Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club  

Photo by Mark WØMH

The guest speaker was Jack Maus WØMBD.  Jack lives in Cold Spring, MN and is a member of the St, Cloud club. He will told the story about Echo Link, which is a way of connecting a station with the Internet so hams from around the world can talk with hams on local repeaters. 80,000 hams are members of Echo Link. About 1500 are online at any given time. It is possible for someone in Minnesota to be talking on a hand held 2-meter radio through an Echo Link station, through the Internet, through a 2-meter Echo Link station to a hand held rig operated by a ham in Australia. Ham radio licenses are required. It is typically done with a simplex radio connected to the Internet with a computer on the Internet and the right software. Clubs and individuals are encouraged to create nodes for the network. There is also computer to computer communications in voice or text. Voice requires that each computer have a sound card, microphone, and speakers or headsets. Details at http://www.echolink.org

If you need directions to the meeting, click here.