If you’re not familiar, it’s a 3G/4G wifi hotspot tied to the Verizon network. The actual device is built by Netgear.
Now in testing I notice it suffers more dead spots than my 4G cell phone from MetroPCS.
Plus it’s a 5GB limit per month on the JetPack where my MetroPCS phone is unlimited.
And looking at coverage paths for both devices the MetroPCS phone wins particularly in northeastern North Carolina.
It’s called Echolink. If you didn’t know I hold not only my Amateur Extra class license, but also my Commercial Radiotelephone license.
There are two ways to link amateur radio repeaters together on the net, one is IRLP (Internet Repeater Linking Protocol) and Echolink.
If you have your FCC issued license – go ahead and download it and check it out:
It is available for IOS and Android devices. Requires Wifi, and a minimum of 3G cell service.
In RI there are a few repeater networks that are on Echolink. But not just that – it’s repeaters on EVERY band and all over the world. So for instance I can talk to a friend out in the Seattle area just by tapping the 7 zone in the search and then selecting a repeater near him. It’s pretty damned cool.
But not all repeaters in the area are on Echolink yet. So I still need to have my Yaesu VX-7RB. It’s a rugged MIL-STD and submersible quad band radio. It coves the 6m, 2m, 1.75m, and 70cm bands plus has a general coverage receiver.
I chose the one in black:
And I suppose I’ll keep it around since while it’s nice to be able to hit my favorite repeaters on my phone, that requires either WiFi or digital phone service. And in the SHTF scenarios, digital phone services go belly up mighty fast.
