Posted: 7/8/2008 10:19:33 PM EDT
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I searched for IRLP within 30 days, and nothing. Anyone running an IRLP repeater? I just ordered an IRLP board and wondering if I need help if anyone here has experience. I'm going to wire my FT8900 to it for a while to experiment with it on a simplex repeater freq on 2m. I'll likely change over to a commercial radio later on once i get it figured out and a better, higher repeater location/coordinated etc. I figure the radio running on 5w wont burn it up. |
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I belong to a club that has an IRLP node on our former repeaters. We have since lost the old and gained new sites and have not got the IRLP node back up yet. Once you got the keying scheme done and your audio levels set you should be good to go. You could use it at your house and tie into a local repeater that is out of range for an HT and rag chew without worrying about the whole cross band repeat thing just to experiment. |
Heh Heh. Yeah I just clicked order last night and should get the board from Canada next week. It looks pretty easy to setup. The only 'catch' is you are required to use Linux * CENTOS * to operate it, which is fine with me. I have a spare box sitting here which will run it great. |
Yeah this system will be at the house for me. I gotta Diamond X300 outside that is being used for my APRS radio, which is kinda a waste! Since the radio is a crossband radio, there are options. I'm going to leave it on 2m simplex repeater freq and see how stable it is for a while and get familiar with how it operates before I get too technical. |
$163 for me. Theres a $40 'assumed' donation if you simply click the BUYNOW Link on their website. I dontated $15. |
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The weird part is, I'm making a cable.. I'm not paying 50$ for one someone else made with 5$ in parts. Two wires go to the sound card's in and out, and to the radio's RX/TX. I bought a mono plug cable and cut it in half to make two. The problem is, the center core, and the outer braided wire have continuity and are the same. I'm thinking I got the wrong cable. I'm not sure if I should simply cut off the outer shell and just use the inside of it, or not. 
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Something is wrong there. shield and center should not have continuity in an audio application. |
Yep, I think I got the wrong type of cable. |
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Oh yeah, way wrong cable. Oops. Ok now that I got the CORRECT ONE! The DB9 connector was too small to fit everything in it, even if I stripped back the rubber protector I still could never have crammed it all in there at least in my unprofessional soldering opinion. So I did the following, Taped it up good and secured it with some zipties. I think it'll work good. Maybe later if I have any problems with it, i'll get more technical with it, but I cant see anything being wrong with it.  And after finishing it off.  Now to wait for the IRLP goodies to arrive, install the CENTOS and install this mess! |
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Just as an update to this thread, the cable in the photo's didnt work. I had to pull it apart and re-do it. I did get everything working nd installed however the radio refused to acknowledge the PL tone from the rear DIN plug. I ordered a prefab cable from irlpcables.com which uses the front MIC port, which is supposed to fix this issue. So now I'm simply waiting for a cable. I drove around and experimented with it a little and it works good. |
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Now have echolink and IRLP installed on same system. I have a GM300 25w radio on the way which should be here friday or saturday. Should provide much better audio than the Yaesu, and will force the PL tone. The 8900 dosent have PL tone enc/dec out the back DIN port. I'll post a couple pix of the setup later on. If anyone cares to get any info on the setup drop me a pm, or reply. |
I'm doing a simplex node, so it's much cheaper, and less complicated. I can always crossband it to another existing repeater if I wanted more coverage. Here's my X300 on the roof of the casa. 
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Make sure it works of course, but I was actually looking for one used before I ordered mine. You shouldn't have any trouble with it. |