Re: Internet linking, radio or no?
On Wed, May 14, 2003 at 08:11:21PM -0500, Tim Neu wrote:
> On Thu, May 15, 2003 at 09:16:59AM +1000, Hamish Moffatt wrote:
> > > Definately. Take out the radio and what do you have. Yahoo chat. Would
> > > anybody use Echolink if it were just like Yahoo Chat? Not likely.
> >
> > Really? That's all I've heard it used for.
>
> You don't have Echolink on any of your REPEATERS? That's hard to believe! Repeater
> linking is the entire point. That's rather like buying a car just to listen to the
> radio.
I haven't heard of it used on any repeaters in the city where I live;
IRLP is king in Australia from what I've observed. I have heard of local
amateurs using Echolink for PC-PC QSOs though.
I have read criticism of Echolink in it allows PC-RF QSOs and doesn't do
enough to authenticate PC users. License regulations are usually quite
strict about non-amateur transmissions, although I think the regulations
in the US differ from Australia.
> If this is truly the case, you should let people know they're missing out on the most
> useful component of echolink.
Is there a repeater-repeater mode, with DTMF control?
> I think a lot of people don't like internet linking just because it's easy. You
Perhaps. I don't see any great achievement in getting on 2m, commanding
the local IRLP node to connect me to somewhere across the world and
talking to another 2m FM operator there. It's not DX. The achievement in
that case is in the development of the IRLP software and hardware, not
the actual operating.
> should ask yourself - if a new form of RF communication (some sort of switched ham
> radio network perhaps?) made it just as easy to connect audio world-wide as internet
> linking, would you be saying it was not "amateur radio"?
If it was all RF it'd certainly be amateur radio. Perhaps one day we
could have a network of geostationary satellites which would provide the
network you suggest.
Hamish
--
Hamish Moffatt VK3SB <hamish@debian.org> <hamish@cloud.net.au>
Reply to: