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Taking VHF Ham Radio From Local To Global
yipper writes: "For a couple of years now a small group of amateur radio enthusiasts have been putting together a system of linking local VHF repeaters using the internet. VHF communications are usually used for local ( 0 - 50 mile ) operations. This system described at www.irlp.net allows linking of one or more local systems together using linux, streaming voice software, fast internet connections, and a few custom parts." Ah, integration!
Too tired to get into specifics so here's some quick links.
Is VoIP secure?
Measuring VoIP for Jitter and Loss
VoIP Invasion Are You Ready For It? (long!!!)
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As for thinking your gonna reach around the globe, sure you can in theory, provided all PBX's and routers are configured properly, there aren't any bottlenecks along the route, etc. Pretty hard thing to do for under 175 US dollars when Fortune 500's spend tens of thousands on PBX equipment and can't get it right
hellraiser¡
Well personally I don't like it. I'm a ham, not that i use it much any more. This in my mind is pointless experimentation. They could be linked by HF or sat links, that would be more in the mindset of a real radio ham. The same happens with packet radio, it's linked via the internet now and what's the point of that? You're just using phone lines and not using radio. The point of ham radio is to try and do new and interesting things on that medium, not make cell phones.
So a ham in Europe can use his/her handy talkie to talk to another ham in SanDiego CA - something tells me the Cellular/FCC isn't going to like this.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Over the last few weeks I've been assembling a page of links converning working with amateur radio using Linux . I've managed to assemble a collection of links covering things such as:
This started after I read about how it is now possible to exchange data through and talk with astronauts on the International Space Station. I've started working on my own license which is really quite easy to attain. It's just one 35 question test which most people should be able to prepare for in under a month with just one or two books.
With luck, in a few months, I'll be ready to flood the airwaves with my own useless drivel. With a little more luck, I'll manage to get a postcard from space.
This project follows in the footsteps on a previous effort I took to compile a comprehensive list of links regarding Bluetooth on Linux Thanks to SlashDot, this page managed to stay in the top ten list of the Bluetooth Top Sites list for all of April.
World Beach List, my latest project.
This is similar to Superlink, but this relies on wired technology. It's cool for the coolness factor, but things like Superlink could become critical forms of semi-long-range communication when internet and telephone lines get destroyed in a major disaster, for example. Yes, there is HF as well, but these days VHF is probably a lot more common, and so quite important for emergency communications.
I fondly recall [CAUTION: FLASHBACK. CAMERA FOCUS MAY BECOME WAVY IN TRANSITION.] back in my days as WV2LCM, the illicit joy we found at patching calls that otherwise would have cost an insane amount of money or were simply impossible (for those of you not old enough to understand this reference, this was before the breakup of AT&T, when long-distance was a monopoly, and before the breakup of the Soviet Union, when direct-dial was not available). Reuniting George in Ireland with his daughter in New Haven, causing Dmitry in Kiev to be able to speak with his brother in New York for the first time in a decade, those were the joys of communication (as well as a well-deserved poke at Ma Bell, especially after she figured out that we were calling collect to payphones to flout her insane rates, but that's a different story). Rarely did anyone get caught or punished, because (this is one of those little-known facts) the guardians of ham radio communication, the FCC, are (or perhaps were) nearly all ham radio operators themselves.
It's no coincidence that ham radio operators are usually the first on-scene at the Emergency Services Centre during a disaster, and so I'm glad to see this frontier-pushing group (which, sadly, I have not been part of since my equipment was stolen) using the ultimate in global communications to further its cause :)
Zaphod B (CQ, CQ)
One-time WV2LCM on 2m
Zaphod B
Zaphod B
When duplication is outlawed, only outlaws will have
I know it's a good idea to integrate all these technologies, but sometimes it seems like people are connecting these things just for the sake of connecting them, not for any real greater purpose..
.. they'll be sending TCP via carrier pigeons next..
oh
Integration is a very scary thing to those of us approaching finals this week, such as in calculus. AHHH!
Although it seems choppy on many people's computers, our local 440 repeater has been connected to the Colorado reflector for almost a week now and I've never experienced choppiness of any kind. Maybe that's just luck, but the conversations are as clear locally as they are from remote.
icqqm [ICQ:11952102]
if those aliens from Independence Day attack, we won't have to rely on old morse code!
The Blaster Master Fighting for Truth, Justice, and Evil Pie since 1979
The way to drive away new people is to sit around and say "Yeah, I heard the guys up the street are hacking on this 'new' thing, but it's not very novel or clever or useful to me and it's also not what we're Really About" in such a way as to imply "By the way, feel free to express any blue-sky ideas that you have, so that we can... help you, yes, that's it, for your own good." If this sort of thing went on regularly in open source project groups ... well, actually, my planet-sized ego could withstand it trivially, but the point is that not everyone has "What do you care what other people think" tattooed on their eyelids, and we would have this whole uncool DDT eggshells, squashed little downy fledgling geeks, thing going, and eventually a bunch of projects would dry up and blow away, resulting in poisoned streams downwind and the eventual demise of the ecosphere. Oh, the embarrassment!
"The Crystal Wind is the Storm, and the Storm is Data, and the Data is Life"
Amateur Radio used to have something else out there before the 'Net came out: Packet Radio.
Hams with 2 meter VHF gear and PCs, using AMTOR, RTTY, and pacTOR to communicate thru Packetpeaters and did this quite well. It almost became national but save for the introduction of the 'net. Nowadays its for hobbyists that want to play with receiving satellite imagery, listening to the ISS, and communicating with other amateurs via OSCAR (Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio). You have to remember that Hams preceded the 'net and all these prefab gadgets that we got today, most of them had to build the majority of their gear from scratch, or modify what they could get ahold of.
These are the TRUE pioneers of where we are at today with our phones and wireless commo.
Go read up on amateur radio at www.arrl.org and god willing, help you understand what these ppl went thru to make it all happen.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
I can use my computer to talk to people all over the world (sometimes to their dismay) without a ham radio so it's not like this technology is giving me some tremendous ability that I now lack.
Yes, the IRLP has been a great project to watch grow over the years. I'm a member (and currently the outgoing president) of the amateur club which is the home of the IRLP and have had the privilage to watch Dave work long and hard over the past few years to grow the IRLP from a system of about 3 nodes to what it is today.
Any hams out there with a repeater and a high speed connection I suggest you investigate joining up. It's brought all kinds of life to our repeater.
antarctican at antarcti dot ca