I recall that this is how storm spotters in the US routinely communicate with the National Weather Center offices.Īt a recent public demonstration of emergency response organizations here in the area, to which our group of amateur radio emergency operators was also invited, I decided to put this concept to the test. What is more, connections could be made into emergency operations centers without amateur radio capability, using Internet connections only (even though that would require either access to the firewall, or use of an Echolink proxy server). Accessing an Echolink node there would provide highly reliable connections to the outside world, with 24h availability. So it may very well be that, say, 30km away the infrastructure is in perfect working order. After all, doesn’t the attraction of amateur radio in emergency situation lie in its ability to communicate without infrastructure? So how much sense is there in using an Internet-based technology like VoIP, which forms the foundation of Echolink?īut then, all disasters are regionally limited in scope. That will open Ann Arbor up to the world and vice versa.Echolink as a communication link for emergencies sounds like a stupid idea, at first. The next step is to buy one of the audio card interface boards–the WB2REM board is inexpensive, as is the VA3TO board–and connect it up to my Icom IC-22U. Both times, the audio was nice and clean, and we had nice chats. Just this afternoon, I worked my first DX when Wayne, an English ham called me. My first “QSO” was with Phil, a retired plumber in Connecticut. I’d never used a mike on this computer until now, so it was set way too high. The second was getting the microphone volume set properly. Programming it to accept accesses on the ports that EchoLink uses cured that. It has a built-in firewall that rejects accesses on all ports, except those I allow. Once you’ve installed the software, all you have to do is point and click and you’re connected to the ham at the other end (once you have registered your callisgn with the server). On my ADSL line, it took less than a minute. The downloadable file is only about 1.5 Mbytes, which should be doable even on a dialup line. The software is very easy to download, install, and use. Via EchoLink, for example, I can make contacts through repeaters all over the world. What makes EchoLink so cool is that amateur radio operators are using the technology to connect their VHF and UHF radios and repeaters to the Net. Now VOIP is nothing new, and many chat programs use this technology. What EchoLink is is a way to connect to other amateurs over the Internet using VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). I just happened to be in my office, so I pulled up the website. A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting with a guy on our local repeater, and he happened to mention that a friend of his had started using something called EchoLink.
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December 2022
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