[arm-allstar] Hello and questions ...

[Dan Keizer]

HI there ... I'm new to the allstarlink world.  A group of us purchased the
URIx units to try out linking some repeaters.  I must say, using the
asterisk system in an RF environment is great.  I ran quite a number of
asterisk boxes back in the day - now I only use one personal asterisk box
in one of the rack units and our group has one main one we use for our ham
radio activities.  I've administered and have some IRLP systems.  We run a
multi-band high-speed network here in Winnipeg (va4wan.ampr.org) and I have
these digital systems attached to my home 2.3GHz connection to our
network.  Our interest is to test the use of these systems for our linked
repeater system which is currently maintained by UHF linking.

I certainly like what has been done with the integration components of the
various systems, asterisk lends itself well to that.

Question -- has anyone worked with the Sierra Radio Systems controllers
previously.  Reason I ask is they have some nice gear and our local group
has some of their gear.  They had come out with a BBB interface card
(Commserver is the term) (link:  http://www.sierraradio.net  ) with audio
processor on it which hooks into their backplane on their RCB card slots
and treats the unit as a regular interface.  So, it acts as the digital
interface slot for the repeater controller.

My thinking here is that since the Allstarlink BBB systems already run
asterisk, the solution to interfacing them would be to utilize the
AllStarLink system and tap the audio channels and the COS/PTT interfaces.
We've had this commserver for a while, but with all things going on, the
group had not moved ahead with it as much as we would have really like to
have.

If no-one has worked on this type of unit before, I'd be interested in
getting some input on previous best methods to interface various units,
what modules I'd be looking at and how much coding we'll be looking at as
well.  Their solution has appeal and it would appear the best way forward
is to integrate their solution with the allstarlink world.

Appreciate any input.

73, Dan ve4drk
Winnipeg, Manitoba