HandiHam audio link

It's been a while since I've been able to find the link to the audio stream for N0BVE. it used to be on RadioReference, then it moved to Broadcastify. This morning, I found it on ShoutCast.

This is the link. Bookmark it.

It also can be found here, at the bottom of the page.

N0BVE is the local (Twin Cities, MN) HandiHam repeater. It's a network of cross-band duplex and simplex frequency repeaters, actually. The .450 (VHF), .650 (UHF), .325 (UHF), and several simplex links are all combined in this audio feed. Until recently, the local 220 MHz repeater was included.

There is at least one net every day, with EchoLink available for those without a radio or outside of RF range. It's not uncommon to find hams from other countries there, either on the nets or just hanging out. More info on the nets here. The schedule doesn't show it, but there are other nets on other evenings that are not specifically "HandiHam" nets. Friday's net, The "TechNet", is more international. Saturday's net features AR Newsline and other ham-oriented audio programs, and is more local. Other nets use IRLP (Internet Linked Radio Protocol) to transmit the net over local repeaters in various States and Canada.

The audio link is nice to have available. I wish that more repeaters did this. Recently, the local .210 (VHF) had a stream called "metro SkyWarn", but that isn't working now. A lot of hams consider feeds to be a "gimmick" that they are too cool for. If you are out of town, however, you can still listen to a repeater on your smartphone, laptop, or computer. Instead of listening on EchoLink, and keeping other people from using the node by doing so, you can listen to the feed instead. You can actually hear yourself to see how well your signal is reaching the repeater. And non-hams can also hear what's going on, to see if they might be interested in the hobby.

It's the last thing that really scares some hams, of course. Even though people can already listen to them on a cheap scanner, this is different. I'm not sure how, though. I think that it's the old idea of the exclusivity of ham radio being threatened that scares them. The Great, Unwashed Masses are a constant threat to many hams, either consciously or subconsciously. Everybody wants to get in on the "action", without paying the "dues", which will obviously ruin everything.  Aside from that, I think there's a subtle realisation that non-hams may discover how boring most of it is, and then decline to get their licence.

In any case, HandiHam has dismissed all of this and made their repeater activity public. It's probably the most active repeater in the metro, too. The word "active" is relative, of course. Hours go by with nobody using the machine, much like on the other repeaters in town. But the evening nets can easily run for two hours. The IRLP links drive activity on local repeaters in other cities, too. Lack of activity seems to be the common problem on FM, regardless of the band or the location.