N6GKJ Allstar Node Notes Page




This page is dedicated to my experiments with the Allstar Link VOIP Project. I have setup several Allstar Servers now with complete success
I have designed and build several nodes. What is a Node? These nodes are comprised of a small computer, a sound card and a VHF or UHF Amateur Radio mobile radio. The node is assigned an ID Code.
When the node is configured and powered up, it is plugged into the internet via WiFi or Ethernet. The node sofware automatically logs into the Allstar server and reports its status.
By using the programming commands built into Allstar, we can connect our node to another node. This node connection allows us to talk over a short range or vast differences. Some nodes are tied together into larger networks.

We are going to focus on our local node, nodes 27946 and 27936.
Node 27946 is tied to a radio on a frequency of 147.090 MHx simplex operation.
Node 27936 is tied to a radio on a frequency of 444.250 MHz repeater operation

Each week we hold a net on our repeater frequency. Our repeater covers a vast area of Northern California. Many times we lose power in Northern California. We implemented a new Net
we operate this net on our repeater output frequency. All net members know that when a power outage occurs, we switch over to simplex to carry out net operations.
But there is a catch. Our repeater covers such a large are that our far out net attendies cannot get to net control even via relays. As a result we constructed the node 27946.
Now we can have those far out net attendies check in using any number of available tools. These tools include:

IAXRPT - Is a Windows based application that allows a ham operator to connect to our node (free)
DVSwitch - is an Android Applicaionn that allows a ham to connect to our node (free)
RepeaterPhone - is an Apple application that allows a ham to connect to our node (not free)

For the purpose of this discussion, we will focus on IAXRPT and DVSwitch. We will go over the steps needed to setup IAXRPT and DVSwitch. Normally when we use these tools we already have
a node in our shack we can connect too. Because Allstar is new to our group, but it is not new to the community, most of our members do not have a node. We have opened up our
node to the members of our club who want to use these tools to make that connection.

IAXRPT Settings