About EchoIRLP
EchoLink® software allows licensed Amateur Radio stations
to communicate with one another over the Internet, using voice-over-IP
(VoIP) technology. EchoLink allows worldwide connections to be made
between stations, from computer to computer, or from computer to station,
greatly enhancing Amateur Radio's communications capabilities. There
are more than 130,000 registered users in 150 nations worldwide!
EchoLink is most commonly used by a person to communicate computer to computer using a headset or microphone. While this may be fun, it is hardly amateur radio. I see EchoLink as being useful to reach a radio link at a remote location when there is no other access method available. In other words, if a person is traveling away from home and there is no IRLP or EchoLink on any local repeater, then using a laptop and a dialup connection, it is possible for this person to connect to his repeater back home.
Since IRLP does not offer the ability to connect a computer user into the network, a group got together and figured out how to integrate IRLP and EchoLink so that and IRLP could access both networks, thus was born EchoIRLP. Now IRLP nodes could be used to call systems on the IRLP network AND the EchoLink network and vice versa. Because most IRLP node owners don't agree with using computers as the point of communication, EchoIRLP offers the ability to block computer users from connecting to the node; however, there is the ability to override this block on a per user basis. In this way, any RF linked EchoLink node can be allowed access to an EchoIRLP node and any node member who is on travel can use a PC to connect to the node.
When using EchoLink (via EchoIRLP) to connect to other repeaters, be prepared to hear things you don't normally hear while using IRLP. Things such as the remote repeater IDs during quiet times, remote repeater courtesy tones when you unkey on the local repeater, long hangtimes from the remote repeater. Beyond these differences, EchoIRLP works the same as IRLP.