KI4SBA

Well, after about 3 days with the ID-880H I've given up on KI4SBA. From now on I'll use WX4GPB or WD4STR. My car can reach them both.

Now if I was talking to a local this would not be a problem but KI4SBA has some network issues. I think primarily it has to do with distance from the CO and bandwidth used by both EchoLink and D-Star. This is unfortunate because KI4SBA is at a location that has some great coverage. It would be a good asset during emergency use but can one count on it to be reliable to provide outside connections to places outside its RF foot print?

Much of this reminds me of SIP. I have an Asterisk server at home. We use one at work and I've grown to love it. Asterisk provides me the features of a commercial VoIP PBX without the cost. To really get the benefit though you have to drop your TDM connections and go with SIP trunks and SIP phones. You learn all about these nice features and after about a week you have to deal with reliabilty issues. SIP trunks not registering. Running out of $$$ at your SIP provider. Phones not registering, etc. It is like you have the great system but it is all based on the unreliabilty that is the Interent. It is obvious that those that work TDM did not write this stuff. It is what it is and SIP is here to stay but IMO it is just an example how we can have some great technlogy using the technology of the Internet and it can be horribly unreliable.

It is so unfortunate that such a great system has such a shoddy connection to the outside world. We'll call it a handicap.