Snip... Can you please tell me which HF frequencies and modes in europe you use to ring up your friend with echolink?
Snip...... Vhf and uhf . in germany there are so many nodes that even with a rubberduck and a ht you can access the system most of the time .. Snip...... I ran an HF-SSB voice echolink node for over a year, on 5371.5kHz and 18157.5kHz. It was fun and useful. Over 1000 hams used it during that year. Some of the more interesting QSOs on it were the ones with the most distant and unusual situations... such as: A european ham on holiday, walking along a beach in Canary Islands on a 2m FM HT, talking with an american ham hiking with a PRC-1099 manpack on 20W SSB 18MHz in Colorado USA. snip....... Surely a lot of fun .. I sometimes did this on 80 and on topband for fun and replaying audio to others ..... Snip........... The use of DTMF tones for signaling from end-to-end is not available in most systems due to many repeaters auto-muting DTMF. This makes it difficult to add any type of universal on-channel audio signalling. snip.......... I do not wanna use dtmf for on channel signalling ... Just e number code that the echolink node knows YOUR nodenumber .. The number is normaly in the system when you connect via your home pc ... Now if you move trough the country your node pc is off or switched to -r or -l mode . (maybe for bringing another node on the air for other hams) so your normal number is not in the system.. With a special number (say your own number is 22334) for instance **99*22334 you tell the system that your number is 22334 and you are now in the area of the node where you played your number in and if any calls you the call should be forwarded (or a stored message of maybe 30sec. is store and forward to the node where you are and played to you) Everything is possible with only the dtmf tones on the rf side (not via internet audio) The other way is right . the dtmf tones MUST be muted via internet audio . or the system will not know if the tone is for the node where you connected or for the node that you are connected with... I am sure that this function is possible ... maybe with another number behind it for giving your MYNODEnumber a lifetime .. (**99*22334*(1-24)* for lifetime of 1 hour to one day max... So if you are on holiday somewhere ore are working somewhere in the country you have to tell the next available node your number and you are available with your homenodenumber ... So you do not have to connect your friends manually and tell them where you are now and what nodenumber you are connected with... that function would make echolink work as a cellphone (almost) No automatic roaming .. But a manual roaming .. If this would be implemented in the soft it would be only a small step to mute your receiver and have a dtmf receiver built in that rings when your number is transmitted from the node Next connect your car alarm horn to a relais .. just kidding ... But the other things I wrote are an idea how the system could be upgraded .. Just my 2 cents Dg9bfc Sigi Ps we should not make another and another and another system like echolink, wires, amfones, and the new d-star etc We should try to bring up a system on the air that is cheap, easy to work with, and can be used with a simple dtmf mic as the minimum requirement ... and upgrading echolink would be such a system .
