Hi Marshall et al, Yesterday Jim helped us get the voter stuff installed on our two meter Micor repeaters here in the SoCal area. It's working awesome! You cannot tell when the voter switches sites... the audio transfers without any sort of click or telltale indication of any kind. There is a cool command in app_rpt that shows you how the voter is performing in real time. The command is "voter display your_node_no" and it looks like this: It shows you on a scale of 0 to 255 the amount of quieting. It looks much like the RX level set thingy in app_rpt. The currently selected receiver will have an asterisk before it's name. The scale slides up and down and the asterisk jumps back and forth as the voter operates. It's really interesting and fun to watch it as people are using the system. We are also simulcasting. The city hall transmitter's coverage (of the basement) does not overlap Santiago so we didn't need TX freq stabilization. If and when we do need to expand the city hall coverage we have Trimble Thunderbolt GPS' installed and ready stabilize a couple of Quantars (wish, wish) or Jim's soon-to-be-released frequency divider goodie. I've attached a simple block diagram of the system. -- Tim :wq On Dec 21, 2011, at 12:23 PM, Marshall Oldham wrote:
Jim,
Okay so one server running Allstar node software at a central location (like my house) can support a dozen RTCM's being used as "Generic" conventional full duplex (repeaters) radio interfaces on far away hilltops even if I do not want to use the RTCM GPS-Timing Multi receiver voting or Simulcast Transmitter features? As long as I have some sort of internet connection at the remote sites back to my house?
If I understand this correctly this would mean that:
1) No cost of computer at the radio site. 2) No worry about the node computer locking up at the remote radio site and having to reboot or reset it. 3) No cost other than the RTCM (Radio Thin Client Module) to setup an Allstar node at the remote radio site. (no computer, no URI, no Sound FOB) 4) If I use the RTCM (Radio Thin Client Module) I have the ability to setup a normal Allstar node at the present time and then later if I want to I can upgrade the hilltop for GPS-Timing Multi receiver voting and Simulcast Transmitter by simply adding a GPS receiver at the site and reconfiguring the software.
If so, this seems like a pretty cool little piece of hardware!
Marshall - ke6pcv
From: Jim Duuuude [mailto:telesistant@hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 11:52 AM To: Marshall Oldham; app_rpt mailing list Subject: RE: [App_rpt-users] Allstar RTCM (Radio Thin Client Module) is nowavailable
Yeah, that's the general idea. The location of the Linux server running app_rpt/Asterisk can be more or less anywhere within Internet connectivity of all of the receiver and/or transmitter sites. Of course, "Internet" can mean either some sort of public Internet connection, or a privately-provided Internet connection (low-cost microwave link(s), etc).
The only limitation is that an RTCM/Voter module *must* be located on the same LAN as the Linux server, to at least provide a GPS-based timing reference. A system could be set up with a server located in some sort of datacenter "on the ground", and all the radios could have an RTCM "on the hill" with them, and as long as there is Internet connectivity of some sort between each of them and the server, the system will work nicely. That is providing that there is an RTCM located at the server location also (whether or not that particular RTCM has radio hardware connected to it or not).
One minimal Linux server can easily support 1 or 2 dozen RTCM's (on 1 or 2 allstar nodes), and a larger server could easily support MANY dozens of them on dozens of allstar nodes. Of course, you REALLY dont want to put too many of them on a single server, being a potential single point of failure. For pretty much any practical purpose, the reasonable limitation is the point of failure/redundancy issue, not technical limitations.
I'm not sure if you were clear on this, so I thought I would mention that the RTCM is not just usable as a GPS-timing-based Multi-Receiver Voting system and/or a Simulcast Transmitter system. It can also be used as a "generic" radio interface for a conventional (non-GPS-based) either simplex or full duplex (repeater) radio. The advantage of doing this would be to not have the Linux host "on the hill" with the radio (as mentioned above). In addition, the RTCM allows for portable/mobile operation with a mobile/portable Internet connection in both the GPS-based and non-GPS-based environments.
JIM WB6NIL
From: ke6pcv@cal-net.org To: app_rpt-users@ohnosec.org Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:54:18 -0800 Subject: Re: [App_rpt-users] Allstar RTCM (Radio Thin Client Module) is nowavailable
I have been looking at the Allstar RTCM (Radio Thin Client Module) and it really looks like a GREAT product and addition to the already cool Allstar hardware.
Among all the other cool features of the RTCM (Radio Thin Client Module) like Transmitter Simulcasting and Receiver Voting, if I understand the documentation correctly you can use this very small Radio Thin Client Module at a remote radio site to set up an Allstar repeater node if the site has internet connection without a COMPUTER at the site?
Then you can point the node on the hilltop back to a server on the ground somewhere that is easy to get too?
How many total sites can you use Radio Thin Client Modules on and point back to a single server on the ground?
If this is the case, All I can say is WOW, how cool!
73
Marshall
From: app_rpt-users-bounces@ohnosec.org [mailto:app_rpt-users-bounces@ohnosec.org] On Behalf Of Mark Guibord Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2011 11:03 AM To: app_rpt-users@ohnosec.org Subject: [App_rpt-users] Allstar RTCM (Radio Thin Client Module) is nowavailable
Allstar RTCM Radio Thin-Client Module, an Open-Source VOIP-Based Voting Multi-Receiver and Simulcast Transmit System is now available for purchase.
For more information visit http://micro-node.com/thin-m1.html
Regards, Mark Guibord Micro-Node International
_______________________________________________ App_rpt-users mailing list App_rpt-users@ohnosec.org http://ohnosec.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/app_rpt-users _______________________________________________ App_rpt-users mailing list App_rpt-users@ohnosec.org http://ohnosec.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/app_rpt-users
