A statewide ARES exercise will be conducted on the repeater system on Saturday, October 27th. The exercise will run from 9:00 AM until noon. The link between the UHF and VHF will be taken down as well as echolink for the duration of the exercise.

OK folks Echolink has been up the whole weekend and now problems are starting to arise and I want to head it off at the pass before W5EBQ calls it quits to our enhancement of his repeater system.

The issue seems to stem from people logging into Echolink with their cell phones. While I understand that installing the app might be new for some people and that they are trying to learn how it works there can be only so much of the log-in then quickly log-out hit and runs. Remember, when you log into Echolink a couple of things happen. Your callsign gets logged, your IP gets logged and your callsign gets broadcasted over the air. Just because you log into Echolink and see no one is on the node does not mean there isn’t someone listening on the radio.

This node is not meant to be a testing bed for connections issue. If you install the app and try to connect and have issues then here is what I suggest you do..

Now all that being said, there are steps I will be taking to stop this activity because while its not my intent to be rude I will be blunt. I did not waste all my time making this work to have it yanked out from under us because you cant read instructions and Jim KE5LNG/HL1ZAV did not put up his own cash to buy the equipment to have you not read the instructions.

So onto the steps I have been asked to take for this issue.. Banishment – You will be banned from the node until you get your connection issues figured out, then you will be let back onto the node