 
it was sufficient.

It was my good luck that all the participants spoke English, or at least 
Hamglish.  In a few spots, I'm fairly sure we flirted with Esperanto.

Some might argue that Internet/amateur-radio hybrid schemes violate the 
purity of the doctrine of the RF faith.

They can believe whatever they want, as long as they don't inflict their 
confusions on me (with apologies to Jefferson).

Jack K. Horner, KF5ZUV
P.O. Box 266
Los Alamos, NM  87544
Voice: 505-455-0381
Fax: 505-455-0382
email: [hidden email] 