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Taking VHF Ham Radio From Local To Global

Posted by timothy on from the ten-four-global-buddy dept.

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!

11 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Not more of this stuff please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4

    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.

  2. Cell phone Industry by ch-chuck · · Score: 4

    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); }
    1. Re:Cell phone Industry by scoove · · Score: 5

      Sure... and with prohibitions on any commercial use, licensing requirements, equipment costs several to a dozen times more expensive than cellular phones, no encrypted privacy permitted by FCC regulation (meaning everyone can hear your "call"), and no logical "call routing" architecture to locate a specific party (other than saying their callsign), you think the cellular industry will waste two seconds worrying about this?

      Per the FCC, they've been strong supporters of the amateur service.

      Actually, the only concern I'd have about this is that places amateur radio interdependencies on the public telecom network - something we're supposed to not depend upon as part of our public service mission.

      *scoove*

  3. Superlink by dosowski · · Score: 5

    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.

  4. A Long History... by Zaphod+B · · Score: 5
    Ham radio has a history of breaking down the traditional barriers to communication, so it does not surprise me that this is in development.

    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 /bin/cp
  5. Yeah yeah... by popeydotcom · · Score: 5

    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

  6. Ah, integration! by crashnbur · · Score: 4

    Integration is a very scary thing to those of us approaching finals this week, such as in calculus. AHHH!

  7. So with this... by Tebriel · · Score: 4

    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
  8. Demise of hobby predicted; GIF at 11 by i0lanthe · · Score: 4
    It seems to me that the way to keep attracting new people to clubs, hobbies, amateur radio, open source development, or whatever, is for the existing groups of people to be Doing Stuff Enthusiastically. Even if the stuff a club is working on has been done before, done better, done with fewer wires, or could be done by your dog with one paw tied behind its back, it is doing something that the members are interested in. Sure, to be doing something beneficial or novel is worth something too [and is what I would expect to see in /. articles if I were less cynical], but not as much as attitude.

    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"
  9. And the point is? by fmaxwell · · Score: 4
    I just don't get the appeal of this. Where is the thrill in talking to someone in a different country via ham radio when the radio portion of the journey is 6 miles? The conversation is not being enabled by skilled use of atmospherics, high-gain antennas, or sophisticated RF electronics. How is it any more impressive than any other voice-over-IP telephone application?

    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.

  10. It's been a great project! by antarctican · · Score: 5

    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