IRLP

[KE7NBN]

Hi Everyone,

I got my feet wet with IRLP when my family and I went to So. California on vacation.  I wanted to stay in contact with my friends up here and be able to check in on the Sunday evening ward net.  I live in Puyallup, Washington and I was visiting Rancho Cucamunga, California.

Before I left, I searched for repeaters in the area I was vacationing in that had IRLP.  I only found one and it was 70cm.  I took my Yaesu FT-50R HT and a mag mount dual band antenna.  I contacted the repeater owner and told him what I was planning on doing.  He said he would switch the repeater over to the high gain antenna while I was there.

When I arrived in Rancho Cucamunga, I had already set up a schedule with one of the Hams up here in Washington, so I could try out the IRLP.  Everything went as planned and I had a nice QSO.

Here is how to use IRLP.  Go to the IRLP website and pick a repeater you want to talk to.  It will have a 4 digit node number.  On your radio, go to a local IRLP repeater and listen for a few seconds to make sure it isn't busy.  Then announce your call sign and say you are connecting to node number 1234, then without unkeying enter 1234 on your radio key pad and unkey.  The repeater will do the rest and announce something like "Connecting to node 1234".  Then you will hear "Node connected".  At this time you can call CQ or if you already have a schedule arranged, call the persons call sign. I usually do a slow count to five, after the other end finishes talking, before I respond.  That is a good habit when talking on any repeater so you can give others a chance to break in if they want.

When you are finished talking, announce your call sign and say you are disconnecting from node 1234 and without unkeying enter 73 on the keypad and unkey.

If the local repeater owner has a website, it is always best to look at the website before using the repeater for IRLP.  He may have other codes in order to access IRLP and also have other procedures when using it.

I hope to be hearing you on the W7DK repeater some day.

[KI6DKC]

Thanks for the description of how it works.  I've wanted to try IRLP and Echolink for years but haven't known how.  Your description helps me understand how the system generally works.

I have talked on IRLP once when a guy from the UK came on the local club repeater.  He initiated everything so I had no clue what he had done.  It was pretty cool driving around in my truck talking to a guy in England on 2 meters.  I was running 5 watts on my mobile rig and he was running an HT as he walked home from the market.