Personally, I don't think there is any substitute for good old ham radio talk, but sometimes there are needs for other means of communications. I have several friends that live in areas where radio propagation is not always good, and Echo Link has filled that gap.

Echo Link offers the Ham Radio operator the choice of communicating with more operators, some that are not able to put up antenna systems. With Echo Link you can extend your communication capabilities by getting into radio systems, and repeaters, all over the country, and the world.

One of the best things about Echo Link is that it gives you the ability to contact your Ham friends that are in distant areas, and even while they are out, and about town mobile with telephone quality signals. And, of course, they can contact you, in your town, through your local Echo Link repeater.

Another nice thing is that it gives the ham operator the ability to establish a contact with a DX station, then setup a sked with him at a selected frequency and time.

Some operators are confused about chatting with a DX station through their local repeater. Remember, when you connect to a Echo Link DX station you are only talking locally to your repeater site. The DX station is not a DX contact, he is just a wire line remote control station connected to the repeater. You can exchange QSL cards, but you must mark them as an "Echo Link internet contact", not a radio contact.

I have heard Hams say, "What's to keep non-licensed people from getting on Echo Link". Well, I have yet to hear one, and I think the people at Echo Link do a good job of making sure that no un-licensed people get access. But, it is up to the registered ham users, to keep unauthorized people from accessing their computer and Echo Link.

You know, there is no real way to keep unauthorized people from getting on any radio transmitter, as well as Echo Link, other than to do your best to keep your equipment in a secure a place as possible. So with that in mind, don't blame Echo Link for any unauthorized traffic you may hear, or think Echo Link is to blame, or it is a bad idea. Just report the violation to Echo Link officials.

Let me also say, that I don't agree with internet chat rooms, and personally, I think most of the users are sick individuals, that I sure don't want to talk with. Echo Link is much more than a chat room. They keep it clean by restricting it's use to only us amateur radio operators.

When you use Echo Link, you are not just talking on an internet connection, you are a ham radio operator, with the capabilities of connecting to radio transmitters, or repeater stations, located all over the world. When you connect to a -R or -L station, such as KØAMC-R, the club repeater station in High Ridge, Missouri, it is just the same if you were sitting in High Ridge, at the repeater site, with a microphone plugged into the repeater. This is the big difference between Echo Link and a chat room. This is also the reason anytime you access a repeater (-R), or Simplex link (-L) radio station, you need to use your call sign, and identify within every 1Ø minutes, and keep your language clean, remember, you are controlling the repeater station.