ofcom-views wanted on internet linking ‘nov' procedure by july 2004
ofcom want your views on the proposed changes to the internet linking ‘nov' please submit your comments to ofcom amateurcb@ofcom.org.uk
ukirlp team have installed 66 echoirlp nodes
from november 2003 ukirlp have installed 66 echoirlp nodes around the world.
all are working fine. node owners have requested the install despite the unhelpful comments by dave cameron ve7ltd who said it had come to his attention unqualified people were installing echoirlp and if a node was broken the irlp team would offer no help to fix it. which says much about how irlp is run.
thankfully you don't need a degree in linux or computer science to install echoirlp as most of us are just hams and not computer system administrators.
unfortunately being too heavy handed has given irlp a bad name and i am glad to see that type of attitude is missing from echolink and eqso where fellow hams are always willing to help. ham radio is a hobby and not a business.
echolink is growing fast around the world with 150,000 downloads in 130 countries.
ve7ltd also stopped ukirlp from promoting echoirlp among the irlp node owners.
unfortunately the irlp heavy handed approach has killed the activity on the 9200 reflector with the reflector policemen laying down their rules with newcomers. being aggressive puts hams off.
thankfully the reflector policemen have now stopped using the reflector but the damage has been done.
it seems to me irlp's biggest challenge in the future is increasing activity. presently only around 6% of the 1354 nodes are in use at any one time. when hams have spent nearly $150,000 on irlp boards not too mention all their other costs - promoting activity is a must. it does make you wonder how much cash hams have invested in the whole irlp network.
irlp remove lockout list without any warning irlp recently removed the lockout list page. this means irlp users are no longer able to see who the irlp node owners are locking out
this secrecy is a bad move and I hope the lockout page is reinstated.
irlp nodes network summary
1354 - Total Nodes 68 - In Use 610 - Idle 37 - Offline 397 - Down
Antarctica 2
Antigua 1
Australia 66
Barbados 2
Belgium 1
Bermuda 1
Botswana 1
Canada 236
Cayman Islands 1
Chile 1
China 2
Denmark 1
Dominica 2
Ecuador 1
Eire 1
England 56
France 1
Germany 6
Grenada 1
India 1
Jamaica 1
Japan 11
Korea, Republic of 1
Mexico 7
Netherlands 4
Netherlands Antilles 2
New Zealand 11
Norway 3
Puerto Rico 1
Saint Kitts & Nevis 1
Scotland 5
South Africa 5
Spain 1
Sweden 15
Trinidad 1
Trinidad and Tobago 3
USA 890
top 5 countries with internet link nodes are
Irlp echolink
Usa 890 1048
Canada 236 154
australia 66 38
england 56 122
echolink has 522 nodes in europe and is used in more countries than irlp
new echoirlp install script
the new echoirlp script is very easy to use. try it yourself. you only have to answer a few simple questions.
ian g0hlj designed the ukirlp web site to automate the request procedure
rsgb news on internet gateways
in the uk due to our old fashioned radio regulations internet gateways are not allowed to carry the rsgb news. in other countries ham radio news is broadcast over the internet gateways.
vk amateur radio magazine
g3zhi has recently had an article published in the vk magazine amateur radio about internet linking.
w4mq kenwood 2000 remote base voip software
w4mq software allows you to remotely control a kenwood 2000 connected to the internet using voip.
guest users are only allowed to tune around on receive but if you have a licence and apply for a password you can use it on transmit. there are 6 kenwood 2000 transceivers connected so far. they are located in the usa canary island and australia.
we hope to have one in the uk soon. it will only be available on receive as we have yet to get permission from ofcom for transmitting which could take some time
you can download the w4mq program to your windows pc computer and then you just need a sound card and speakers and a microphone.
To listen live to the w4mq gateway on echolink call node number 19808
10m internet linking frequencies
after 2 years we are still no further forward on new frequencies for 10m for internet linking gateways.
g4ihz working in the usa and canada
malcom g4ihz came through the g4nji internet gateway while recently working in america and canada. he took his laptop with him and was able to work echolink from his hotel room while connected to the internet. he also used his handheld radio to make contacts back in uk via local gateways while out driving.
g8jjr in perth Australia for 2 months
kevin g8jjr was on holiday in perth australia for 8 weeks earlier in the year and came through the g4nji 2m link most days using a 2m radio a local ham in vk lent him. Kevin was able to keep in daily touch with his friends back home.
international space station iss g3zhi contributed to a paper on echolinking submitted to a seminar on the iss which was recently held in holland. hopefully they may put echolink access on the iss.
club talks using internet gateways
g3zhi has given a number of talks to radio clubs around the world using internet gateways
internet links could be used by any radio club for a club talk from any ham anywhere in the world that has a local internet voice gateway.
2 new 2m frequencies for internet gateways
no news on any new 2m channels.
presently no new nov's are being issued for the current two 2m channels 145.2875 and 145.3375.
a request for an extra two 2m channels was first made two years ago.
as usual nothing more has been heard from ofcom
ei ireland new internet gateways
ei now has both echolink and an irlp internet gateway
.
ireland air mobile operation
the authorities in ireland permit hams to operate air mobile from air balloons. In the uk our old fashioned caa will not allow this type of operation although many countries do.
rsgb rmc
g8gor looks after voip matters on the rsgb repeater management committee.
ofcom web site is very poor
the ofcom website is not a patch on the old radiocommunications agency web site. it is difficult to navigate and lacks up to date information. no ham radio news has been posted on it since ofcom started 6 months ago.
g3rkl walk in new zealand february 2004
tony has completed another one of his long strolls. he walked the length of the south island of new zealand starting at the bottom and walking to the top. 750 miles and it took him 40 days and 40 nights. tony used his radio every day and when he was in range of an internet link talked back to uk. zl has the only national repeater system in the world. these are 20 repeaters all linked together on uhf that cover the length of the country - both islands.
take your handheld with you on holiday overseas
internet gateways are a great way to keep in touch with ham friends back home
check the web sites for frequencies and list of node numbers to call..
gb3pz monthly breakfast meeting
the gb3pz group have been holding a monthly breakfast on the last saturday of the month and anyone is welcome to attend. the meeting starts at around 1030 details are on the gb3pz web site. this is a good idea that all radio clubs could adopt. breakfast meetings are very popular in usa canada and vk but so far not in the uk. http://www.gb3pz.org.uk
gb3rb bolsover 433.200 dennis skinner m.p.
after many months of waiting gb3rb finally got licensed. this was achieved with the help of the local mp dennis skinner who wrote to the minister of defence ivor caplin mp
the minister said the reason mod were not allowing any changes and new licensing on 70cm was the problem of interference to the raf base at fylingdales. dennis skinners intervention sorted the gb3rb problem with the repeater which has been licensed on 433.200. in the future it is hoped to have gb3rb linked to the internet.
If you have a ham radio problem contact your m.p they are always willing to help and can get things done when individuals cannot. m.p's know all the contacts and can write letters to ministers.
gb3jf lincs asgarby lincs
gb3jf on 145.6875 has now been licensed and the repeater should be on the air soon. it is planned to link it to the echolink network
gb3dx
echolink node number 7125 continues to be very busy. the gb3dx 145.7125 2m repeater is located in birmingham and permanently connected to the england. conference room. gb3dx is probably the busiest repeater in the uk.
echolink paper for iaru r1 meeting davos Switzerland 2005
at the iaru r1 vhf managers conference held in Austria in February 2004
ref the french national society called for papers to be submitted on echolink and Internet gateways to the iaru r1 meeting in davos switzerland in 2005. It is for each individual iaru society to submit a paper on the subject. for us that would be the rsgb vhf manager g4asr if you have any comments please send them to him. g4asr@btinternet.com
echolink node baghdad
no news at the moment but laith yi3sra was hoping to put an echolink node on the air soon. so far isp problems have prevented this from happening.
dave g4ebt closedown
after a complaint made by an australian ham dave g4ebt was closed down last year for a month by the ra regarding a packet bulletin he had sent out. the ra action way over the top and he appealed against it. the upshot being ra lawyers ruled that hams are allowed to talk about any thing under european court of human rights freedom of expression laws.
CWCom is a morse code chat progam for Windows and NT operating systems. You can use CWCom to transmit and receive morse code and text messages over a LAN or across the internet! CWCom can translate morse code to text and text to morse code or flashing light, so you don't have to know morse code to use it. The program has a configurable morse libarary - you can define your own morse characters and the text associated with it. Up to 128 characters can be displayed for a single morse code symbol! CWCom can be configured to receive input from a morse key, using the joystick port, serial port or keyboard.
I am very disturbed at your narrow-minded views of my feelings on
Echolink and EchoIRLP, and your lack of proper knowledge of the IRLP
system. You are misinformed, and obviously think that you have to
flaunt that to everyone in the Ham VoIP world. Just so that everyone
understands both sides of all your slander of the IRLP network and
the EchoIRLP project, here are a few "re-clarifications" of the
points you covered:
First, I do not hate EchoIRLP. I run it on my node in Vancouver.
Several other IRLP installers and support crew, including Paul VE3SY
and Dave K9DC (both reflector cops, or head-bashers whichever you
refer to them as). I am putting into motions the steps required to
make it EASIER for node owners to install and operate EchoIRLP, by
doing all the tricky compiling work for them. I am also modifying
core IRLP scripts to make the transition to EchoIRLP easier. I will
also be distributing EchoIRLP from the IRLP servers, and helping
people install it on their nodes. This will open a large percentage
of the 1400 IRLP nodes as Echolink RF nodes.
Second, I don't think you have a clue of why people are locked out of
reflectors. IRLP does not believe that putting a 2 second "mute
period" for all link and repeater stations is a solution to a problem
like nodes with tails and courtesy tones. That is how Echolink
conference servers often deal with that issue. It is like masking
intermod on the input of a repeater with a CTCSS tone squelch: Any
good repeater owner would not do that, they would take the machine
off the air, and fix the technical problem before bringing it back
online. IRLP nodes are not locked out of reflectors for non-technical
reasons, except for when they are carrying on local QSOs with no
consideration for others on the reflector, often not knowing they are
even connected. The time from keyup to retransmit on IRLP is in the
order of about 150 milliseconds, not the 1.2 seconds that is average
on Echolink. The problem is much more pronounced. The standards of
having no courtesy tone and pulses (or thumping, or pinging) just
makes the IRLP network into a seamless linking system for radios,
which was what is was designed to be from the beginning.
Third, many other programmers and I just spent close to three weeks
modifying and testing new IRLP binaries to make the GSM audio sound
better. The usage of GSM on IRLP is about 1%. This was strictly to
improve the audio for EchoIRLP, as EchoIRLP is 100% GSM. As a side
note, this improved the audio on the ADPCM mode of IRLP as well.
Fourth, the reason why you were asked not to promote EchoIRLP on the
IRLP lists is the following:
- You flooded a perfectly valid tool we set up to allow people to
send email to node owners, without posting the email addresses on the
web. You used that system to send EchoIRLP propaganda to hundreds of
node owners who didn't want it, and flooded the server off the web.
Now we have had to put restrictions on the service, lessening its
usability for everyone.
- You posted to the IRLP general yahoo groups and IRLP general
(hosted on IRLP.net) lists EVERY day for a week or so, even after
being asked to stop by many people on the list. The message was the
same every time. Try doing that on the Echolink list and see what
happens. Notice that I did not lock you out of the IRLP list, just
asked you not to continue promoting EchoIRLP so aggressively on a
list that you had already saturated.
- You don't seem to understand that people don't seem to complain to
you when the IRLP list goes off topic. They complain to me. At the
time, I was not even a moderator of the IRLP Yahoo Groups list, and
received over 50 messages asking why you were so persistent in your
posting.
Fifth, the reason why I said I would not support EchoIRLP, especially
at that time, is that nobody who supported IRLP was in the production
loop. I had too many things to worry about to start looking at
compatibility issues. The initial alpha stage that the code was at
when you started promoting EchoIRLP was buggy, and breaking several
nodes, and we were left to spend our time cleaning up the mess. It is
not unfair that I warned node owners who had EchoIRLP installed that
we would not be able to help them with their EchoIRLP installations,
as even to this date, most of us don't have a clue how to support
problems with it. I never said you guys were unqualified, I just said
if it broke we could not fix it, and that you guys were not the IRLP
installs and support team, so there was no confusion.
Sixth, the comment on activity has nothing to do with the stability
or the future of the network. The beauty of IRLP is that it is there
when you need it. The Linux computers just sit and run reliably,
without the need for rebooting. People just now consider it a part of
their repeater all the time, and no longer just a novelty to play
with. I still have over 50 connections a day, and that does not
include the 150 Echolink connections that come up and down without
anyone saying anything.
Seven, the "lockout page" you refer to was set up as a beta test
because people wanted to know what reflectors they had been locked
out of after they had fixed their technical problems, so they would
know where they would have to be re-instated. Some people sent us
wrong email information, and never received the lockout notices. For
your information, the "lockout" page was built once, and was not an
active page. So anyone who used it for whatever purposes would have
seen static information on it. Before it was removed, it had not been
updated for over 6 months. It was not an "obscurity" in any way.
Nodes that try to connect to a reflector they are locked out from are
told that when they try to connect. We also reply to all requests to
re-instate a node.
So Ian, I am not sure where you get your information, or why you feel
that everyone has to listen to your opinion. Sorry, but if you are
going to do that, I am always going to be here to put things in a
clear and concise form, so there is no confusion.
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