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The networks

AllStarLink, EchoLink, DMR, D-STAR, Fusion, APRS, Winlink: what each one is, who uses it, and why there are so many.

Why there are so many

Each network started as one answer to one problem: linking analogue repeaters, carrying digital voice, sending position reports, moving email over radio. None replaced the others, so a club typically touches three or four. None of this is required for a first contact; a plain analogue repeater is enough. This page is for when you meet the names.

Open-source software (built on Asterisk, the telephone switch) that links analogue repeaters and hotspots over the internet. Each connection point is a numbered node; nodes connect to each other on request. The node list is public, which is why this site can show you nearby nodes and whether they are up. Licensed operators can also join a node from a phone app (DVSwitch Mobile, RepeaterPhone), which is the closest thing to "talk on a repeater from your phone". Funded by ARDC, the same foundation this project applies to.

The older phone-and-computer linking network, with a Windows and mobile app and about 200,000 validated users. It validates a licence by hand and has no public API, so this site can only show a repeater's EchoLink node number.

DMR, Brandmeister, TGIF

DMR is a commercial digital voice standard that became the most common digital mode in amateur use because the radios are cheap. Conversations happen on talk groups (numbered channels that span the world) carried by networks such as Brandmeister and TGIF. A DMR radio needs a DMR ID, issued free by RadioID.net; this site shows a callsign's DMR IDs on the lookup page.

D-STAR and Fusion

Two other digital voice systems, one designed by the Japanese amateur society and made by Icom, the other by Yaesu (System Fusion, linked through WIRES-X rooms). Each has its own radios, reflectors and etiquette. DVSwitch and hotspot software (Pi-Star, WPSD) bridge between them and AllStarLink.

APRS

The Automatic Packet Reporting System: short data packets carrying position, weather and messages, relayed by digipeaters and collected on aprs.fi. Handhelds with GPS can beacon their position; that is a track, which is why this site does not do it: presence here is one grid square you choose to share for a day.

Email over radio. A Winlink station relays messages between the radio network and the internet, and forms such as the ICS-213 used by emergency management travel that way when nothing else works. Pat is the open-source client; this site drafts an ICS-213 and hands it to Pat.

Mesh and data

AREDN and HamWAN build IP networks on amateur microwave bands for emergency data; Meshtastic is a neighbouring hobby on unlicensed LoRa radios. Neither is needed to get started.

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