Metaphor: a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else. Could also be a Figure of speech, allegory, trope even figurative expression, take your pick and by pick i do not mean a digging implement or a device for strumming a guitar. I mean choice and by choice i do not mean the best part of a cream or the first pick of produce, i mean the act of making a selection. And my selection i do not mean natural selection as in evolution as defined by darwins theory, I mean the act or process of selecting. I could go on and on ad infinitum, I can do English, me.
Wouldn’t it be great if another electronic device could do that? Oh, wait there is such a device it’s called a smart or cell phone.
Yes, it takes a decent wifi connection for allstar/echolink. Although I have had success with one bar in our rural area. I prefer allstar over echolink as I find it more portable and the ability to tweak things. I have two allstar nodes now. Micro-Node AE by Mark there in Henderson. Expensive, but it is a plug and play unit and Mark is great to work with. Then I built my own node to connect to an Alinco 235 for around town allstar RX and TX.
I'm not a big fan of Echolink..... or any other "radio service" that requires an Internet Connection.
Some nodes permit EchoIRLP, which is Echolink into the IRLP node. This does require explicit permission by the IRLP node owner (when setting up EchoIRLP) to permit Echolink IP only stations to key the repeater.
I think there is utility in it and amateurs have always taken state of the art and readily experimented and adopted it into the hobby. But wow (just wow), the Echolink software is ghastly.
A couple of years back I set it up and made a few "contacts" and have not used it since, no interest. I could see where it might be an alternative in a location like a nursing home where radio gear is not permitted.
I set it up and used it a couple of times about ten years ago. Talked to a ham I knew pc to pc and said hello to a couple guys using a repeater in San Diego. Having been there and done that I haven't used it since. It's not even on my current computer. Whatever floats yer boat I guess
