Reviews
At this point I hear a stereotypical Bronx, NY accent
of Tom, KB2HZE calling "CQ DX." I pause and wait,
and then I chime in that "I'm KB8DPN from Ravenna,
Ohio -- I'm not really DX, but wanted to say hello."
Tom and I exchange pleasantries and he explains that we
are connected "worldwide" via 15 other repeater systems
around the world. I explain my location as Northeast
Ohio, around Akron/Cleveland area. To my surprise, we
begin to roundtable with another ham -- another 8 call.
Turns out to be Mark, KB8DFB -- from Hudson, OH.
If you missed the irony, here it is: I'm connected via
the Internet using a repeater system in Taiwan, which is
connected via a link to the Bronx, NY, who has linked 15
various repeaters worldwide, including one in Parma, Ohio to
which Mark,who is around 10 miles away from me is connected
to as he drives down the road. Small world.
As the roundtable discussion progresses through the
night, repeaters all around the world are linked in.
Anchorage, Alaska. St. Martin. KD5YZG mobile near
Fort Sam Houston, TX joins us using the 147.140 MHz
KC5EZO Repeater in Austin Texas. As does Larry,
KD5AAS. About this time Eddy, KD8FTS checks in via the
Parma, OH repeater. He heard me bragging it up about
PCARS and all the fun were having with ham radio, and
also some comments I made about APRS. Eddy's into
APRS, and we go off on a rabbit trail talking about the
new Kenwood D710. He checks his APRS display and
notices my APRS call and location listed when I parked
my cars at 4:30 PM. Tom from NY is still working his system magic and
soon were all hooked up into a repeater in Sydney
Australia, where Tony, VK2FREL (Yes, that's a 2x4
call.) joins in. It's now 1 AM local time and I should
already be in bed. We all pause at the top of the hour as
all of the machines ID all around the world.
Another link added and Steven, K0SD, a mobile
heading to Miami, Florida, on Interstate 95 via a 440
repeater joins the fray. Traffic is merging from four
lanes to 1 in the balmy Florida evening proving that
Ohio isn't alone with it's road construction woes.
I get to telling Tom in NY about the KC8RKV link
here locally, and before long he's calling CQ DX via our
beloved N8EQJ 148.895. I hate to leave, but I have to
get up in oh, 3 hours -- so I say my 73's all around and
logoff. Phew. Still think Echolink isn't "real" Ham Radio?
I've talked all around the world before using HF, and
you know your signal gets sucked up into the ether and
bounced back to earth SOMEWHERE. But I have to say
that this was an awesome and strange experience
knowing that my voice and signal was being heard
globally on all continents every time I pressed my space
bar. What an experience. As I head to bed, I hear our local repeater, still linked
into the Echolink mix as NY Tom starts a QSO with a
ham in Dublin, Ireland. Russ, KB8DPN
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