Setting up your own node, how much work and cost involved?

Hi guys, been away from the forum and radio for while (forgot old login and password ) and now in a new qth (realy bad for radio) local repeaters are old and bad being polite! and nearest nodes about 25-30 miles away are off more than on, going to take int. test soon and was wondering about what is involved setting up my own echolink node once passed, anbody got any experience and info to share please?
regards
Phil
M6MRP
26WF183

I did look at doing it myself, but became totally disenchanted by the 2 meter brigade & stopped using 2 FM.
As I remember the hardest part is the paperwork. It needs some figures to be given as a DBW & others in ERP watts.
There is free ware available for voice ID & the repeater it's self need not be anything special if you are doing Echolink.

Hi Daxi, paperwork doesnt wory me as I give that job to the XYL you have to let the better half have some input on the hobby, she is also good with maths so all those nasty formulas go to her aswell, it keeps her happy and quiet for a little while.
I can leave the FT817ND on the 2m calling channel all day and be lucky to hear 3 or 4 calls its so quiet out here, it would be nice to have the node running upstairs and be able to sit in the garden with the HP and work all those worldwide echolink repeaters. I prefer the RF side as the laptop/PC setup does not sound real to me and can be a pain with some routers, just my personal opinion.
Phil
M6MRP
26WF183

I agree, it's quiet and would be great on a handheld.

I wanted to start a D-Star repeater 3 years ago and bought 3 D-Star radios but the ongoing cost of a Static IP broadband connection on top of a hill was too much to carry on.

Most D-Star repeaters around here are at Amatuers houses and unless your very lucky and live on a mountain top it's not the best coverage that you could expect like FM repeaters....

Maybe one day we will get it sorted....

There is a trick to the static ip bit, our last tennant in this qth was involved with a university it/network group and had the qualifications to go with it and when I had a problem with EL on Vista he stuck a little program in the lappy which locked it to a static ip to fool the isp and the router? it is still working to this very day, to add to this when they left the property he said the BB conection is free forever and there was no registered telephone connection? as my mrs is the local sub post master/mistress we got the phone line connected through the post office and the BB connection is still there (they said there is no BB connecton on the line) it is still on and working fine nearly 2 years later, dont know the exact details but it is somehow routed through a university server but it does have a roaming ip address, its totaly free and not connected to sky or a phone provider so we leave it well alone.
I will see if I can find out what the ip lock program was.

While packing for our trip to Huddersfield later today I tried to listen to the GBRS news reading on 2m and got nothing as I can only hear 1 of the readers who must have a good take off in my direction from Sunderland, then I switched the HF on to 40m to see if I could hear Gunter in Germany reading the news and the noise level was up to S9+ so that was a non starter as well, I desperately need an HF antenna that is small and low noise and my 2E0 so I can use VHF for at least EL via a node otherwise radio will be totaly out of the question here in this hole.
Phil
Phil

Phil. Take a look at my photo's on here. I also live in a hole. Plus I am totally surrounded by very close housing, so noise levels are normally terrible & VHF is mostly difficult. But I still manage to operate.
Some times something as simple as using a decent speaker can make all the difference on HF. I use an old PYE PMR speaker, it was designed for use on voice traffic & gives a much more easily read audio. I also use a electrical extension socket with filtering fitted & use a Howes audio filter & it all helps me to operate here.
For an antenna, I have had a Diamond CP-6 since my M3 days & it's a fair antenna, given the space restrictions I face. But a vertical gives more noise than a horizontal. I also use a offcentre dipole folded around the loft for 40 to 6 meters & various end fed antennas & an endfed can again help with the noise, as it gives electrical separation between antenna & radio. Plus you can earth the antenna at it's base with a balun, which again helps.
But at the end of the day we just have to do what we can with where we live & I find the bands between 20 & 6 meters give me low noise & reasonable distances even at low power. Although 20 meters can still give me S7 to 9 of noise.

Hi Daxi back from Huddersfield and I loved using their GB3YW tone squelch repeater it is like chalk and cheese with what we have here.
I have also got a Pye pmr speaker from my taxi driving days and it does make the 817nd sound a lot better, couldnt even get an 10m dipole in this loft (only a crawl space realy split into two) tried end feds and have a box full of baluns/ununs/toriods non help, purchased some solid copper earth rods and sunk them their full 1.5m into the ground spread out in the garden and linked with earth braid still no good. The noise here is like a constant fuzz and I think it is from the AC supply which is on poles outside the front and side of my house, best noise reduction result on 40m was with a homebrew magnetic loop but it was a swine to tune, my delta loop was good on 40m RX but due to size and needing the mfj tunner no good on TX, 20m 17m and 15m are much less noisy but for some reason that I can only put down to location nobody can hear me, if I go up the hill with the same gear portable no problems? other amaetures that have lived in the town all gave up years ago and it is well known as a mobile black spot.
I have just taken down my 40m inverted V as my experimental homebrew gain master on the mfj tuner was hearing weak signals that could not be heard on the inverted V (or on a 10m long end fed on an unun tied to ground) the HB GM was only 5ft off the ground, it realy has me stumped.
Also tried a cobwebb and that was a waste of time.
To be honest I think I will give up on HF apart from 15/12/10m where I can use either the tried and tested delta loop or a gain master when I can afford one, reason being I am spending more time trying to get a decent antenna working than actualy having any qso's.
Its a strange hobby.
Phil

Just had a look at your pictures Daxi and you must have some very understanding neighbours, if I put up anything like that I would have a angry hoard at my door with the local planing dept shaking their clipboards at me lol, even the delta loop must come down if it waves in the breeze!
I had a sigma 4 copy up and within two days I had 4 complaints fearing death or distruction of property.
Radials are also out of the question here as the neighbours boundries and public footpaths are too close to the rear of the house, and the front is a main road with school kids and school busses.
Phil

I have a HW-20 zig-zagged around the loft & it works really well. The SWR is a little higher than Nigel claims for an open air installation, but that is to be expected. Especially as the poor thing is crammed into a tiny space. This antenna should be resonant on several bands between 20 & 6 meters, but it's below 3:1 on most for me, so I'm happy & 40 meters seems to work as well, if not slightly better than the CP-6.
I have had to add a choke ferrite clip on the coax just before the radio to achieve the above, but as I said, given what I have done to the poor thing, that is to be expected.

I have also been playing with the qrp KGD very short dipole designs, experimenting with the 20m version (less than 6ft long) at the mo. with the coils wound on FG instead of conduit so it should be able to take a bit more than qrp power and if that works out may try a 40m version as it will fit snugly under the vhf horizontaly on the pole on the roof, but finished with wires due to no space to swing cat here.
If I can get all the plans up I will also post a picture taken as a screen shot from WSPR and it shows on the map the penines encircling my qth and my signals being received from my end fed vertical faning out where no hills are in the way (to the North East, East and South East only basicaly)
Phil

Here is a link to the WSPR screen grab showing my take off. Still no luck with hosting PDF files yet.
https://i.servimg.com/u/f45/17/65/56/91/imag0010.jpg
Phil