Simple Voter

This feature requires that the USB radio devices on the remote voting receivers are connected directly to each voting receiver's discriminator/quadrature detector output.

You need a complete node for each site you wish to implement in this scheme. Voting receiver nodes should be receive-only, should be implemented with private node numbers, and configured to not attempt to register or report to the AllStarLink network.

The receiver at the main/transmitter site can be one of the voting receivers, and can be a regular node that connects to the AllStarLink network.

GPS receivers and additional hardware are not required for this scheme. As a result, you may notice audio artifacts as the system switches between receiver sites, as not everything will be totally synchronized.

Not VOTER

This has nothing to do with the VOTER feature of ASL3 that uses the VOTER/RTCM radio interfaces for receiver voting and/or simulcast. This feature is a crude implementation of RSSI-based receiver voting, using node hardware.

You must use the USBRadio channel driver. Signal strength reporting must be turned on for all voting devices in /etc/asterisk/usbradio.conf as follows:

sendvoter=1                         ; 0=default, no voter SSI, 1=enable voter

In the rpt.conf [nodes] stanza, voting receiver nodes must be identified by IP address or FQDN and have the keyword ,VOTE at the end after NONE. For example,

[nodes]
...
63001 = radio@mycall.dyndns.org:4569/63001,NONE,VOTE
...

In the rpt.conf Node Number stanza, you need to add the voter options.

For your main/transmitter site:

[63001]
...
votertype=1                         ; 0=default, no voting, 1=voter repeater, 2=voter receiver
votermode=2                         ; 0=default, no voting, 1=voter one-shot, 2=voter continuous
votermargin=10                      ; 10=default sets signal margin to vote a new winner
startup_macro=*21999                ; connect to remote voter receiver in monitor only mode
...

For your remote receiver site:

[1999]
...
votertype=2                         ; 0=default, no voting, 1=voter repeater, 2=voter receiver
votermode=2                         ; 0=default, no voting, 1=voter one-shot, 2=voter continuous
...

Observe in the above, remote receiver sites are votertype=2.

Ensure your remote receiver sites have the statspost_url in rpt.conf commented out to prevent status posting to the AllStarLink network, and ensure the register= line is commented out in rpt_http_registrations.conf. The remote receiver sites are receive-only, so there is no point in anyone having the ability to connect to them.

After testing, change the startup_macro on your main/transmitter node to make a permanent monitor connection to your remote receiver(s).

With this feature, in addition to the usual repeater with voting receivers configuration, you can construct things like a repeater with voted sectored/directional receive antennas and receivers, or a centrally located transmit site with no duplexer/receiver and one or more voted remote receivers.

RSSI Voting

This feature simply selects the receiver with the best signal strength. There will be a noticeable transition between receivers. So, it's not perfect, but for most applications, it's good enough considering the cost and complexity.