Echolink to Arcom 210 Controller
We decided to replace our old black box interface with an Signal Link USB interface to our Windows 10 computer. The old interface developed some issues over the years so it was time to upgrade it. Finding information on how to connect Echolink to an Signal Link boxes was not the easiest thing to find on the web. The hard part was making an simples interface cable to go from the Signal Link RJ-45 jack to the DB-9 connector on the back of the Arcom 210 controller. So I cut an old Cat 5 cable in half and solder on a DB-9 connector using the signal pairs of the cat 5 cable to provide signals and ground for each type of signal. You will need audio in and out and for controlling the transmission the PTT of the Signal Link goes into the COS input of the controller. Inside the controller make sure the COS signal jumper for your port is set to LOW active. I used the twist pairs for signal and ground so Brown for Arcom audio out, Blue for Arcom audio in, and Orange for COS/PTT. This interface has been working great for four years now without any issues.
Signal Link to Arcom 210 Cable
| Signal Link | Signal Link | Cat 5 | Arcom 210 | Arcom 210 |
| Desc | Pin {RJ-45} | Color | Pin {DB9} | Desc |
| Spk | 8 | Brown | 4 | TX Audio Out |
| Mic | 4 | Blue | 5 | RX Audio In |
| PTT | 2 | Orange | 7 | COS |
| GND | 1 | White Orange | 6 | GND |
| GND | 5 | White Blue | 8 | GND |
| GND | 7 | White Brown | 9 | GND |
SETTING THE SOFTWARE
ECHOLINK TO THE SIGNAL LINK BOX
Now that you got the hardware installed it is time to configure Echolink to talk to the Signal Link box. Of course the first step is to tell Echolink to use the USB sound card device under the “System Setup” page and “Audio” tab.
Moving on to the “SYSOP” page and the “RX Cntrl” tab select VOX so that Echolink Vox control will send any received audio via Echolink is sent to the ARCOM controller.
Moving on to the “SYSOP” page “TX Cntrl” tab again select External VOX for transmit. This will use the built in VOX control in Signal Link to control the PTT signal.
NOW THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART: To make sure that the signal link goes into PTT. We use “Tone Burst” but we use a very short Tone burst so that its doesnt get heard on the transmission. Select “At the beginning of each TX” set the frequency to “1750” and a duration of only “10” milliseconds. Having this on made sure all traffic coming from Echolink got sent to the controller.
One of the fun things you can do with the Echolink software is to have it ID our repeater with fun and/or important messages. Our club has a couple professional DJ as members they help us out by recording any announcements we want to make. Just us the program “Audacity” to record and edit the audio then saving it out as a Microsoft WAV file. In Echolink under the “SYSOP” page “Ident” tab. Select “External File” as select the WAV file that you want to broadcast. Then make sure you only check “While Not Active” and select around 40 minutes are good for the broadcast. {10-15 minutes for important alerts}. Also check “Wait For Clear Frequency” other wise it will ID right over top of conversations. Just make sure all other check marks are unchecked.
When making your WAV file try to keep them short around 10 seconds at the most. You can have a lot of fun with this feature. We have members that have recorded the repeater ID which they seem to enjoy. We leave the controller ID on so that we can have broadcast that dont ID plus keeping the ID at the legal ID of 10 minutes.