EchoLink is a curious hybrid — it’s VOIP for amateur radio, like a Skype for licenced ham radio stations. Base stations that are continents apart but connected via Echolink can act as repeaters, so that anyone driving within reach of one of these stations can talk to anyone within reach of any other station. In the specialized world of ham radio, it has apparently made quite a splash, with 170,000 registered users in 158 countries (according to the site).

And now comes the Google Earth network link [KMZ] that shows all the currently connected stations, live. Very cool, that. More info here. Ten-four.

(Via Ben Sutton, who explains how it comes in handy for him. There is also a Mac Echolink client.)