KC7GHT IRLP Node 3820, Phoenix, Arizona
The Superstition ARC is pleased to host the Home Page of the KC7GHT IRLP Node 3820. This page introduces Internet Radio Linking in general and the Valley's first IRLP node in particular, brought on line in October of 2001.
Joe Ruby, KC7GHT, pioneered the concept of IRLP nodes open to all licensed amateurs. Most early IRLP nodes were available only to invited members of the sponsoring group.
Joe has been a guest speaker at area radio clubs, including the Superstition ARC, with live demonstrations of IRLP. He made a total of nine IRLP presentations to Arizona clubs. I can still recall how he used his handheld in the club meeting, relaying to his crossband mobile in the parking lot, relaying once more through someone's crossband rig to his IRLP node on 2 meters!
The Superstition ARC has had an IRLP node assigned since 2000, when negotiations for a free site on South Mountain with Internet access fell short. Meanwhile, Larry Kuck, WB7CRK volunteered to host this page on the club web site for Joe's west Phoenix node.
Google Earth: Joe writes on August 29, 2006: "You can use Google Earth with all of the IRLP nodes overlaid, and find any node location desired and then 'fly' around the node location and check out the terrain elevation to see how far and where you might be able to get into that node when traveling. There is a Google Earth overlay that shows all the nodes worldwide - both with and without their instantaneous connections. I use the version that does not show the connections because it is too distracting."
The KC7GHT Link to Internet Radio
Table of Contents. Please use these links to select individual page headings.
Introduction: Phoenix IRLP node number 3820
Live Node Status
The Phoenix node is located at the home of Joe Ruby, KC7GHT, on the west side of Phoenix, in Glendale, AZ. It has a range of at least 35 to 40 miles. To access this system, all you need is a 440 MHz voice FM radio with 447.575 MHz, standard minus offset, and an access tone of 151.4 Hz. The repeater runs 25 watts output and also transmits a 151.4 Hz tone to permit users with tone squelch to be able to not have to listen to the hash noise found in the Phoenix area on the band.
Joe maintains a frequency-agile remote base, normally parked on 147.46 MHz. it requires a 151.4 Hz tone access and sends out a 151.4 Hz tone for users with tone squelch radios. The remote base two meter transmitter puts out 7 watts.
Joe has also added EchoLink node 173098, KC7GHT-R, which only accepts connect requests from other radio links (callsign-L and callsign-R nodes). You cannot access KC7GHT-R from your keyboard.
Radio users of either 447.575 repeater or 147.46 MHz simplex may control either the IRLP node or the EchoLink node. Radio users of the EchoLink node may communicate with either radio or keyboard nodes, provided the contacted node permits conferencing. This pretty much rules out nodes that are on a modem dialup connection.
The distant Echolink node must allow conference calls by checking the conferencing box on their Windows machine. For more information, please see KC7GHT on QRZ.
Repeater fund
Joe originally established a repeater fund to help finance the construction and maintenance of a new repeater system that would greatly simplify the ability to hear local traffic using the node facilities. This is a vast improvement over the former 147.46 MHz simplex operation. Any user donations toward this repeater fund will be greatly appreciated, and contributions may be sent to Joe at his mailing address, which you can find on QRZ.com. Just follow this link: KC7GHT on QRZ
Credits
This page is written and maintained by the Superstition ARC webmaster, who can be reached through the Contact Us link below, but I had lots of help from Joe Ruby in developing this page, for which I am thankful. He reviewed and offered amendments and alterations, most of which were incorporated within.
This page has been updated to bring its style in line with the current style of the remainder of wb7tjd.org, and to bring the information up to current. (August 19, 2006)
Superstition ARC Webmaster
Larry Kuck, WB7CRK
IRLP Links
Web Sites of Interest to IRLP
- Live Node 3820 Status page
Note about Live Status pages: You must reload/refresh these pages to get a new read on the status. - www.irlp.net, the Home Page of the IRLP
- Live Systemwide Status Page
With over 2000 nodes, it takes awhile to load! - Visit the Superstition ARC Home Page
This page is maintained by the Superstition ARC.
Arizona IRLP Nodes
Live Links to other Arizona nodes as of 8/26/2006:
Roughly sorted geographically from south to north,
and from west to east
- node 4754 Sierra Vista
- node 3550 Green Valley
- node 3045 Tucson
- node 3892 Tucson
- node 3924 Tucson
- node 3300 Mt. Bigelow (Tucson)
- node 3388 Ajo
- node 3423 Tolleson - WIN System
- node 3820 west Phoenix
- node 7460northwest Phoenix
- node 7620 Phoenix (downtown)
- node 4243 Paradise Valley Mall, Phoenix
- node 7570 east Phoenix (Scottsdale)
- node 3001 Scottsdale
- node 3009West Chandler
- node 5430 West Chandler
- node 3582 Chandler
- node 3818 Chandler
- node 3797 Gilbert
- node 5990 Mesa
- node 3182 Prescott
- node 3735 Grand Canyon
- node 3940 Sun Valley
The IRLP Node: What is IRLP?
IRLP, or Internet Radio Linking Project, is a network of amateur radio repeaters and simplex stations that are tied in to one another via the Internet. There are two different types of operation: Node to Node, and Node to Reflector.
A Node is an amateur radio station accessed locally by its users via radio, and a computer connected to the Internet. This station may be a simplex operation like KC4USV which operates on 146.52 simplex at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, a network of repeaters and remote bases, or a single repeater, located anywhere on the globe. Each Node may be connected to one other Node or Reflector.
A Reflector is basically an open-ended worldwide repeater system. It is a computer acting as a server, connected only to the Internet, with many simultaneous connections available. Any Node may connect to a Reflector, and communicate with any other Node simultaneously connected to the reflector. In EchoLink, these Reflectors are called Conference servers. Unlike EchoLink Conferences, an IRLP computer may only serve as a single-station Node or as an Internet Reflector server, not both.
There is one special Reflector, the Echo Reflector, which may accept many simultaneous connects from Nodes, that perform the function of recording incoming audio and playing it back. This function allows users to test their audio settings, as well as see how well they access the node. The EchoLink equivalent is the Test Server.
The IRLP system is capable of FM, high-quality audio with audio delays of a fraction of a second. Local amateur audio from the node's receiver is fed into a sound card on the node computer, which digitizes it into packets of binary data, known as streaming audio, which is then sent over the Internet to the receiving node. There, the digital packets are received and reassembled into audio and fed to the remote transmitter.
Occasionally, an Internet circuit becomes overloaded with traffic and there may be some dropped packets of streaming audio data, which result in dropouts and missed words. Occasionally, Joe has to track down such a problem from his end toward California. IRLP's streaming audio shares the available bandwidth of Internet circuits with every other user of the Internet.
To minimize packet loss, maximize security and ensure highest quality audio with minimum delay, all IRLP nodes are on high-speed Internet circuits, and assigned their own dedicated IP addresses. They also run computers that use the Linux operating system, and not Windows®.
Unlike EchoLink, which permits keyboard-to-keyboard and keyboard-to-radio communications using software running on Windows® computers, the IRLP supports only radio-to-radio linking.
OPERATION of KC7GHT node
Before using the KC7GHT Node, you are strongly advised to read the following section, titled KC7GHT Use Guidelines. This section briefly describes the KC7GHT Node system.
This system uses the Internet to interconnect radio stations and radio repeater networks across the globe. The only access to the system is through a radio transmission in the Amateur Radio Service, by licensed radio amateurs.
The KC7GHT node is an open system, available to all licensed amateurs. It is one of the few such systems in the IRLP network. Because most other nodes require membership and restrict access to nonmembers, we request that users of our open system not divulge link-access control codes on the system frequency while the node is linked into other IRLP nodes.
The system consists of a repeater on 447.575 MHz output, with input 5 MHz down frequency and requiring an access tone of 151.4 Hz. The repeater is running 25 watts to an 11.7dBd gain Diamond X510MA antenna up 65 feet. There is a lot of intermod and other interference in the Phoenix area, and users whose radios have tone squelch can take advantage of the quiet afforded by a 151.4 Hz encode tone on the repeater output.
DTMF access is required to perform linking. To connect to a distant node or reflector on IRLP, users need only follow identification protocol and send the four-digit node number to connect, and 73 to disconnect.
To activate the EchoLink node, users must hit the C key on a 16-tone keypad and then enter the 4, 5 or 6 digit node number of the desired station. Radio users may connect to any EchoLink node, either computer user or radio, provided the distant Node has checked Allow Conferences on the Connections tab of the Preferences window under the Tools menu on EchoLink's Windows® software.
KC7GHT Use Guidelines
No foul language, profanity, off-color humor, or confrontational or controversial behavior, Please! Keep it clean and in good taste. Be respectful of other ethnic, racial and religious groups, and other cultures. This is an international forum that can be accessed worldwide. Besides Joe and his wife (KC7LRS) don't want to hear it in their home.
Please refrain from disclosing access codes on the air while the station is linked to other nodes. Local users may discuss access questions and assist other users on the air while the KC7GHT node is off link.
Keep use of reflectors to a minimum. Maintaining connection to a busy reflector for hours at a time can disrupt access to the node. Only one person at a time can speak on a Reflector, either locally or on the network. Use a reflector to conduct a QSO and then log the node off the reflector. Use node-to-node links whenever possible.
To link-up to an IRLP node, key up, give your call sign, then send the desired 4 digit node number. Example 9200. After the announcement confirms that the link is on, wait to be sure there is no traffic, then have your QSO. To shut the link, key up, identify, and send 73 on the keypad, wait until you hear the link-off telemetry, and then sign clear. During your QSO, be sure to pause 3 seconds at each transmission turnover in order to provide enough time for others to break in. Reset (for 3 seconds) at least once every 3 minutes, or you will time out the Node. Key up for 1 second before talking to let the link and the distant repeater come up.
It is important that you identify before taking down a link. Failure to do so causes your last transmission over the remote transmitter to end without proper I.D. Part 97 requires that you I.D. every 10 minutes or less, and once at the end. Remember to apply this principle to the transmissions you make over a remote system on the IRLP. It's a good idea to give your location too, like "Your call sign, Phoenix, Arizona, USA disconnecting," or something similar.
We can say that all you need to operate the system is a 70 centimeter voice FM transceiver, tuned to 447.575 MHz (minus offset) repeater with a tone access of 151.4 Hz to talk on the system; and a touch tone pad to transmit access codes.
You may contact Joe by mail or e-mail. His mailing address and e-mail address are right here: KC7GHT on QRZ
This is a repeater system in the Phoenix area, and therefore anyone within range of the repeater on 447.575 can hear everything that the Node can hear. The system used to operate on simplex on 147.46, and may still be accessed when the remote base is up on that frequency, with a 151.4 Hz tone access. The simplex operator will only hear the repeater traffic from local users and off the Internet coming from KC7GHT, and any local two meter users within his range. The simplex user must take care not to step on people he cannot hear already using the node on simplex. it is always best to use the repeater if at all possible.
Please monitor the frequency for a period of time before initiating a transmission. This applies equally to the repeater as well as the remote base on 147.46.
Looking at the status page on the irlp.net web site, you see a number of nodes listed as "Idle." It is only possible to connect to an idle node. An announcement will come over KC7GHT if you attempt to connect to a node that is already connected. You might notice that the Reflectors are always listed as "Idle." This is how come you can always connect to one, even while others are connected!
The Denver Reflector, Reflector 2, is broadcast on Live365.com around the clock. You may monitor that Reflector on your home computer and if you hear someone you want to speak with, you may then connect KC7GHT to it. Your communications on Reflector 2 will be broadcast in MP3 streaming audio from Live365.com by "broadcaster" VE3SY. Just follow the Listen Live links on www.irlp.net.
Keep in mind that the streaming audio on the Internet broadcast of Reflector 2 on your computer is delayed about ten seconds behind the actual ongoing QSO, so when you connect the KC7GHT node to REF2, don't be confused. Pay attention to the radio because the delay on the KC7GHT node is only a fraction of a second.
The KC7GHT node is number 3820. The node has been in service since October 11, 2001. At that time there were 242 active nodes listed. That list keeps growing and growing. Three years later that number has grown by a factor of 8!
Have fun, and enjoy the KC7GHT Node!