At our club meeting tonight a discussion came up regarding the cost of the phone line to our 2-meter repeater system. Originally it was there for the Autopatch, but has evolved to being primarily used for me to program the controller (CAT-1000) and to control the system. (The autopatch is rarely used, since everyone carries a cellphone now.)
Everyone understands that the phone line is needed for control and programming, but we started toying with other ideas. Specifically, having an Internet connection at the site seemed like it had a lot of potential, but frankly I don't know why! It'd be nice to run an I-Gate from that location (we already have an APRS weather node there), but it's not essential. I could probably use it to monitor the site as well, but that's not really much of a concern either. So, the question is, how can we use Internet to control/program the CAT-1000? We could get Internet at the site for about the same cost as the phone, and if we could use it for repeater control/programming AND the other things I mentioned, it'd be a better deal. Can IRLP be used for control/programming? I'm not familiar with that system whatsoever, but am always willing to learn. 73, Mike WM4B
