The Wide Area Network Repeater System

Welcome to the Wide Area Network Repeater System
W3WAN

W3WAN is an amateur radio partnership (club) formed to promote repeater linking using VoIP (RoIP) to connect multiple repeater sites together for emergency operations, and just for fun. Based in Pennsylvania, we cover a large portion of the state, and along with 'associate' nodes, we cover a whole lot more.

The WAN Repeater System is managed by a team of ten 'Core' members. The first hams to experiment locally with this technology were Scott Zimmerman - N3XCC and Dave Hunter - N3YFO who are responsible for sparking the interest, and tying the first few repeaters together in Cambria and Somerset Counties (PA) in July of 2010. Kevin Custer - W3KKC added a two of his repeaters to the system in Somerset and Warren Counties in August of 2010. In November 2010, Tom Brew - K3WS added his Carrolltown repeater, as well as a DC node at his remote residence to the system. November also brought Brian Burton - KB3ORS into the core group as director of systems support. In December 2010 Kevin Custer thought up the name Wide Area Network Repeater System which was adopted as the official name. Within days, Tom Brew established our web presence. February 2011 was a busy month! Our dedicated Hub node in Warren received the 'vanity' number 2135. Jim Knox - N5NWC and Kevin Custer added the Punxsutawney repeater to the system. We also added the Blue Knob repeater in association with core member Jeff Blake - N8PSU. We wrapped up the month welcoming in core member Jeff DePolo - WN3A and his Philly Hub and high profile UHF repeater. Jeff DePolo is also responsible for forming the amateur radio club W3WAN. In July of 2011 we welcomed our ninth core member Dave Chubski - KB3UAG owner of the St. Thomas site. In September 2011 we added our tenth and possibly final core member, Elaine Bailey - K3EMM. We must say that all of this wouldn't be possible without the effort and cooperation of Steve Henke - W9SH, as most of our servers are using the Zipper release which you can read about below.

lease take the time to explore the links below and see what's happening.

Click Here for "The Bubble Map" - a live status of the WAN-RS.

Click Here to enter the site and learn more about it.

See us on Facebook

The WAN Repeater System is based upon the technology used in the AllStar Link Network whom organizes and administrates a network of publicly-accessible (license required) Amateur Radio repeater and remote base stations accessible to each other via Voice over IP carried over a LAN, WAN, or the public Internet. The AllStar system and associated "ACID" distribution is a work in progress by Jim Dixon - WB6NIL (also known as Dude), and Steve RoDgers - WA6ZFT, and possibly others.

Most of the sites in the WAN-RS use the Xelatec distribution of the software. Instead of ACID, many site owners have chosen XIPAR, (pronounced zipper), a release from a mutual friend Steve Henke - W9SH. Zipper has dynamic Allison ducking and simple voter functionality as well as enhanced audio filter rules designed by Jeff DePolo - WN3A. These enhancements make the system more pleasant to listen to.

The owners of the WAN-RS have set-up a web based user forum for helping others with Xelatec's XIPAR amateur radio over IP software distribution. We also have a section on the AllStars' ACID and Limey Linux distributions. The forum, located at AllStarNode.Com is available as a reference and place to ask questions and get good answers.

The files below show coverage plots of a few of our repeater sites.

Click Here to see the coverage of the Hay's Mill site.
Click Here to see the coverage of the Central City site.
Click Here to see the coverage of the Seven Springs site.
Click Here to see the coverage of the Warren site.
Click Here to see the coverage of the Sheffield site.
Click Here to see the coverage of the St. Thomas site.