South Orange C
The South Orange Amateur Radio Association,P.O. Box 2545, Mission Viejo, Ca. 92690, E-Mail: soara@soara.org
The ham radio club serving Southern Orange County, California.

If you already have Echolink installed on your computer, the call sign of the repeater is K6SOA-R and the node number is 133376. Connect in, we'd love to hear from you.  There's usually someone listening on the repeater who'd like to say hello.

If you are not familiar with echolink, and you missed Brian, NJ6N's presentation, you can find it at:

NJ6N's EchoLink Presentation to SOARA August 18, 2003 (HTML)

NJ6N's EchoLink Presentation to SOARA August 18, 2003 (PowerPoint)

SOARA Education Series - EchoLink (V 3[1].1).pps [18 MB Powerpoint]
(Howard & Brian's presentation from 11/15/07)

You can also download the echolink software, get registered and find more information at www.echolink.org.

If you have a firewall between your computer and the internet (e.g. a Linksys router) then you need to open up ports 5198 thru 5200 - details at http://www.echolink.org/firewall_solutions.htm.

If you don't open these ports, you will get a timeout when you try to connect.

If you have questions or need help, the Echolink yahoo groups are very active - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/echolink/ and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ECHOLINKHAMS/

Some Operating Tips

• Listen first - if you hear someone connect to us - give them a call !

• Don't forget to ID before you start sending control codes to the repeater.

• Check the Echolink status - the system may already be connected.

• When you first connect to a distant node, listen before you start talking -there may be a QSO in progress at the other end.

• Announce your call and your location - E.G. This is K6XXX in Laguna Beach, California connected via the K6SOA repeater.

• The repeater timer is still 3 minutes - keep you over short.

• Wait for the repeater to completely drop before transmitting.  The Echolink timer is 2 3/4 minutes so Echolink cannot time out the repeater.  You must however, allow the repeater to fully drop or you will only get the change from the previous guy's timer.

• The system can still be timed out if there are multiple stations connected to it via the internet, they do not leave long breaks and they keep the system busy for more than 2 3/4 minutes.  If this happens, you just have to wait for them to leave a pause or for one of the SOARA sysops to disconnect them.

• Once you've finished your QSO, leave a pause in case anyone at either end wants to use the link. E.G. This is K6XXX standing by for anyone else who would like to use the link before we disconnect.

• If there are no takers, disconnect.

• Keep in mind the local time at the other end. E.G. If its evening here, its the middle of the night in Europe but its commute time in Hawaii.

K6SOA-R Echolink operating Schedule

(red =disabled, green = enabled)

Some Node Numbers

The following are a set of node numbers that might proved useful to play with.  When you install the software, a listing of all nodes that are currently enabled is displayed along with the callsign, local time, name or descriptive material (typically location) and node number.

The *ECHOTEST* server automatically records and plays back your audio.  Please remember to DISCONNECT once you're finished testing (its really confusing to have a QSO while connected to *ECHOTEST* - every word gets played back to you once you let the repeater drop).

If you have any questions, suggestions or comments about the system, contact Howard, kg6gi@soara.org.