Re: Announce: EchoLink Howto
> I'm not much of a fan of IRLP either. At least the end users are using
> radio though, always. That's not true of EchoLink. I can understand that
> people want to keep in touch with friends while the HF bands are closed
> but don't call it amateur radio please.
At least in the case of IRLP, this is 100% why we've always avoided the
PC-to-PC stuff... there's a place and time for it, but we'd all rather use
our radios. As Hamish says, if I want PC-to-PC I can just download and use
SpeakFreely as-is.
Anything that gets more people on their radios and off their back-sides, I
figure... is good. I don't much care anymore who "likes it" or who doesn't.
:-)
But agreed... more RF is goooood. ;-)
Hams are falling off the cutting edge, for certain. I would love to play
with software-defined-radio and DSP-based hardware, but the test gear and
hardware required are well beyond my financial grasp at the moment. The
knowledge could be gained, but the equipment required to innovate is getting
exponentially more expensive for a hobbyist as the commercial market starts
throwing R&D dollars at RF products.
(I have found some neat sites about building SMD ovens out of toaster ovens,
though... yet another sign of the times... try finding certain chips in
through-hole varieties now... especially in small quantity.)
Sorry this is wandering away from being Debian-related. A huge THANK YOU to
all the folks maintaining Debian-Ham packages is definitely in order!
Nate Duehr, nate@natetech.com - WY0X
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