Al;
You may want to look into the Allstar Link project or similar that are
based on Asterisk as the core system. A $10 sound interface from ebay
can be used as the "controller" in connection with a receiver,
transmitter and a PC running the sw which can be downloaded as a self
installing ISO CDrom image..It does run Linux as the core... it also
provides international linking capacity besides repeater functions.
I currently use Intel Atom 330 based motherboards for the site
computer.. and it will run 4 repeaters with 4 usb sound interfaces at
once.. IF you go the expensive route.. you can buy a prebuilt interface
device called a URI from a company called DMK Engineering ( ham pricing
available) .. sub $100 each.. and have 5 wires to connect to the tx and
rx to make a repeater... that will connect in the exact same places most
repeaters use for any other analog controller.. I use rack mount
Supermicro atom 330 based board kit *Item #: *N82E16816101262 from
Newegg.. at $279.00 plus 1GB Ram plus HD plus a URI... will be less
than $500.00 out the door and you can add 3 more URI's to link ( or not
as they are each standalone) 3 more repeaters or remote bases ( yes you
can hook up most any HF radio with remote control ) which can be
controlled by the users... for just the cost of the URI's as the sw
will support many repeaters.. limited by the DSP audio streaming/
processing of the motherboard as USB Sound devices transfer DSP largely
to the OS.. CPU Load goes up with each additional repeater..I currently
run 3 machines for 3 different clubs on one Computer at the site... This
sw has connection capability to Echlink as well as IRLP besides the
AllStar Link network.. BTW any computer with USB and ethernet, in the P4
or better realm can easily run 4 or more URI's...
I CHOOSE to use1u rackmounts at the site.. so pay a little premium to do
that..
There is also a UK ham, Jonathan G4KLX, who has coded a software package
to use these same URI devices as well as several other sound interfaces
called "pcrepeatercontroller" it is it's own yahoogroup.. He makes both
windows and linux distributions of the application. Windows is fairly
easy to set up.. Linux is more "standard" for internet linked systems
but is harder to set up with his stuff at this time ( If you are Linux
centric it helps a lot) ..I have written a howto for installing and
building the software on CentOS 5.4 that is fairly 101 level ...
Jonathan also writes a DStar repeater version that converts a FM
modulated radio ( 9600 Packet ready) or Eq into a standalone Dstar
repeater ( needs 2 radios to repeat :-) )
I am currently setting up and testing a DStar URI based installation on
my Mastr III UHF station.. which came from 403-430 and I moved to
440-450... Mastr II stations with FM modulators probably will do equally
well as that was the platform in Mastr II for EDACS which was a waveform
very similar to Dstar... albeit 9600 baud instead of DStar 4800.. I will
be working on documenting that down the road.. but want to get my MIII
running first..It is converted.. just need to connect the URI. I am
analyzing and deciding where to connect as MIII is a little more complex
then MII :-)
Jonathan, the author, has an item on his todo list to merge the 2 apps
onto one so it would be a dual mode analog and Dstar repeater... both
apps launch at the click of a mouse... just one at a time now.. the same
connections are shared for both.. He is also working with the DStar
network guys and can connect his repeater software based box's to other
Dstar repeaters and gateways through the open source network stuff
currently being built...
Doug
KD8B
Al Wolfe wrote:
The other day some of us were discussing replacing the controller in one
of our local repeaters. It is presently an NRHC-4. While throwing ideas
around someone suggested why not just use an old PC and sound card.
Then we
could add bells and whistles as needed. This got us to thinking that
maybe
this might be a good idea. Then someone said why reinvent the wheel.
Why not
see what others have done first. So, I'm asking what are your experiences
with this concept? What programs are available? Other than some stability
issues with Windoz, what are the pitfalls?
Thanks,
Al, K9SI
