I find it to be very interesting to have this capability to talk on the thousands of repeaters which are currently on the entire Echolink network.

To a certain extent I tend to shake my head as I see new amateurs being suggested to sign up for this service because I believe its a discredit to what the hobby is; theyre playing Internet, not radio.

I couldnt fathom sitting in front of a laptop with a headset and purporting to be playing radio (with exceptions to SDR obviously, someone send me their Flex 5000A, thank you).

Frankly, its none of your business And, I will continue to recommend it to those who live in a hole, have no money, and want to experience ham radio - a request we see over, and over, and over.

I enjoy using it, and I will compare my credentials with anybodys.

What gives you the right to question or judge how others enjoy the hobby.

I asked, and possibly not so clearly, would you consider it to be more ham radio-ish if instead of the internet as links, possibly a 2GHz, or 220 links between repeaters, and not allowing keyboard users.

I thought I had clearly outlined my intent in the original post and desire not to attack, insult, or demean anyone.

As for asking questions, its part of learning and greater understanding.

I wont apologize for attempting to better understand the views of others or the current situation.

If my opinion were off base or completely wrong Id certainly do my best to modify it into accordance with the general acceptance.

Did your feathers get ruffled because many agreed with my opinion I cant see where I asked or said for anyone not to use it, but to call it radio is misleading if Im allowed to be pedantic.

Real amateur networking, using ( duh ) amateur radio does exist, but please do not confuse the real thing with EchoLink which, like all hinternet schemes, seeks to misapply and abuse amateur radio by reducing it to a useless parasite, hanging off of the internets butt.

Just as the EchoLink enthusiasts seek to turn amateur radio into an internet parasite, they in turn act as parasites sucking the blood out of this fine hobby.

The regrettable influx of non-ham stuff like EchoLink and IRLP has set back the (ham radio) art of linking amateur repeaters by RF - by several decades.

We would be much better off without them, they have no legitimate place in amateur radio.

All Haminternet links and gateways should be outlawed, or severely regulated at the very least to ensure that no more damage is done to the hobby by those fools.

I was glancing at the band chart last night, and noted hams have all-mode, all-frequency privileges over 20GHz I think.

Im not sure that banning keyboard users is necessarily right.

I suspect my hang-up is mainly the reliance upon the Internet for ham radio, as I feel while the two may meet neither should be dependent on the other.

I think to an extent its a discredit to say that EchoLink is amateur radio; 100W 59 RST both ways into Europe would be an accomplishing feat, punching DTMF and pulling up Europe over EchoLink on 2 meters strikes me as cheap and should be as rewarding as a cellular phone conversation or Skype, since thats essentially what it is.

Like the OM who had someone QSL him for a keyboard-keyboard EchoLink QSO.

Let me explain why: I cannot reach both the WB2MIC repeater (224.96Mhz, Wells, Vermont) and the K1SV repeater (146.835Mhz, Arlington, Vermont) from my location in Bondville when Im using both my Kenwood TH-F6A radio and my Comet CX-333 Antenna.

I also use Echolink to connect to different repeaters across the country and around the globe.

Echolink Ham Radio