Echolink is now installed on the 146.76 repeater. It is available to all users of the repeater, and is available for any echolink user on the internet. At the moment there are a few restrictions placed on the node, and as I get those restrictions well documented, I'll post updates here and elsewhere. Feel free to post questions and I'll do my best to answer for you.
First of all a couple of questions that I'm sure will crop up.
Q: "Do I need a computer to use the echolink connection on the repeater?"
A: "This depends upon how you intend to work with the repeater. The simple answer is that you do not need a computer to establish a connection through the repeater. However if you do not have access to a repeater that can communicate with the 146.76 repeater, and you are not able to reach the repeater with your radio, you may use a computer that has echolink installed on it to connect to the repeater and communicate with users of the repeater. There are ways to set up an echolink node of your own that interfaces with a radio of yours that you can operate over locally. You may find a simplex frequency in the 220 or uhf bands useful for setting up this link, or work with repeater output frequencies that don't interfere with repeaters. However be aware of ducting as a possible problem for this, and as a non-coordinated frequency user, you will be responsible for resolving any interference issues. (I.e. Simplex is your friend if you can possibly use it.)
Q: "Where do I go for information on how to contact repeaters or other users or EchoLink?"
A: The ARRL Repeater Directory for the past couple of years has included a list of repeaters that have EchoLink on them listed in the back of the directory. Expect over time that that information will be listed closer to the repeater listing associated with the repeater that the link is supporting. For a current list, you can go to the echolink website and they have a list of nodes that are already connected. This is a dynamic listing, and you can use it to determine if there are any issues with connectivity for the W0EF-R node. That may be handy if you already have a browser available, and want to know if it's worthwhile to launch EchoLink to connect.
Q: "How do I connect to the W0EF-R repeater if I am out of town?"
A: I'm assuming you are trying to connect through a repeater in the area that you are visiting. I think it's obvious that you should check with any repeater owners in the area if it is OK for you to access the repeater's Echolink node to connect. If you don't get explicit approval, I would recommend thinking twice about using it. You can always work with local operators to talk with people in the area that you haven't met. Obviously if you are asked not to use the local repeater for any reason, please respect that request. Depending upon what is happening in the area, there may be an active net that is using the repeater for operations specific to the area or region.
Given that you have approval, implicit or tacit, use any code that advises the echolink node or repeater that you want to establish an echolink connection, (This may be C, or E in some cases, in other cases there may be no specific codes.) and send '77598' and release the transmit button.
If you have an Internet conneciton at your hotel, you may run into issues if the IP address for your computer is not what you see when you go to a "What's my IP" type site, such as http://www.findmyip.com/. In that case you should look into setting up a connection to an open EchoLinkProxy. You will not see the best response rate in that case, but you will usually be able to establish a connection.
Presuming that there are no technical issues at this end of the connection, you should see W0EF-R listed somewhere in the list of repeaters. Double click on the repeater, and you should shortly be connected. There are several other methods of establishing a connection, but that's the easiest, and it gives you the chance to see what other repeaters and systems are out there. (I think that's always good.)
Q: "Can I connect from overseas?"
A: The short answer is Yes. The addressing scheme for repeaters connected to echolink, is a 4 to 6 digit number. Usually no more than 7 or 8 characters if there is a prefix for that repeater. It doesn't matter what repeater, link or location you connect from, so long as you can get onto the Internet.
Q: "What's with the long transmit pauses?"
A: I'm working on that. I haven't isolated the cause of the issue, and that bothers me. There are a few minor technical issues that I would like to get addressed, and we may see occasional outages at some of the worst possible times. I'm going to be scheduling a visit to the station before the Swap Shop net, to confirm that all is in good shape.
There are a few commands that are immediately available for you to control the node.
* - Node Information
# - Disconnect the current or most recent connection.
00 - Connect to a random Node
01 - Connect to a random Link
02 - Connect to a random Conference
03 - Connect to a random User
08 - Status - will tell you if the system is connected to someone or not, and if so, who.
09 - Reconnect - will reconnect the last connection (If possible) If the remote node is no longer on-line, forget it.
66 - Link Down - This tells the Echolink software to disconnect from the server providing connectivity to other echolink users.
73 - Disconnect All - This drops all the nodes that are connected at the time the code is sent.
88 - Link Up - Tells the Echolink software to re-connect.
99 - Listen Only - Sets up Echolink to not transmit over the air. This can be handy for capturing a long running connection, or if you are concerned that the user at the far end is not a licensed operator, but you do not want to disconnect the node entirely.
There are several commands that are not configured at this time. I am not sure if 99 is a toggle yet, and will check presently. If it is a toggle, then '*' or '08' should indicate whether the node is in listen only mode or not.
Some of the commands may not be useful. There are a few connection types that I am not sure about yet. I have a bit of editing on the script that is used during the initial connection process. And so on. If you run into some limitation that you were not expecting, let me know what you were expecting, and I'll see if that is reasonable. At the moment for example repeater to repeater connections are disabled. I'm not sure that this is going to be permanent, but we'll see.
