Wow... it's been way too long since my last post on this blog.

Disclaimer - In what I’m describing in this post, to avoid any confusion that I’m trying to claim that any of this involves Amateur Radio, I decided to call this experiment Meadow Day (1). 

Meadow Day 2023 Experiment - Overview

In Zero Retries 0104 Request to Send, Starlink Field Day? I mentioned casually:

Now that I’m a Starlink customer, I consider communications with little terrestrial infrastructure required to be a mostly solved problem, especially when you factor in the increasingly capable battery plus solar units providing power. The combination of the Starlink hardware, battery plus solar, and Starlink subscription isn’t cheap… but it’s amazingly capable… in fact, a paradigm change. But that’s a story for a future issue of Zero Retries. Teaser - Imagine an app that ran on a laptop or Raspberry Pi that connected to another (roaming) Starlink terminal (on battery power), transferred a large file, and then “logged the contact”?

As I woke up yesterday morning (2023-06-24), I thought briefly about ARRL Field Day (2). Because of recent family events, I haven’t been able to devote much time to preparation for Field Day activities, and couldn't devote the entire day to attending a local Field Day event. But I did have a few hours… and the idea came to me fully formed, that I actually could try out “Starlink Field Day” as a proof of concept. I decided that the goal would be to "work" a few Amateur Radio Operators using broadband Internet connectivity via Starlink.

Again - to avoid any confusion that what I'm describing here involves Amateur Radio, I decided to call this experiment Meadow Day. 

Right after morning coffee time I assembled the various pieces I would need and hauled them out of N8GNJ Labs into the middle of my large yard, and started plugging them all together. To my delight… but not quite surprise, it all worked.

What I wanted to test out was, was it practical to “deploy” a Starlink system in “emergency” conditions - on battery power? Short answer, Yes. Even though it was overcast, the solar panel output at least 20 watts, and when there were “widely scattered sunbursts” the solar panel put out as much as 80 watts. The Starlink required typical 60 watts, so the battery on the EB3A trended down slowly.

It worked surprisingly well. I recorded the notes for this post using the temporary Starlink connection as described, and completed the post with the "expedient" Starlink connection that is my sole Internet connectivity in N8GNJ Labs and my office.

Major elements of my Meadow Day "station:

• Starlink terminal - Starlink antenna (Dishy McFlatface), Starlink indoor unit (power supply / Wi-Fi access point), and the Starlink Ethernet adapter.
• Bluetti EB3A battery / power supply
• Generic 100 watt solar panel
• Cisco VOIP telephone (acquired as surplus)
• Macbook Air laptop with USB headset
• Table, chair, beverage, logging sheet

Similarities with Field Day:

• Simulate emergency conditions such as loss of power and other infrastructure.
• Communicate using only what you can carry or transport.
• Set up a communications facility (station) independent of existing communications infrastructure. While it's allowed in the Field Day rules to use an established Amateur Radio station, the intent is "get out into the field" to set up a temporary communications facility (which is what I chose to do for Meadow Day).
• Communicate "out of region" to bypass assumed loss of local communications infrastructure.
• Have fun doing so.

Differences with Field Day:

• I had no desire to accumulate contacts for "points" or other aspects of the overall contest structure of Field Day.
• I was only going to operate for a few hours.
• Field in my case was my house's yard, which is ~ 1 acre.
• Meadow Day was going to use technology of 2023 - Starlink, laptop, VOIP telephone, video conferencing, and a portable battery bank being charged with a solar panel.

 

Meadow Day 2023 Experiment - Photos

Basics of Meadow Day:

• Set up portable table and a camp chair
• Set up solar panel supplying power to portable battery bank
• Set up Starlink terminal in the yard (remote from the desk)
• Set up VOIP phone (connect to Ethernet adapter on Starlink)
• Set up laptop (connect to Starlink Wi-Fi)
• Connect to a number of friends using various videoconference systems (as the most demanding test of broadband capability).

 

N8GNJ Operating Position for Meadow Day 2023
Photo by Tina Stroh KD7WSF

 

N8GNJ Operating Position Desktop 1
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

 

N8GNJ Operating Position Desktop 2
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

 

Bluetti EB3A Display (poor visibility in direct sunlight)
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

 

Generic 100 Watt Solar Panel
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

The solar panel was casually positioned, leaning on a corner of the table. It was not optimized for angle or orientation, and it was a bit overcast. I have verified that in direct sunlight, it does generate the rated 100 watts (~12 Volts @ ~8.3 Amps). 

 

Bluetti EB3A Status via iPhone App (via Bluetooth)
Screenshot by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

 

Cisco VOIP Phone Configuring Itself
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Funny story about this Cisco VOIP phone... I bought a small lot of these from someone six months to a year ago. I just grabbed this one out of the bin I had stored them in, and intended this to be just a "prop" for this story. For fun, because I had an Ethernet port available, I plugged it in. To my amazement, it connected to the host system (that this phone was removed from) and configured itself! I picked up the handset and got a "dialtone" (which was likely generated internally by the phone) and then dialed a couple of digits, and it worked. Not only were these phones not wiped of their configuration, but these phone's MAC addresses apparently weren't deleted from the host system. I'm sure that I could have dialed out with this phone, but I didn't want any accusation of "hacking" the host system. But it was obvious that VOIP works completely normally with Starlink.

 

Starlink Power Supply and Wi-Fi Access Point
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

 

Dishy McFlatface "deployed" (oriented Northwest)
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

This is the stand that each Dishy McFlatface (yes, that's the actual product name) is shipped with. It's intended as a starter as Starlink works best with an unobstructed view of the sky, which generally dictates a roof or tower mount. I was lucky that I have a large yard with few tall obstructions.

 

Approximate view of the sky of Dishy McFlatface. Note minor tree obstruction at bottom.
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

 

Starlink Status (1) via iPhone App (via Wi-Fi)
Screenshot by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Note that the phone is in Airplane mode - Wi-Fi connectivity only.

 

Starlink Status 2 via iPhone App (via Wi-Fi)
Screenshot by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

For approximately the first 24 hours of operation, in a combination of downloading data from the Starlink satellites, trying different azimuth / elevation settings (Dishy has both attitude and rotational motors, though they're rarely used), and and observing outages with various satellites, Dishy will eventually orient itself to provide optimum connectivity. My Dishy orients itself to the Northwest where there are few obstructions.

 

Meadow Day 2023 Experiment - Contacts

One goal of Meadow Day was to utilize a number of different videoconference systems. Like almost all broadband Internet access systems (other than fiber), Starlink prioritizes downlink speeds over uplink speeds, so it was an interesting test to see if the various videoconference systems would work acceptably on Starlink, especially in this ad-hoc quick setup.

Prior to recording the following screenshot images, I verbally asked each participant for their permission to record a screenshot, and all agreed.

Contact 1 - Cale Mooth K4ACK via (Google Gmail) email

My first Meadow Day contact was to Cale Mooth K4ACK to try to set up a "contact", but he was busy and replied back to me later in the day. But his reply confirmed that there were no issues in using email via Starlink even with the quick setup.

 

Contacts 2 and 3 - Ken Koster N7IPB (left) and Bruce Miller KC7IAY (right) via Jitsi videoconference

Screenshot image recorded by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Neither N7IPB or KC7IAY noted any issues with my video or audio quality.

 

Contact 4 - Merideth Stroh KK7BKI via Apple Facetime videoconference

Screenshot image recorded by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

KK7BKI didn't note any issues with my video or audio quality.

 

Contact 5 - Budd Churchward WB7FHC via Zoom videoconference

Screenshot image recorded by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

WB7FHC didn't note any issues with my video or audio quality.

WB7FHC recorded the video of our 26 minute conversation. We did a brief overview of what I was trying to accomplish with Meadow Day.

Video link My thanks to WB7FHC for editing our video conversation to a watchable 9 minutes.

 

Contact 6 - Steven Roberts N4RVE via Facebook Messenger videoconference

Screenshot image recorded by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

N4RVE didn't note any issues with my video or audio quality.

 

Contact 7 - Bill Vodall W7NWP via Signal videoconference

Screenshot image recorded by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

W7NWP didn't note any issues with my video or audio quality.

 

Contact 8 - Dewayne Hendricks WA8DZP via Signal videoconference

Screenshot image recorded by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

WA8DZP didn't note any issues with my video or audio quality.

 

Completed N8GNJ Meadow Day 2023 Logsheet.
Photo by Steve Stroh N8GNJ

 

Meadow Day 2023 Experiment - Conclusions

What was remarkable about my experience with Meadow Day 2023... was how unremarkable the experience was.

The Bluetti EB3A portable battery / inverter unit with the 100 watt solar panel just worked to provide AC power to operate the Starlink terminal and Cisco VOIP phone. I connected my laptop to the EB3A's USB-C port to charge it (that cost a bit of battery power). If the day had not been cloudy (direct sunlight) the solar panel would have provided a surplus of power.

When using Starlink as an emergency communications system, it's impressive just how plug and play Starlink is:

• Pull everything out of the box,
• A bit of minor mechanical assembly,
• Connect the cables,
• Place Dishy so that it can see the (as unobstructed as possible) sky (avoiding pointing at obstructions like trees will get online faster),
• Apply power to the router,
• Do a bit of configuration (name, password) in the phone app (only required for the initial setup),
• And… done! Online (via Wi-Fi) at broadband Internet speeds.

Within two minutes of powering up the Starlink, it was providing a broadband Internet connection. I cheated just a little bit knowing that in my area, Dishy McFlatface "prefers" to be facing Northwest, so I saved a bit of time by placing it in that orientation.

To be online at broadband speeds, capable of doing realtime video at reasonable quality, using no local infrastructure, required perhaps fifteen minutes of setup.

Could be better:

• The Bluetti EB3A, rated at 268 Wh (Watt Hours) was probably inadequate for extended operation (with no solar input) of the loads of:
  • Starlink terminal
  • VOIP phone (AC power adapter)
  • Laptop charging / operation
  • Small light (for nighttime operation)
  • Incidental charging - phone, etc.
• Newer, slightly more expensive solar panels are larger (provides more power), flexible, and lighter.

I deem "Meadow Day 2023" a success!

 

Notes:

(1) I didn't want there to be any confusion that my experiment had anything to do with Field Day, thus I created the title "Meadow Day".

(2) The Field Day event held during the Summer is ARRL Field Day. There is also Winter Field Day that is independent of ARRL.

 

Note - This post was actually completed and posted on 2023-10-16, but it will appear in the blog timeline as 2023-06-25, when I should have written and posted it.

Radio Waves:  Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy! Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Markku Koskinen, David Goren, Troy Riedel, and David Iurescia for the following tips: No matter what happens in the […]

Read more at ARRL.org

Ever since I built my RaspberryPi/SHARI AllStarLink node I’ve had to manage connecting/disconnecting to/from other nodes using the Allmon2 or Supermon web admin interfaces. These work fairly well albeit, a bit clunky and buggy. It’s impossible to use from a mobile device though and so I have to get my Macbook out each time I want to connect/disconnect nodes.

Being a Node-RED fanatic I decided that I should put something together that was more portable, mobile friendly and much easier to use. A simple user interface is all that is required and can be achieved very easily using the standard Node-RED dashboard nodes.

Initially I started investigating the Linux command-line interface for Asterisk, the VOIP system that underpins AllStarLink (ASL). I very quickly discovered that the ASL node can be very easily controlled directly from the command-line and that this would be an ideal interface to use to enable node management via a Node-RED dashboard.

In very little time at all I had an experimental control dashboard working with the ASL node and was able to connect/disconnect to/from a single node. All that was required now was to extend this so that I could connect to a number of nodes with nothing more than a push of a button.

The resultant flow consists of 3 sections, Connect/Disconnect Main Flow, Manage Node Subflow and /var/log/asterisk/connectlog Subflow.

The Connect/Disconnect Main Flow handles all the input from the buttons on the dashboard and the communication to the underlying Asterisk VOIP system.

The button status is denoted by 3 colours, green (Ready to connect), orange (Transitioning to/from connect) and red (Connected). Each button is updated automatically by the button refresh function that is triggered every 2 seconds.

The Manage Node Subflow provides a simple interface to restart the Asterisk VOIP system, reboot the RaspberryPi and shutdown the RaspberryPi. The node status is automatically updated every 45 seconds and will show when the Asterisk subsystem is being restarted or the node is being rebooted or shutdown.

Finally the var/log/asterisk/connectlog Subflow monitors the Asterisk connectlog looking for connect/disconnect messages so that it can signal to update each button status.

Each section of the dashboard can be collapsed/opened by touching/clicking the little blue arrows on the right of the dashboard. The dashboard works fine on Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS and Linux.

If you’re not familiar with Node-RED and haven’t yet installed it to your PC, take a look at the Node-RED Getting Started Page. The information takes you through installing Node-RED onto a multitude of devices including PC and RaspberryPi devices.

Once you have Node-RED installed all you need to do is download the AllStarLink Control Dashboard Flow and import it to your Node-RED flow editor.

Once downloaded, select Import from the burger menu icon on the right-hand side of the flow editor as shown below and import the flow file.

Once imported you will find that some of the nodes in the flow are not available. This is because you need to add them to the flow editor palette before being able to deploy the flow.

Drop down the same menu as shown above but, this time select Manage Palette. This will open another window where you will need to select the Install tab as shown below.

You need to install two node sets to complete the flow, node-red-contrib-bigssh and node-red-dashboard. Type in the name of each package one at a time in the search bar and then click the Install button.
Once the two packages are installed you then need to configure the credentials for logging into your RaspberryPi. This is simply done by double clicking the blue Send Command to ASL node at the top of the main flow and then clicking the Pencil button at the end of the Credentials field. This will open another window where you will need to type in the IP Address of your ASL RaspberryPi into the Host field, then enter 22 into the port field, add repeater into the Username field (repeater is the default username, if you have changed this then you will need to add the new username name in instead) and then the password associated with the repeater login into the Password field. (Normally allstarlink)

Once this is done, do the same on the other blue nodes, namely “Get Node Uptime“, “Command =>> RaspberryPi” and “Tail ConnectLog”.

The final thing to setup is the dashboard size. Click on the downward pointing triangle at the top right of the menu bar (under the burger menu) and select dashboard. Check that the sizes are set the same as in the image below. For some reason, these settings aren’t always imported (Possible bug?) so, if your dashboard layout isn’t like shown above it will be because these settings failed to import.

You are now ready to deploy your AllStarLink Control Dashboard!
Press the red Deploy button at the top of the flow editor window.

To access the dashboard from any device, open your favourite web browser and enter the following URL: http://IP-Address-of-Node-RED-Computer:1880/ui

Finally, if you want to change the nodes that each button connects/disconnects you will need to edit the set flow var’s function at the top of the main flow. All you will need to do is replace the existing node numbers taking care not to alter the rest of the code in any way otherwise, it could stop the flow from working.

Once you’ve edited the node numbers, double click on the associated button node and change its Label to show the new node name.

Once your changes are complete, Deploy the flow again and your changes will be live.

This is version 1 of the ASL Dashboard, I already have ideas for version 2 that will also have the ability to enter a node number into a field and connect to it without the need to program it into a button.

More soon …

I arrived yesterday (5th September) and have erected the DXCommander. The BTV is waiting until...

Release Date: September 7, 2024 Here is a summary of the news trending This Week...

💾

💾

This is a 1-hour version of the weekly podcast for This Week in Amateur Radio....

💾

💾

CY9C

When CY9C began operations back on August 26, there were huge pileups. On 30-meter CW, the pileup was at least 5 kHz wide. One of the reasons for this, of course, is that St. Paul Island is part of Canada and not that far from most of the United States. That made it a lot more accessible to hams here in the U.S.

I waited, and on the evening of August 31, I actually heard them calling CQ on 30 meters managed to work them on the second call.

As it turns out, I probably could have skipped it entirely. I just checked Logbook of the World (LOTW) and see that I worked CY9C on August 21, 2016; CY9SS on July 5, 2005; ;and Cy9A on July 31, 2003.

VUs in the log

For some reason—maybe because I don’t really have a DX station—I had never managed to work anyone in India. Well, in the last  month or so, I’ve managed to work two Indians, VU2GSM and VU2TMP. VU2TMP has QSLed via LOTW, making my current DXCC count 174.

AllStarLink

And now for something completely different, as they used to say on Monty Python’s Flying Circus….

Several months ago, the University of Michigan Amateur Radio Club (UMARC) upgraded their repeater system (145.23-, 100Hz). As part of this upgrade, they became a node on the AllStarLink network, which they have been proudly announcing on their Sunday night net. 

After last Sunday’s net, I decided to find out how to access the network. The first thing I did was to take a look at the UMARC website, or I should say websites. UMARC actually has four different web pages. Unfortunately, none of them had any information on how to access the AllStarLink network.

Then, I asked one of the club’s advisors. He wasn’t really sure how to do it either, and advised me to search for the information on the web. I did this and found a Beginner’s Guide, but this isn’t really what I was looking for. The Beginner’s Guide directs someone on how to set up their own node, not really how to use the network.

I kept looking and found the page AllStarLink Standard Commands. This is exactly what I was looking for. This page describes the DTMF sequences a user needs to connect and disconnect from nodes. Fortunately, the UMARC repeater uses this standard command set.

Next, I had to find a repeater to connect to. That shouldn’t be so difficult, I reasoned, since the network boasts that they have 34,720 users and 35,345 nodes. I started with the AllStarLink Node List. I was able to connect to a couple of repeaters, but most of them seemed either offline or inaccessible for some reason. One of the active nodes that I was able to connect to was WW8GM, the General Motors Amateur Radio Club repeater in Detroit, but I got no reply to my call there.

So, I asked on /r/amateurradio if anyone had suggestions for active or interesting nodes.  I was directed to a list of “keyed nodes,” which I guess are nodes that are currently active. Currently, this page is showing 30-35 active nodes.

One of the nodes that looked promising was a repeater in Seattle. The page showed that it was connected to at least a dozen other repeaters. When I connected to that repeater, I heard a net with everyone giving weather reports! I didn’t find that very interesting, so I quickly disconnected.

I’m told that the UMARC repeater connects to a net of student stations on Saturday afternoon. I’ll be listening for that, but really would like to know of other interesting nets or nodes on the AllStarLink network. If you know of any, please comment below.

 

Release Date: August 31, 2024 Here is a summary of the news trending This Week...

💾

💾

This is a 1-hour version of the weekly podcast for This Week in Amateur Radio....

💾

💾

Coding of version 1 of the AllStarLink Dashboard is now complete and in the final testing phase. Below is a short video clip showing some of the functionality.

The Node-RED flow for the web app is pretty compact and easy to alter should I add more functionality in the future.

The dashboard is designed such that it’ll display nicely on mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers so, I can easily control my AllStarLink SHARI node from any of my devices around the house.

I’ll put together a more detailed article on the web app once testing is complete and it’s ready to be released into the wild.

More soon …

This is more of an aide memoire for myself more than anything but, may be useful to anyone who is using a SHARI powered AllStarLink node.

Out the box the SHARI build as documented here and here uses node numbers in announcements when connecting/disconnecting. The information in this article will change this so that the announcements use the node callsigns instead of node numbers.

As user repeater, login to the RaspberryPi that the SHARI is connected too via SSH and run the following commands:

1: Edit /usr/sbin/write-node-callsigns and change SRCDIR to point to /var/www/html/allmon2

# 28/08/24 - M0AWS - Changed path to point to allmon2
##SRCDIR=/var/www/html/allmon
SRCDIR=/var/www/html/allmon2

2: Copy the astb.txt file into the necessary directory:

sudo cp /var/hdd.log/asterisk/astdb.txt /var/www/html/allmon2

3: Run the programme to create the sound files. (This will run for some time on a RaspberryPi 3b)

sudo /usr/sbin/write-node-callsigns

4: Once all the sounds files have been created, connect to another node and you should now get node name announcements instead of node numbers ….

More soon …

Release Date: August 24, 2024 Here is a summary of the news trending This Week...

💾

💾

This is a 1-hour version of the weekly podcast for This Week in Amateur Radio....

💾

💾

After writing my article on how to build an AllStarLink node using a RaspberryPi 3b and SHARI radio device I was asked by a few people if I could possibly automate the process to make it easier for those who aren’t Linux command line junkies like me.

Over the last couple of days in-between doing other things I’ve been writing and testing a BASH shell script that will completely configure a fully working AllStarLink node.

To use the script you must already have your RaspberryPi (preferably a Pi 3b) connected to your LAN with full internet access using the Raspbian based version of the AllStarLink software downloadable from here.

The specific version I use is:

asl-2.0.0-beta.6-kc1kcc-20210324-rpi-armhf

I have tested the BASH script using this specific version of O/S only.

Once your RaspberryPi 3b is up and running, has full internet access and is accessible on your local LAN, using SSH login in as the user ‘repeater‘ using the password ‘allstarlink‘.

It’s important you only use this login to configure the node as this is the user the script is expecting to be run by. You must login via SSH as the SHARI device needs to be connected to the RaspberryPi 3b and you won’t be able to connect a keyboard and mouse at the same time. (If you are using two USB cables for the SHARI device then you can use a keyboard and mouse along with a monitor attached to your RaspberryPi instead of using SSH).

Once logged in as user repeater run the following wget command to download the zipped install script:

wget https://m0aws.co.uk/AllStarLink/AllStarLinkBuild.zip

Once downloaded you need to unzip the program from the zip file and make it executable using the following commands:

unzip ./AllStarLinkBuild.zip
chmod 755 ./install.sh

You are now ready to build your AllStarLink node. Before you run the script make sure you have your node number and node secret to hand. These are obtained from the AllStarLink portal.

Once you’ve got all your node information you can run the script using the following command:

./install.sh

The script will now take you through the full process of updating the operating system as necessary, installing all the required packages and software. It will then reboot the RaspberryPi and you will need to login and run the script a second time using the command above.

On the second run the script will install some python specific software, ask you to enter your callsign, node number and node secret and will then configure your node. The last thing it does is configure the Allmon2 and Supermon Web Admin websites. During this process it will ask you to enter a password twice for the Admin user for the two websites, make sure you make a note of this password as you will need it to login and control your node.

Once the node is configured it will be rebooted and you will then be able to connect to your node using your favourite web browser and the user admin and the password you set above.

To access the Allmon2 web-admin system use the following URL:

http://your-RaspberryPi-IP-Address/allmon2

For those of you who prefer Supermon you an use the following URL:

http://your-RaspberryPi-IP-Address/supermon

I have also pre-populated the Favorites button with a list of nodes that I use often. You can easily change these entries by editing the favorites.ini file in the /var/www/html/supermon directory as user root.

When you first login to your node via your web browser you’ll notice that it says your node isn’t in the database. You can update the database by using the following URL in your web browser:

http://your-RaspberryPi-IP-Address/allmon2/astdb.php

This will force an update of the database and your node information should now be displayed correctly.

Hopefully this will make it much easier for the non Linux people to build an AllStarLink node using a RaspberryPi 3b and a SHARI radio device.

More soon …

We’ve recently added a new room to the Matrix HAM Radio Space for Digital Voice modes as this was an area of interest that didn’t really fit into any of the other rooms.

The new Digital Voice room has attracted a lot of attention from members, with a lot of the focus being on the AllStarLink system. Michael, DK1MI built an AllStarLink node in the cloud for us all to use for Matrix Nets and so I decided I had to get in on the fun.

The Jumbospot SHARI SA818 Amateur Radio AllStarLink Radio Interface was originally designed by N8AR and implements a RaspberryPi 2/3/4 hosted AllStarLink node using a NiceRF SA818 embedded VHF/UHF radio module and sound card.

The two USB connectors on the SHARI device are position such that they plug into two of the available 4 USB ports on the RaspberryPi without the need for cables. This keeps the whole solution together in one neat package.

Before you start you will need to obtain a node number and secret (password) from the AllStarLink Portal. To get this you will need to provide proof to the AllStarLink administrators that you are a licensed Amateur Radio (HAM) operator. This is done by uploading a copy of the first page of your HAM licence to the website for the admin team to check. This can take 24hrs to be completed so make sure you get this all done before trying to build your node. You cannot build a node successfully without a node number and secret.

Of course you will also need a transceiver that can operate on the 438.800Mhz frequency or other frequency of your choice on the 2m or 70cm HAM band.

You will also need to open port 4569 on your internet router and setup port forwarding to the IP Address that you will be using on your RaspberryPi node. It’s important to use a static IP Address on your RaspberryPi.

There are quite a few different Linux based operating system (O/S) images that are available for the RaspberryPi devices that have been specifically tailored for the AllStarLink node and include all the necessary software and library packages out the box.

I decided to use the Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) based distribution as it is based on the very stable and reliable Debian Linux distro. You can download the exact version I am using from the Raspbian link above or directly from my website here.

Once downloaded you need to burn the ISO image onto a suitable SD card for your RaspberryPi. I use BalenaEtcher as it’s extremely quick and reliable at burning ISO images to SD cards.

Of course if you are a hardline Linux command line junkie you can always use dd to create the SD card.

Once you’ve got your O/S onto your SD card, slot it into your RaspberryPi making sure your SHARI device is connected to the two USB ports and then power it up. Make sure you have a good PSU for the RaspberryPi as the two devices together draw around 3A of current during the transmit cycle. (I use a 3.6A PSU from Amazon).

The default login for the Raspbian O/S is shown below. Login via SSH and configure your RaspberryPi for your local network. It’s important to use a static IP Address configured either directly on the RaspberryPi or via DHCP in your router.

Login: repeater
Passsword: allstarlink
SSH port: 22

Once you have your RaspberryPi connected to your LAN you are ready to start configuring it for AllStarLink.

The first thing you need to do is login to the raspi via SSH and then become root user using sudo as shown below:

sudo su -

Once you are root user, you need to add the AllStarLink repo to the sources file and update the operating system using the following command:

curl -s http://apt.allstarlink.org/repos/repo_signing.key | apt-key add
apt update --allow-releaseinfo-change
apt dist-upgrade

Copy and paste each line one at a time into your terminal. Once the last command finishes, the system is up to date and can be rebooted as follows:

reboot

Once the raspi has rebooted, login again via SSH as user repeater and then become root user again.

You now need to install a couple of Python components that are required by the system to function. Use the commands below as user root:

apt-get install python3-dev python3-pip
pip3 install pyserial

Next you need to change directory into the asterisk config file directory using the command shown below:

cd /etc/asterisk

In this directory you will find all the default config files that come as part of the distro. For this build we’re not going to use them and so we need to move them out of the way ready for a set of config files that have already been configured correctly.

Using the following commands create a new directory, move into that new directory and then move all the unwanted configuration files into it:

mkdir ORIGINAL-CONF-FILES
cd ./ORIGINAL-CONF-FILES
mv ../*.conf ./
ls -la
cd ../

You should now be back in the /etc/asterisk directory which will now be empty apart from the custom directory which we left in place.

You now need to copy the correctly configured configuration files into the /etc/asterisk directory. Start by downloading the zip file containing the new configuration files

Once downloaded, copy the .zip file into the repeater users home directory (/home/repeater) using either scp on the Linux command line or if using Windows you can use the FileZilla Client in SFTP mode using the login details above.

Once you have the .zip file in the repeater user’s home directory you need to copy the file into the /etc/asterisk directory as user root:

cp /home/repeater/AllStarLink-Config-v3.zip /etc/asterisk/

Next as user root, change directory into the /etc/asterisk directory and unzip the .zip file:

cd /etc/asterisk
unzip ./AllStarLink-Config-v3.zip

Once the file is unzipped you will have a directory called AllStarLink-Config in the /etc/asterisk directory. You now need to cd into the directory, copy all the files out of it into the /etc/asterisk directory leaving a copy in the AllStarLink-Config directory for future reference:

cd /etc/asterisk/AllStarLink-Config
cp ./* /etc/asterisk
cd /etc/asterisk

You now need to move a couple of files into the repeater users home directory using the following commands:

mv ./SA818-running.py /home/repeater
mv ./gpio /home/repeater

Once the files have been moved you need to set the correct ownership and privileges on the files using the following commands:

chown -R root:root /etc/asterisk/*.conf
chown repeater:repeater /home/repeater/gpio
chown repeater:repeater /home/repeater/SA818-running.py
chmod 755 /home/repeater/gpio
chmod 755 /home/repeater/SA818-running.py

The gpio BASH script and configuration details were supplied by Mark, G1INU in the Digital Voice room on the Matrix. It adds the COS light functionality to the setup. The COS light will now light every time the SA818 hears RF on the input.

The next thing you need to do is configure the SA818 radio device in the SHARI. The script I used was originally from https://wiki.fm-funknetz.de/doku.php?id=fm-funknetz:technik:shari-sa818 all I’ve done is change the entries to switch off CTCSS and change the frequency to 438.800Mhz. Configuring the SA818 is done by running the SA818-running.py Python programme that you moved into the repeater user home directory. Making sure you are still user root, run the following commands:

cd /home/repeater
./SA818-running.py

At this point your SHARI SA818 device will be configured to operate on 438.800Mhz and CTCSS will be disabled.

If you want to change the frequency or enable and set a CTCSS tone to access the node you will need to edit the Python programme using your favourite text editor and change the entries accordingly. Once changed rerun the program as shown above and your SHARI will be reconfigured to your new settings.

Next you need to move the allmon.ini.php file into the correct directory so that it enables access to the Allstar Monitor web page on the device so that you can manage connecting/disconnecting nodes. Use the following commands as user root to achieve this:

cd /etc/asterisk
mv ./allmon.ini.php /var/www/html/allmon2/
chown root:root /var/www/html/allmon2/allmon.ini.php
chmod 644 /var/www/html/allmon2/allmon.ini.php

The allmon.ini.php file needs to have your node name entered into it to work correctly. As user root, change directory and edit the file using your favourite editor.

cd /var/www/html/allmon2

Using your text editor, search for the line starting [XXXXX] and change the XXXXX to your node number. Save the change and exit the file.

At this point you are almost complete, all that is left to do is add your node number and node secret into the appropriate configuration files in the /etc/asterisk directory.

Since I am a Linux command line junkie I use vi to edit all the configuration files on the command line as user root, but you can use any editor of your choice.

cd /etc/asterisk

Start with the extensions.conf file. Search for the line starting with NODE = and delete the XXXXX entry and insert your node number. Save the file and exit it.

Next you need to edit the iax.conf file. This time search for the line starting with
register= and change the XXXXX for your node number and the YYYYYYYYYYYY for your node secret. Be careful not to accidentally delete any other characters in the lines otherwise it will corrupt the configuration file.

In the same file search for the two lines that start with secret = and change the YYYYYYYYYYYY for your node secret. Once you have changed both of the secret entries, save and exit the file.

The final file to edit is the rpt.conf file. Once again open the file using your favourite editor and search for the line starting with XXXXX = radio@127.0.0.1:4569/XXXXX, change the XXXXX entries for your node number making sure not to delete any other characters next to the XXXXX entries.

Further down in the same file there is a line that starts with [XXXXX], once again change the XXXXX for your node number making sure to keep the square brackets at each end of the node number as you edit it.

Finally move down to the very bottom of the file and find the two lines that start with /home/repeater/gpio, once again change the XXXXX entries for your node number.

The final thing to change in the rpt.conf file is to replace my callsign with your own callsign so that the node identifies itself correctly. Scroll through the file until you find the two lines shown below, delete M0AWS and add your own callsign instead making sure you keep all the spaces between words as shown below.

idrecording = |i DE M0AWS
idtalkover = |i DE M0AWS

Once this is done, save and exit the file. At this point your node should be fully configured and will only require a reboot to get it working.

As user root, reboot your raspi using the reboot command.

reboot

Once your raspi comes back online, login using SSH as user repeater and then become root user using the sudo command detailed above.

You now need to create the admin user password for the Allstar Monitor web page on the device. This is done using the following commands as user root:

cd /var/www/html/allmon2
htpasswd -c .htpasswd admin

You will be asked to enter a password twice for the admin user. Make sure you make a note of this user/password as you will need it to login to the web page.

Finally check that the controlpanel.ini.php file is in the /var/www/html/allmon2 directory:

ls -la /var/www/html/allmon2/controlpanel.ini.php

If the file isn’t shown in the directory, enter the following commands to create the file in the correct place as user root and then exit the SSH session:

cd /var/www/html/allmon2
cp ./controlpanel.ini.txt ./controlpanel.ini.php
cd
exit

Once this is done your configuration is complete, logout from the terminal session by entering exit once more and your SSH session will terminate.

Using your favourite web browser enter the IP Address of your raspi into the URL bar as shown below:

http://<Your-Raspi-IP>/allmon2

Note: remove the <> from the URL once you have entered the required information.

Once this is done you should be presented with your node control panel as shown below.

Login using Admin and the password you set above and you are now ready to start using your node.

It’s a good idea to connect to node 55553 which is a parrot test node to check your audio levels. You can do this by entering the node into the field at the top left and pressing the connect button.

Once connected, tune your radio to 438.800Mhz FM and transmit a test message using your callsign and test123, or something similar. The parrot will then play your recording back to you so that you can hear how you sound. It will also comment on your audio level as to whether it is OK or not.

You are now connected to AllStarLink network and have the world at your finger tips. Below is a small list of nodes in the UK, Australia and America to get you started chatting with other HAMs via your node.

57881	Matrix HAM Radio Space AllStarLink Node (Hosted by Dk1MI)
55553	ASL Parrot for testing
41522	M0HOY HUBNet Manchester, UK
60349	VK6CIA 439.275 Perth, Western Australia
51077	VK6SEG South West Hub B Albany WA
2167	M0JKT FreeSTAR UK HUB 2 freestar.network
53573	NWAG NW AllStar Group Lancashire, UK
27339	East Coast Hub Wilmington NC USA

Thanks to Michael, DK1MI for building and hosting the Matrix HAM Radio Space AllStarLink Node (57881) and getting us all started in the world of AllStarLink!

We hope to be having regular Matrix Net’s on the node soon for all Matrix members and visitors. We’ll organise days/times via the Digital Voice room.

More soon …

A couple of years ago I built a Matrix Synapse server and connected it to the decentralised global Matrix chat network that is federated world wide by enthusiasts who host their own Matrix servers. Due to the enthusiasm for a decentralised network the Matrix has grown exponentially and is now an established force in the world of Opensource global communication services.

When I built my server and configured it online my aim was to bring together an enthusiastic group of Radio Amateurs (Radio HAMs) who could build a friendly, welcoming community where people could share, learn and have fun with other liked minded individuals without all the nonsense you see on commercial social media platforms.

Overtime we’ve increased the number of rooms available in the HAM Radio space and the number of subjects covered. This has grown organically as our community has grown and we’ve ventured together into new areas of the hobby.

From the community a number of projects have spawned including the Opensource.radio Wiki that Mike, DK1MI is sponsoring that aims to detail all the Opensource HAM Radio software, Hardware and projects in one centralised site on the internet. This is a great project and one I am very happy to contribute to.

Thanks to Mike, DK1MI we now also have our own Matrix AllStarLink node available. This is a great resource for the community as it is often not possible for all of us to communicate via the radio waves due to geo-location, time zones, local planning regulations etc. Having this 24/7 internet based resource makes it a lot easier for the community to chat at any time even when propagation on the HF bands isn’t in our favour.

Mike, DK1MI has written an excellent article on the Matrix AllStarNode and more, I highly recommend you take a look at it.

We also have a very active satellite room with regular nets on the QO-100 satellite. With such a great range of rooms and subjects there’s plenty to read and talk about with the community.

If you fancy being part of this growing, enthusiastic group of Radio Amateurs and Short Wave Listeners (SWLs) then click on the link below and come and say hello, a warm welcome awaits!

https://m0aws.co.uk/matrix

More soon …