"James" wrote in message
. ..
Echolink is communication on the internet. Millions of people do that
daily, with no license needed.

You can do the same thing with a cellphone.


There is nothing wrong with Echolink, but it is silly and dishonest to
call
it communicating by radio, which is what hams do.

When a person says he "worked" Germany on Echolink, he is either
mistaken
or dishonest. What he has "worked" is his local telephone connection,
usually a distance of about five miles. It is hard for me to believe
that
this person could really believe that he "worked" Germany. If I pick
up
my cellphone and call Germany, can I get a QSL card for it, and get ARRL
credit ??? Huh ??

It utterly amazes me that a person would study for a ham exam, only to use
Echolink, when you can do the very same thing with any computer or
telephone. There is no ham license or ham equipment needed to talk on the
phone or on the computer. Ever heard of ICQ and other chat programs ?
Ever heard of Voice Over Internet ?

Lots of folks have fun on Echolink. For that reason, I truly think it is
Great !!! Just don't pretend that it is ham radio when the world knows
that it isn't.


Well, that's my two cents worth. See ya on the radio waves !!


73 de Jim K4PYT


I agree that echolink, on its own isn't radio, but that is why I added that
at least on one of the ends should be connected by radio. Preferably, your
end would be at least using the radio, or what is the purpose of getting a
radio license.
As for just calling someone in Germany, I can't say that I would know too
many people that I could just randomly call and would (a) be willing to talk
to me and (b) that I would be able to understand, since I don't know German.
At least, with ham radio you have a start, since you usually can hear them
before you start talking to them. I have never used echolink to
communicate, so I am not exactly sure how that is kept straight on there,
though.
Also, if I were to talk to someone in Germany, by echolink or IRLP, I would
state it as that and not that I "worked" them. I agree that there is much
more to be said for working a station by HF, than when someone is doing by
way of the Internet. But it is a form of communication that is available to
hams and should be exploited as much as possible, so that it can be used in
any times of need.
I am sure that probably locally during Katrina, all Internet was out, but if
someone was on the fringe of the outage and could reach a repeater that was
linked to IRLP or echolink, then he would be able to communicate anywhere
and get messages into out of the area by that means. Not quite as good as
HF, but if you don't have the privileges, then it is a start.