EchoLink

EchoLink

EchoLink is an improvement to the I-Link? program, it is based on the same principle, a combination of internet and RF.

The figure on the right show how the system is put together. In order to be able to work with this your computer must have a connection to internet preferably by cable modem or DSL, a 16 bit sound card and a microphone, the operating system should be at least Window 98 and the processor should at least be a 500 MHz.

The software can be downloaded at: http://www.synergenics.com/. When you are on their sites there are 2 different software EchoStation? which is an announcement maker and EchoLink this is the one you want. You will also find interface suggestion to put a transceiver on line. If you are the proud owner of a Rigblaster, you are in business.

When you install the software it will connect to one of the 4 servers that exist now, a list of station will appear, it will list first the repeaters xxxxx-R the linking station xxxxx-L then the individual stations and finally the conference group. You can connect to any of them the -R station are local repeaters just as our 442.525 which call is N2QGV-R. You can sort the list alphabetically either by station or by location, which give you access to many part of the country.

The company that produce EchoLink also produces EchoStation? which is a program that allows to build timed announcements on a repeater; this software is used to make the announcements on the 146.730 repeater.

When Echolink came on the air a few months back there were about 2 to 300 stations on the air, now at the end of December, 2002 there are close to 1,000 stations world wide.

---