PALS Net Echolink Connection

The PALS Net Echolink connection is located at W4APE-L or  Node 779467 on the Echolink System.  You may
download the Echolink program for Windows from www.echolink.org and there are Apps for both the Apple 
and the Andriod based Smart Phones as well.  Echolink will also run on LINUX systems using the WINE application.

EchoMac is available from www.sourceforge.net for use with Apple MacIntosh computers.  EchoMac is a client
program for OS X that allows connection to the Echolink system. It is built as a Universal Binary, and works on
OS X 10.3.9 or later.

Echolink is a system that uses VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) to send and receive Amateur Radio using the
internet as it's communications medium.  It allows licensed Amateurs to connect to distant repeaters or links over
the internet.  It provides means to connect repeaters to repeaters, computers to repeaters, and radio based users
to the other users over the internet.  There is a lot of info available on the Echolink system on the internet, so rather
than repeat it here, let me encourage you to use you favorite search engine to find out for yourselves.  I would also
highly recommend the ARRL Publication "VoIP Internet Linking for Radio Amateurs" by Jonathan Taylor, K1RFD.
Mr. Taylor is the creator of the Echolink program, and he covers Echolink, IRLP, and several other linking systems.

There are several aspects of any internet linking system that you need to be aware of to fully use them.  First there
is a real delay built into Echolink to allow transmission of the audio over the internet.  This delay is typically 3-5
seconds between when you stop talking and when you can expect to hear a response from the Echolink user.  This
delay is used storing and re-ordering the information packets from which the speech is derived.  Your voice data
is delayed about 1.5 seconds going to the internet user, and his reply is delayed by the same amount in return.  Add
to that the time needed to recognize that you are finished and for the internet user to key and start talking and you
are quickly up to five to ten seconds delay.  It often seems like an eternity in comparison to the attack time (one
second or so) delays we are used to on PALS to allow the repeaters to all link up.  Remember that these delays
are inherent in the VoIP systems to make sure the voice data packets are received and re-ordered at the distant end.
It means we really need to allow more time between transmissions for an Echolink user to have a chance to get in.

Please checki in in the order you appear in the list of users signed intto Echolink.  This list is the order in which
each station originally signed in to the W4APE-L.  Thank you.

PALS Net uses about 40 DTMF codes to control each of the eight repeaters in the system, sending DTMF codes
over the PALS Network to try to connect to other Echolink repeaters stands an excellent chance of accidentally
falling on one of the 320 DTMF codes of the PALS system and messing up something very badly.  That is why
you will hear the Control Stations and Rusty in particular, tell you not to use DTMF on PALS,  That is also why
the ability to connect from PALS to other Echolink repeaters has been blocked on W4APE-L.
                       
Please don't use DTMF tones over the PALS system.

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