The IRLP and Echolink interlinking was down for two days from 7th til the 9th April owing to the interlinking hard drive giving up the ghost. A new drive was quickly purchased, a backup restored onto it and interlinking succesfully enabled.
Apologies from the team if this marred any arranged QSOs.
This website has been given a general tidy up, and some confusing text rewritten. Also there are a number of additions. This includes, on the Internet Linking page, the important fact that although the timeout of the repeater in RF-RF mode is five minutes, the timeout in RF-Echolink mode is four minutes. If an over extends beyond four minutes the link with the Echolink station is automatically disconnected and OA announces a COSLOCK error.
If a user receives this error they should consider reducing the length of their overs whilst on the repeater – usually three minutes is plenty for an over on a repeater.
In RF-IRLP mode the timeout remains at five minutes and no disconnection occurs if exceeded.
A link to an explanation of OA’s error codes is now at the foot of the Internet Linking page.
The repeater keepers are pleased to announce that IRLP and Echolink interlinking has now been made available 24/7. A watch will be kept on the interlinking but there is confidence that it will now operate 100%.
Please remember to use interlinking according to licence conditions – give your callsign before sending DTMF tones, and give a firm CQ when connected. Thanks.
At present interlinking on both IRLP and Echolink is available between the hours of 0900 and 2359UTC.
IRLP and Echolink interlinking will be switched on on Christmas Day and New Years Eve. The repeater will be closely monitored for any faults occuring. Should this happen users must be prepared for OA to be then turned off pretty swiftly. However, should things progress well interlinking may be switched on as decided on the fly.
The repeater keepers respectfully request that if OA is linked to a reflector that the traffic be worldwide and not local QSOs. US hams especially get irritated by this, and as the Head of IRLP is usually listening in on New Years Eve he can block OA’s connection into a reflector if need be. If you are local to GB3OA and wish to converse with someone locally and the repeater is linked up elsewhere, please move to a simplex frequency e.g. 145.450.