Since the early 1980s, the MAARS technical team has always experimented with linking the repeater to other locations. They first experimented with using the telephone to call into telephone conference bridges with other repeaters. In 1990 MAARS installed a frequency agile VHF and UHF remote base. This was used to connect to the Baraboo swapnet on Sunday mornings. This was also put into use for during severe weather nets for the Sullivan weather office.
In the early 2000s Tim N9KGT started to experiment with a system called iLink. This system did not catch on and has pretty much disappeared. In 2002 with the help of Christian KC0ARF and Jack K9JAC MAARS installed IRLP. This system is still used today by our members to connect around the world. Every week we connect to the North America Hand-shaker net on the Western Reflector node #9617 with check-ins from all over the U.S.
In 2012 Bob N9GMT the introduced Allstar Link Network to the repeater. We use this to connect our Wednesday night swapnet into the FM38 network.
