Subj : Re: EchoLink To : Dennis Scott1:275/89.0 From : Brent Hendricks Date : Thu May 22 2025 08:40 am Good morning! Depending on how much money you want to spend and how complex you want your system to be, there are several ways to get a Simplex stationm setup. I run one here in Pensacola, FL (KF6HDJ-L ) - Here is my system. Radio: Yaesu FT 2980 (At 85)watts. Antenna: Diamond X30A (Up 22 feet). Computer Interface: RIGBlaster NOMIC. USB Soundcard interface. Software: Echolink Client in SysOp Mode on Windows 11. Some considerations to improve mysetup. Having a radio that can do 85W out of the box is nice, but outside of implementing and testing I would buy an external amplifier. Let it do the work and not the radio! Get a radio with a dedicated DATA port, you can use this for a hardware carrier sense circuit so you do not have to rely on the Echolink clients VOX to send your signal over the internet. Look in to a used Kenwood with built-in Echolink support, (As far as I know Kenwood is the only manufacture that has built in Echolink support). If you want to get into a friendly BBS / Ham Radio competition. I check in to the East Coast Reflector's Trivia Net weekly. I would like to get a friendly competition going on my BBS. Check out the BBS in my signiture for more details. Brent Hendricks (Rug Rat) bbs - bbs.catracing.org 6840 * C-Net/5 * Origin: call.rofbbs.com ports 6800 6400 8502 / 423-541-8271 (1:154/50) .