<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000'><font size="4">I <font size="4">have to admit, when I first started looking at AllStar,<font size="4"> the idea o<font size="4">f a computer running the re<font size="4">peater seemed<font size="4"> a bit risky.<br><font size="4">Several decades of <font size="4">keeping things running on hilltops made me <font size="4">leery</font>.<br><br><font size="4">But now <font size="4">with my first node appro<font size="4">aching it's third <font size="4">(or is it <font size="4">fourth?) </font>anniversary</font>, I've realigned my stance.<br><br><font size="4">In that time the only ti<font size="4">mes that I've ha<font size="4">d to make a<font size="4">n "emergency" run to th<font size="4">at si<font size="4">te is :<br><font size="4"> 1. <font size="4"><font size="4"> <font size="4">The repeater went dead in the middle of the day. When I go<font size="4">t to the site, I found <font size="4">that someone had <br><font size="4"> turned the breaker off in the <font size="4">electrical distribution </font>p<font size="4">anel.<br><font size="4"> <font size="4">2. Some dummy (me) wasn't paying<font size="4"> at<font size="4">tention</font> to which</font></font></font> re<font size="4">mote console session he was on when he typed "poweroff <enter>".<br><br><font size="4">I have <font size="4">had some problems though wi<font size="4">th<font size="4"> one of the repeaters (<font size="4">t<font size="4">wo seperate no<font size="4">des operating as a</font></font></font> s<font size="4">plit site </font>10m repeate<font size="4">r), b<font size="4">ut that <font size="4">has turned out to be a hardware <font size="4">p</font>roblem</font></font> that I <font size="4">didn't catch before putting <font size="4">that computer</font> into service.</font></font></font></font></font></font><br></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><br><font size="4"><font size="4">Now I do ha<font size="4">ve each bo<font size="4">x <font size="4"><font size="4">exec<font size="4">ute</font></font> a c<font size="4">ontrolled shutdown and re<font size="4">boot <font size="4">once a week in the wee hours of Sunday morning.<br><font size="4">And <font size="4">while I haven't <font size="4">been <font size="4">extravagant</font> on the <font size="4">computer hardware, I haven't <font size="4">cut things to the bone<font size="4">.<br><font size="4"><font size="4">E<font size="4">ach of my boxes are at least <font size="4">a 3.<font size="4">0 Ghz P4<font size="4"> with a gig or two of memory. (each bought on Ebay for about <font size="4">$7<font size="4">5)<br><font size="4"><br>They sit<font size="4"> th<font size="4">ere hour <font size="4">after hour, run<font size="4">ning the repeater, ID scri<font size="4">pts, weather al<font size="4">ert and observation scripts, <font size="4">on sche<font size="4">dule jumping <font size="4">between</font> WAN<font size="4">-RS<font size="4"><font size="4">, Alaska Morning Net, and the Insomni<font size="4">ac net. <font size="4">R</font>unning AR Newslin<font size="4">e<font size="4"> Monday and Friday nights</font>. <font size="4">And running <font size="4">other </font>housekeeping scripts (rsync the custom nodename list, <font size="4">rs<font size="4">ync new<font size="4"> versions of <font size="4">my scripts, and so on). Oh, and<font size="4"> s<font size="4">ervicing a handful<font size="4"> <font size="4">Asterisk extens<font size="4">i<font size="4">ons <font size="4"><font size="4">wi<font size="4">th </font></font>attending</font> IAX trunks bet<font size="4">ween the repeaters.<br><br><font size="4">On the other hand, <font size="4">at work I have a fa<font size="4">irly expensive<font size="4"> dedicated <font size="4">broadcast </font>remote control (like a repeater "controller") <font size="4">on our </font>TV translator about fif<font size="4">ty miles <font size="4">away<font size="4">, on top of a<font size="4"> mountain w<font size="4">ith a nasty access road, that drives me NUTS!</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><br></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><br><br><br><div><span name="x"></span><div><div><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-FAMILY: arial"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; FONT-STYLE: italic"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; FONT-STYLE: italic">
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<div><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-FAMILY: arial"><font size="3">WB3AWJ<br>Robert A. Poff<br></font></span><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-FAMILY: arial"><font size="3">Loganville, PA.</font><br><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; FONT-STYLE: italic"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; FONT-STYLE: italic">"Lieutenant, target the offending power boat and launch photon torpedoes" </span></span></span></div></span></span></span></div></div><span name="x"></span><br></div></div></body></html>