After years of being off the air (couldn't put up any kind of decent antenna outside my apartment), I finally got back on with Echolink and an interface program called Qtel. The latter is a version of Echolink that is specifically tailored to the Ubuntu operating system. I find this system works much better (for me, anyway) than the standalone Echolink software (I cannot seem to make it work with Ubuntu, even with the Wine emulator), which suits me to a T since I can now get back into ham radio, even if it isn't the standard OTA version.
Echolink works with traditional amateur stations, using them as links, gateways and such, so this program can be considered as one that brings amateur radio into the 21st century. It is not, as the FAQ page states, a "chat room", but is in fact a program which literally connects computers to amateur stations world wide, using streaming audio and the power of the Internet.
I am glad I discovered Echolink (and later Qtel when I switched from Windows to the Ubuntu OS) when I did. I am now checking into a weekly roundtable discussion net run by a local radio club I belong to; in fact, it is on the air as I write this, retransmitting the nightly ARRL news. Half the time, like tonight (!), I forget it is on.
Oh well. I'll just have to write myself a note with the net's schedule and post it above my desk where I cannot possiby ignore it (!), so I can get on it again as I used to. I don't, indeed cannot, get to the club's meetings these days (the meetings often break up after 10 p.m. EST; the local transportation service doesn't run that late anymore, to say nothing of the fact that the one ham who is very local to me (he lives in the next block) will not speak to me, for some reason, so I figure by checking into the weekly roundtable I can make up for that.
The URL for Echolink is
http://www.echolink.org. The program was developed by a New England ham, Jonathan Taylor, K1RFD, and is available free of charge to all licensed amateurs. (Qtel is an extension, if you will, of EL that allows the program to be used with computers running under Ubuntu). I recommend this software to any amateur who, like myself, is in a situation where any kind of outdoor amateur radio antennas are forbidden by lease restrictions (very unfortunately, recent changes in FCC rules which now allow outdoor television antennas in apartment buildings do not apply to ham radio antenna systems).
73,