[App_rpt-users] Some questions regarding new node

[Ralph A. Schmid, dk5ras]

Hi all there,

at the moment I operate a dual band NBFM repeater (both bands 2m and 70cm
hard linked together) that has a special feature: it passes not only FM, but
also APCO25 and D-Star. Of course I do not want to loose this feature, but
want to expand its capabilities with an AllStar Link connection.

So my approach would be, let the local control unit be in charge for audio
path switching (digital voice through the PC probably will not work), the
link PC does nothing else but feed the audio into the net and vice versa,
and control the PTT when smth. from the link has to be transmitted locally.
I assume the configuration options would allow this?

Next problem, I am not very experienced with Linux; I am able to use an
editor like vi or nano, but manually installing devices and such probably
will be very difficult with my limited knowledge. What CD image is the best
to go with for a beginner? The hardware will be an mini-ITX board, Intel
Core 2 duo with standard 945GM chipset amd the CM108 audio USB interface. It
will be a headless system with only a CF card instead of a hard disk, and I
still wonder if I will have to buy an CDROM drive for first installation, or
if there is some other useful way...

What about the future? Passing digital modes over the internet would be an
exciting challenge... The Motorola radios I am using work clean enough for
local use without regenerating the digital modulation, maybe it will even be
possible passing that through the internet?! Seems to depend mainly on the
quality of the interfaces, and on the way the stuff is digitized and
compressed...and even demodulation and regeneration of the protocols
(demodulate and modulate GMSK and 4FSK, regenerate the frames, the
checksums) should be an fairly easy task for todays hardware - if there was
not the problem that somebody would have to write the software :-)


With best regards

Ralph, dk5ras

http://www.db0fue.de/