Repeater Linking

[VK3VS]

A few of us (VK3VS, VK7DB, VK7HH, VK3JUG, VK3OF, VK3MIT) have been working on a homegrown VK repeater linking project.

The Idea behind it is all those under utilised repeaters can be linked with ease to bring more traffic onto them.

We have been playing with it for around 4 years now and is at a stage that it "just works".

Using a fork of the app_rpt asterisk software (its where allstarlink started as well), we have created a network, albeit small at the moment, of 20 odd repeaters that can be linked and unlinked at the push of a button or dtmf command.

All you need to create a node is:
A raspberry pi 2 or up
a cheap chinese sound dongle
a couple of misc components , and
a radio to plumb it into.

The cost of using it is free, with VK3VS sponsoring the server to co-ordinate it all.

The image is downloadable from http://vklink.com.au.

The base image allows echolink, irlp and allstar nodes to be incorporated.

There is a second image in beta at the moment, which is pi-star and vklink all in one go, which allows all pi-star modes, plus all vklink modes.

VK7HH has been pioneering a VOTER node, which allows multiple repeaters on the same frequency to fill in holes.

All that is required on the repeater end is a ctcss tone to be encoded when the squelch is open, and it will work seamlessly with a node.

So far the system has been used to:
Create a North South permanent tasmania link.
Create the VOTER system around Hobart
Create a Cluster in the north west of victoria and SW NSW incorporating 5 repeaters.
Create a cluster in the north east of victoria incorporating 2 repeater, with 3 more coming.

On **Most** Monday evenings, VK7HH runs a technet, whereby most of the repeaters are linked together via a HUB for the duration of the net.

73
VK3VS

[VK7HH]

There will be a talk and presentation on VKLink and the VOTER project at Gippstech this year.