Understanding Allstar

[Spider255]

I will start by saying I don't know a whole lot about Allstar and I have watched YouTube videos on the subject...

I have a UHF Tait T2010 4 channel analog radio that I want to do something with it and the first thing that comes to my mind is Allstar.... where I live there is a repeater literally a mile away from me that is linked to Freestar so it kinda makes me feel that making another sort of system would be counterproductive when there is already a freestar linked repeater to use. With that said...
I would like to do something different to access specific areas, like North Carolina from the UK and maybe some other southern states using an analog radio linked to Allstar or something like Allstar for that purpose. Maybe a Zello linked system would be a better option?

Any thoughts?

 

[k6cpo]

I will start by saying I don't know a whole lot about Allstar and I have watched YouTube videos on the subject...

I have a UHF Tait T2010 4 channel analog radio that I want to do something with it and the first thing that comes to my mind is Allstar.... where I live there is a repeater literally a mile away from me that is linked to Freestar so it kinda makes me feel that making another sort of system would be counterproductive when there is already a freestar linked repeater to use. With that said...
I would like to do something different to access specific areas, like North Carolina from the UK and maybe some other southern states using an analog radio linked to Allstar or something like Allstar for that purpose. Maybe a Zello linked system would be a better option?

Any thoughts?

Yeah, AllStar is a scourge. We have a three repeater linked system here that is connected to AllStar and it's full of interference, multiple people talking at the same time and constant beeps and whistles. The operators of the system it's connected to discourage the Mexican commercial operators from using the frequency. One of the repeaters is 2.5 miles from the International Border. Several years ago, the Mexican government granted commercial stations frequencies right smack in the middle of the US 70cm band allocation and the US has done nothing about it.

Unfortunately, connecting the system to All Star replaces one problem with another.

 

[n0xvz]

...and it's full of interference, multiple people talking at the same time and constant beeps and whistles.

Heck, I get the same thing on many analog repeaters...

EtA: About AllStarLink

 

[alcahuete]

I don't do a ton of anything above HF, but I personally love Allstar. I can access basically every local repeater "full quieting" since I'm going through the internet. A good friend lives in a place where the only repeaters that cover us both are a couple high-level repeaters that we don't want to tie up. I'll key up one of his local repeaters through Allstar or he will do the same with mine...especially if one of us is out mobile.

If I didn't need to access commercial stuff, I would do away with my radios in my car entirely. I would just use a handheld tied into an allstar hotspot and call it a day. No need for antennas, installing a radio, etc.

 

[Spider255]

I like to do radio in general, I love 2/70 analog but I see internet modes as an alternative when 2/70 is completely dead which it often is now during the day so digital/internet modes offer me an option to keep chatting staying as active as possible until there are people on 2 meters again in the evening. I like the idea of mixing internet modes with analog, that way I can still use my analog radios rather than them sitting silent all day. I've also got DMR to use as well.

I have decided to do a Zello cross link to begin with as that seems very easy to do then I will look more in to Allstar nodes later on.