#125 Creating a DIY VOTER
VOTER (Voice Observing Time Extension for Radio)
For a while now I have been involved with some troubleshooting at my radio clubs repeater site closest to me.
we have had a few issues where our equipment gets damaged from lightning water and rats.
We’ve tried to mitigate these problems however the reality is that it more of a manage the symptoms situation rather than solve the problem situation.
With this in mind we have had some damaged RTCM devices, the RTCM (radio thin client module)
is connected to the internet and to the repeater. It has an IP address and forwards the voice data to other sites or nodes that have the Allstar system setup. It’s basically like a small VOIP system that can adjust squelch and do simulcasting but the repeater site can choose what settings to enable or disable.
In our case its just connecting the Voice data to the internet so that club members can chat with other repeater/node users over a greater distance through the internet.
E.G: talking to someone in Durban is not possible using VHF at the altitude where I am situated, due to the terrain, large mountains and a hefty over 100Km+ distance away VHF will have a really hard time. Also with all the solar whether these days… I would expect diminishing results.
But… with an RTCM connected to a repeater or a Node, I can now communicate over that distance using Analog VHF radio to the RTCM over the internet and then through the repeater or node on the other side in this case in Durban.
So now the big issue I had was that RTCM devices will be just under 10K south African ZAR from America for 1 with shipping and all the tax applied it’s very expensive and I wish money was no object but the truth is our club is not super financially inclined due to many reasons a lot of them out of our control.
This prompted me to investigate on an alternative and I found a few but I chose the original 2011 VOTER PCB which allows us to do the same thing basically just on the prototype board.
Of course this rises some concerns like:
- THT components used
- Parts are all PDIP and most have to be substituted
- No case provided
- A larger size
But… in my case weighing up the pros and cons there’s no major issue using this VOTER version.
So I got a few professionally made, read the datasheets for all the IC’s and purchased the available parts.
I also substituted the parts no longer available and integrated them with some small modifications.
(I will create my own PCB based on this in the future for better availability and usability)
Overall It took me around 3 month just to read all the datasheet and to get familiar with they systems bootloader and firmware of the VOTER PCB not to mention learn about the Allstar system as I had not really been educated on it. Though it was worth it and the research paid off in the end.
I was able to learn fast and I can say that I was happy with this project and the VOTER boards turned out great!!
