ARRL Audio News (ARRLNEWS) has been available via node 516229 for a while now. This service was recently updated to provide separate audio feeds for each incoming connection, although, there is a limit on the number of simultaneous connections. The audio feed automatically pauses (unkeys) between news segments. More information about the ARRLNEWS feed can be found at arrlnews.rfnet.link
I recently added another audio feed for Amateur Radio Newsline (NEWSLINE) on Allstar node 516228. Similar to ARRLNEWS, this audio feed automatically pauses (unkeys) about ten seconds every 120 seconds. Since ARNewsLine does not provide breaks between news segments, the audio pauses, then rewinds a few seconds upon resuming playback. More information about the NEWSLINE feed can be found at newsline.rfnet.link
I have it on my system using a file that downloads it and breaks it into segments then plays it. The script for it was written by Doug Crompton, WA3DSP called Playnews. It also carries the ARNewsline on Sunday at 4 PM. ARRL News is Wed night 9 pm on Allstar 457430 N8PC-R
I have not looked at Doug's scripts in a long time. Last time i looked it simply broke the audio file/playback into about 2.5 minute lengths for playback. He may have updated it now.
The 516229 node, automatically break.or pause between each news audio segment. Not a huge difference, but maybe a bit easier to listen to while pauding for transmitter timeouts and control commands.
The AR Newsline node, 516228 still just breaks/pauses at about two minute intervals since AR Newsline does not include anything in their audio or news scripts to automatically break the playback at audio news segments.
Local playback is good if you can implement it on your node(s). That's used to be the way I did it. Connecting to my Allstar nodes may be simpler for others to play the news. My Allstar nodes are just an extension of my old EchoLink and IRLP news playback nodes.
David - this is one of the best & easiest implementations I've found. I just created a crontab entry to automatically link to your node on Monday's at 7 PM and the news will be wrapped up just prior to our weekly net at 7:15. Couldn't have been any easier.
You might try increasing the value for "politeid". The default of 30 seconds may be too short to catch most of the breaks. The news segments are usually less than 2, with 3 minutes being unusual since most repeaters won't allow more than 3 minutes. A politeid value of about 180000 (3 mins) might work better, assuming your idtime is about 10 mins for USA rules. Try a few values and see what works best.
The settings in rpt.conf that determine when the ID is transmitted between other transmit and receive activity are idtime and politeid.
idtime: Specifies the interval in milliseconds for automatic ID transmission. The default is 300000 (5 minutes).
politeid: Specifies the number of milliseconds prior to the end of the idtime cycle where the controller will attempt to play the ID in the tail (after a user unkeys) if there is no ongoing transmission. The default is 30000 (30 seconds).
If the controller does not get a chance to send the ID in the tail via politeid, the ID will be played over the top of user transmission. Additionally, if beaconing is set to 1, the repeater ID is sent at the idtime interval regardless of whether there was repeater activity or not.