Thursday, October 20, 2011

802.11 Digital Audio Repeater Linking






Some time back I planted the idea of linking analog repeater together using 802.11/HSMM.

Instead of dedicated link channels usually on 440 MHz, you'd put some of that microwave spectrum to good use.

Since most repeaters are on commercial towers, achieving the required line of site and fresnel zone clearance shouldn't be a problem.

Each repeaters audio would be converted to VOIP using an Asterisk solution or now the plug and play CL-100 controller from CAT. (As seen above)

The advantage is now that is a multi-use link. There will be plenty of bandwidth left over for APRS i-gate traffic, Winlink, etc. Not only that, but other repeater linking could be done on the same 802.11/HSMM microwave backbone.

High speed Multi-Media interconnecting backbones can support radio linking of today as well as of the future.

Large regional and statewide linked repeater systems really should give this idea some consideration.

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