First responders, such as police, fire, etc.
CW INTERNET ECHOLINK HAM RADIO SOFTWARE
Hytera and others make compatible radios, and there is a ton of surplus Motorola and other commercial gear on the surplus market (beware of programming issues, though, as the Motorola software requires a $350 3-year license - find a ‘ham friendly dealer to program your radio for you).ĭMR is used by a ton of commercial entities, such as company facilities and security, churches, etc., etc. Programming cable is $5, and the programming software is free. I got a nice $180 UHF DMR handheld, the CS700, from CSI, here: There are many manufacturers of DMR-compatible equipment, as opposed to the Icom (or Yaesu, if you want to talk about CF4M “Fusion” technology) monopoly, which applies downward price pressure in a competitive market. For a nice Google Maps mashup of DMR repeaters, see and click on the Networked Repeaters link at the top of the page. If it was analog (FM) at the same signal strength, I would have trouble pulling out the QSO.ĭMR (aka MotoTRBO) takes the crown IMO, for any number of reasons. I’ve had QSOs where the S-meter didn’t even register, and it sounded fine. However, one aspect of Ham radio is technical advancement, and clearly D-Star is technically advanced over EchoLink.īy the way, I don’t know what people are talking about when they say D-Star sound quality is bad. If ham radio is just means to an end, EchoLink is the winner, but cell phone has both beat by a mile (better practical coverage, higher data rate, much higher population coverage, etc). Current D-Star radios can access Echolink systems, but not vice versa.įrom system builder standpoint, EchoLink has better coverage, but D-Star clearly has more potential (voice+data, end-to-end digital connection, ability to selectively call up another ham with just call sign, etc). D-STAR and AllStar Link seem to have a devoted following, and that’s good, but access is either limited or expensive or both.Ĭomparing EchoLink and D-Star is apples and oranges comparison, but…įor the end user, I think the winner is very clear: D-Star. It seems to me that at this point, EchoLink is clearly the winner, with perhaps IRLP second. So, I’m not really sure what to make of all this–I told you that this was only a partly-baked post.
![cw internet echolink ham radio cw internet echolink ham radio](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71ZeFUx7bXL.jpg)
D-STAR was also dinged for poor audio quality. This is ham radio, not high-definition stereo, after all. I’ve always been amused with some hams’ obsession with audio quality.There are no statistics on the AllStar Link website as to how many users there actually are. I wonder how many people he actually talks with via those nodes. One ham looked down his nose at EchoLink, commenting, “Echolink has horrible audio and too many lids, kids and space kadettes.” He noted that he runs several AllStar Link nodes.Someone in the discussion on LinkedIn noted, “As of today there are 511 repeaters that are on line, and 264 that exist but are not on the network for some reason.” He called that a “large user base.” That doesn’t sound like a large user base to me.Does that make EchoLink more successful than IRLP? When he got home, he did some legwork and discovered that there were more than 5,500 users and repeaters linked to EchoLink and not quite 1,800 repeaters linked to IRLP.
![cw internet echolink ham radio cw internet echolink ham radio](https://nfarl.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/Battery_Presentation_Nov_18-2-720x380.png)
Just as I was collecting my thoughts, I had a chat with Ralph, AA8RK, on a local repeater (W8UM-R on EchoLink, btw).
![cw internet echolink ham radio cw internet echolink ham radio](http://campus.murraystate.edu/org/msuarc/images/echolink.gif)
U.S.WARNING!! This is a partly-baked post. Origin of Ham Stuff-Fact, Legends & Myths The Considerate Operator's Frequency Guide My First Public Service Award (The Johnstown Flood) Why an Amateur Radio Operator is called a HAM THE W5WWW HAM RADIO PAGE In the days of old, when ops were bold, And sidebands not invented, The word would pass by pounding brass, And all were well contented.