I’ve recently built a new AllStarLink (ASL) node for my MB7IBW gateway that I have recently brought up on air on the 2m band.
AllStarLink 3 has a lot of changes in it when compared to the previous version and this of course impacts my Node-Red Control Dashboard that I’ve been using to manage my first ASL node for well over a year now.
To build the node I used the RaspberryPi imager and added the AllStarlink 3 image as detailed on the allstarlink.org website.
Installing the system this way makes it pretty easy compared to previous installs but, it comes with some quirks which cause issues with Node-Red.
From the outset the plan has always been to have AllStartLink 3 and Node-Red running on the same Pi4 to keep it totally self contained. This was easy enough to achieve and works without issue.
Node-Red Control Dashboard for AllStarLink 3
Installing Node-Red onto a Pi4 is really easy and is fully documented on the Node-Red Website.
Once the AllStarLink 3 operating system was installed on my SD card, booted and operational I installed Node-Red. I soon realised that there were a few things I had to do before loading the Node-Red flow.
AllStarLink 3 no longer logs connect and disconnect messages in the connectlog like it did in AllStarLink 2. To get logging working again I had to create two new BASH scripts as detailed below and put them into /etc/asterisk/myscripts.
For the connect information I created the BASH script as detailed below.
Next I disabled the temporary filesystems that are used by default for the apache and asterisk logging as it’s useful to keep the apache logs for debugging and I needed the asterisk logs for the Node-Red dashboard.
Disabling the temporary file system is very easy to do, just edit the /etc/fstab and comment out the two lines as shown below.
# Comment out the next line for persistent Apache logs
#tmpfs /var/log/apache2 tmpfs defaults,noatime,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=0775,size=32M 0 0
# Comment out the next line for persistent Asterisk logs
#tmpfs /var/log/asterisk tmpfs defaults,noatime,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=0775,size=32M,uid=102,gid=106 0 0
# Note: These lines are wrapped, should be on 1 line in the /etc/fstab
Once the entries in the /etc/fstab were commented out I rebooted the Pi4 to get persistent filesystems.
The final thing that had to be done was to allow user repeater to use sudo without a password so that it could be used to perform reboot/shutdown/process restart as user root from within the dashboard.
# /etc/sudoers
# Allow repeater sudo without password
repeater ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
Once this was all done I imported the Node-Red flow, configured the SSH nodes with login credentials for the Pi4 (important to use the user repeater for SSH), clicked deploy and the dashboard was ready for use.
Node Red AllStarLink3 Control Dashboard Flow
I’ve been using the dashboard for a few weeks now and it’s running perfectly, without error.
If you want to build your own Node-Red Control Dashboard for your AllStarLink 3 node then, just download the flow using the button below and import it into your flow editor.
I’ve spent some time this afternoon modifying my Node-Red Dashboard for controlling AllStarLink nodes to work with the new AllStarLink version 3.
My original AllStarLink Control Dashboard was designed to work with AllStarLink 2 which I have running on an old RaspberryPi 3b on the 70cm band. The dashboard has worked reliably ever since deployment and is in use daily.
With the release of AllStarLink 3 and all the changes that it entails I’ve had to make a few changes to the dashboard flows in order to make it compatible with AllStarLink 3 nodes.
This entails not only flow changes but also the addition of two new bash scripts that are called by Asterisk to log connect and disconnect messages as they are not logged by default any more. (Seems a bit of a step backwards)
Node-Red AllStarLink Control Dashboard v3.0 for ASL3
The changes also entail disabling the temporary filesystems used by default in the new ASL3 build so that log files etc become persistent.
I’ll spend some time using the new dashboard to ensure it’s working correctly and then will release it into the wild for all those that are brave enough to move over to AllStarLink 3.
I’ve not been on the radio much over the last few weeks as I’ve had my head down other radio related rabbit holes.
One of the rabbit holes is a Node-Red project to make my online logs a little more interactive. For sometime now my logs have been displayed on my website as nicely formatted, searchable HTML pages however, they don’t really allow the viewer (myself included) to see the global coverage of all the contacts so, I decided to write a Node-Red flow that would do just that.
M0AWS Interactive Log Flow
The flow itself isn’t too complicated and basically consists of reading in the individual ADIF formatted log files, processing the data and then sending the data in the correct format to the map node for display.
I’ve had to write a few functions to handle the processing of the ADIF formatted data but, these aren’t particularly complex and are fairly easy to understand even if like me, you’re not a Javascript programmer.
The flow is working perfectly however, I’m in the process of reworking the format generic payload function to reduce the amount of code and make it more efficient.
M0AWS SSB / CW / FreeDV Interactive Log World Map
M0AWS Interactive Log Map Layers Menu
The flow generates two maps, one for voice / CW /Satellite contacts and the other for WSJT-X FT4/8 contacts. Every pin on the map is colour coded by band with satellite contacts being denoted by a satellite icon.
Each pin / icon on the map is clickable and reveals the data of the QSO being displayed.
In the top right-hand corner of the map there is a drop down layermenu that allows the viewer to filter by band thus reducing the number of icons on the screen at any one time.
Seeing the data presented on a map really brings my logs alive. An example of this is that I had no idea I’d worked so many stations in India on the QO-100 Satellite.
The small icons in the pins show a microphone for SSB/FM/FreeDV contacts and a downwards pointing triangle in a box for CW contacts. Sadly I couldn’t find a Morse key icon in the collection available.
M0AWS filtered view of QO-100 Satellite contacts
I only use FT4/8 for testing new antenna designs however, it’s interesting to see the global coverage accomplished with this weak signal mode.
M0AWS WSJT-X FT4/8 Interactive Log World Map
Once I’ve finished rewriting the format generic payload function I will make the flow available for download here so that others can also create an interactive view of their radio logs.
If you want to have a look at the maps and try them out for yourself, they are available under the Logs menu above.
This Node-Red instance is running in a virtual machine (VM) on a 16GB RAM RaspberryPi 5 that is also running a number of other VMs at the same time so, it’s safe to say it’s not heavy on CPU and will run on the older Pi4 as well.
I’ve recently been trying out the FreeDV RADEv1 digital voice mode on the HF bands with great success. The audio quality is astounding when compared to the normal analog SSB mode. Using only 20w I’ve been surprised how successful I’ve been talking to stations in the UK and Europe as can be seen in my FreeDV Log.
FreeDV has been around for quite a few years with development being funded by an ARDC grant and financial sponsorship from the Software Freedom Conservancy.
“FreeDV is a suite of digital voice modes for HF radio. Our flagship mode is the Radio Autoencoder (RADE). You can run RADE using a free GUI application for Windows, Linux and macOS that allows any SSB radio to be used for high quality digital voice.“
And the most important part:
“All software is open source, released under the (a) GNU Lesser Public License version 2.1 (GUI and legacy FreeDV modes) and two-clause BSD license (RADE).“
FreeDV running under KDE-Plasma on Kubuntu PC
Looking at the digital voice (DV) community in the HAM Radio world, it’s stuffed full with proprietary DV modes from small software houses and black box transceiver manufacturers with no real OpenSource alternatives, until now.
Installing FreeDV is pretty simple regardless of which operating system (O/S) you use. Being a Linux user I grabbed the AppImage from the website and set about reading up on how it works and how it is configured.
I decided to take the two sound card approach since I have 2 USB sound cards connected to my shack Kubuntu Linux PC.
Configuring the audio routing isn’t straight forward as both the receive and transmit audio to/from the radio needs to be routed via the FreeDV app. To make this even more complicated I am using my Hermes Lite 2 SDR transceiver and PiHPSDR software, a complete OpenSource/OpenHardware Amateur Radio Station.
M0AWS FreeDV and PiHPSDR Audio Routing Diagram
Trying to clearly describe the audio routing using words alone would be impossible and very confusing so, I put together the diagram above.
Using two USB sound cards I’ve configured the system such that USB Sound Card 1 (an old Griffin iMic USB sound device) handles just the audio from/to the headphones and microphone. All the audio at this point in the system is analogue.
The second USB sound card, a cheap Plug and Play (PNP) USB audio device from Amazon, handles all the digitised signals from/to FreeDV and PiHPSDR.
Taking this 2 sound card approach keeps confusion to a minimum and separates the analogue and digital components of the audio routing.
So, how does this translate to the FreeDV and PiHPSDR audio settings?
Transmit Audio Chain
FreeDV Transmit Audio Settings
Starting at the beginning of the transmit audio chain, let’s look at the transmit audio settings in FreeDV.
Looking at the FreeDV Transmit audio settings screenshot below we can see that the Input From Microphone to Computer device is set to:
This is the digitised audio output from FreeDV (via USB Sound Card 2) to PiHPSDR and is used as the transmit audio that is sent to the Hermes Lite 2 transceiver.
FreeDV Transmit Audio Settings
PiHPSDR Transmit Audio Setting
To complete the transmit audio path we next need to look at the PiHPSDR transmit audio setting.
PiHPSDR Transmit Audio Settings
As can be seen in the screenshot above, the Local Microphone device in PiHPSDR is set to the Monitor of USB PnP Audio Device Analogue Stereo.
This effectively routes the digitised output audio from FreeDV (Output From Computer to Radio device) to the Input audio of PiHPSDR.
The reason for using the Monitor audio feed is because FreeDV does not recognise the Mic Input in PiHPSDR as a valid output device for FreeDV to use, hence we just need to monitor the FreeDV output device and use it as our input audio device in PiHPSDR.
This completes the transmit audio chain.
Receive Audio Chain
PiHPSDR Receive Audio Setting
Starting at the beginning of the receive audio chain we first look at the PiHPSDR receive audio setting.
PiHPSDR Receive Audio Setting
In the screenshot above we can see that the receive audio output from PiHPSDR is set to USB PnP Audio Device Analogue Stereo (USB Sound Card2). This is the DX station’s digitised audio as received by the Hermes Lite 2.
FreeDV Receive Audio Settings
Next let’s look at the receive audio setting in FreeDV.
FreeDV Receive Audio Settings
The Input To Computer from Radio device is set to the monitor of the USB PnP Audio Output Device:
This is the analogue audio output on the iMic USB Sound card (Sound Card 1) that routes the analogue audio to the headphones and completes the receive audio chain.
Summary
The audio routing required by FreeDV can appear very daunting when first attempting to configure it on the Linux platform but, hopefully the diagram and screenshots above will help in understanding the complete end-to-end audio chain that is required to make this mode work.
PiHPSDR can of course be replaced by your black box radio CODEC entries that will appear in the device lists shown above if you have your radio connected via USB. The config is basically the same but, just uses a different device instead of USB sound card 2 shown in the diagram above.
I hope this article is useful to those wanting to try FreeDV on the Linux platform and I look forward to hearing you on RADEv1.
v2.0 comes with a bunch of new functionality that I think many will find useful. I’ve added a Manual Node Connect section that provides the functionality to enter a node number and connect to it, something I wanted to have from the outset but, saved for the second release.
M0AWS AllStarLink Control Dashboard v2.0 Manual Node Connect View
I’ve also updated the the Hubs/Repeaters section so that it provides better global coverage of the AllStarLink network with new nodes in Australia, South Africa and the USA added to the default set.
M0AWS AllStarLink Control Dashboard v2.0 Hubs/Repeaters View
In the Personal Nodes section of the app I’ve added my own node so, if you do download the app and use it, please connect to my node and say hello! I’d love to hear from people that are using the app and get your feedback.
M0AWS AllStarLink Control Dashboard v2.0 Personal Nodes View
In the Test Nodes section there are now two parrot nodes for audio testing. iParrott is still my favourite however, I’ve also added the HubNet parrot as a second option.
M0AWS AllStarLink Control Dashboard v2.0 Test Nodes View
There’s now a new ASL Information section that provides direct access to the network bubble map for your node, a keyed nodes list (Useful for finding nodes that are being used right now), an Active Nodes List and the Full Nodes List for the ASL network. Having access to this information means there really is no need to access Allmon/Supermon to find this information as it’s all available via the app.
M0AWS AllStarLink Control Dashboard v2.0 Information View
Finally, the Manage Node section of the app also gets an update with the addition of a Disconnect All Nodes button. This comes in handy when you’re connected to a bunch of nodes and need to clear down quickly.
M0AWS AllStarLink Control Dashboard v2.0 Manage Node View
As you can see there’s been quite a few changes to the app providing some new functionality whilst updating the previous version to make it even more useful. You can download the AllStarLink Control Dashboard v2.0 flow below.
To import the flow, open the Node-RED flow editor and import the flow from the burger menu. Once imported, double click the Get ASL Node Number node at the top of the flow, delete the credentials and then create new credentials for connecting to your RaspberryPi/SHARI AllStarLink node. Then go to each blue BigSSH Node in the flow and select your new credentials entry in the drop down list. Once this is done deploy the flow and you’re ready to go.
Note: If you have a v1.x version of the app already running you will need to either delete the flow or disable it by disabling all the trigger (inject) nodes and deploying so that the old and new apps aren’t trying to control the ASL node at the same time.
For more detailed information on how to deploy the app (v1.x/v2.0) from scratch please see my original article for the v1.0 deployment as it covers everything you will need to know.
Thanks to Steve, M0XVT for his help testing v2.0 of the AllStarLink Control Dashboard and getting it out into the wild so quickly.
I’ve been working on squashing some bugs in my Node-RED AllStarLink Control Dashboard with the help of Steve, M0XVT which has resulted in a new version of the flow now being available for download below.
If you’re reading this and aren’t too sure what it is all about then, have a look at my original article detailing the Node-RED AllStarLink Control Dashboard that I developed and wrote about back in September 2024 and hopefully it’ll all make sense.
This new version of the flow resolves an issue whereby the dashboard used an incorrect node number for the node it connects to resulting in it not working unless a piece of code was changed. The update was a simple change to add a couple of nodes that connect to the RaspberryPi and read the Asterisk/AllStarLink node number from the asterisk configuration files at startup.
Node-RED AllStarLink Control Dashboard v1.2 additional sub flow
I also fixed another bug whereby the buttons could show a false connect on a button when the user connects to another node via AllMon2/Supermon instead.
This flow no longer has the blue spare button as it now connects to a node in Melbourne Australia.
Node-RED AllStarLink Control Dashboard v1.2
You can download the new, v1.2 updated flow below and import it to your Node-RED flow editor using the standard import tool from the burger menu in the flow editor.
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.
Completed v1.0 AllStarLink Control Dashboard – Node-RED Flow
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.
Node-RED AllStarLink Dashboard
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.
Note: The link above is now for v1.2 of the flow which includes some critical bug fixes. You can read about the bug fixes in the v1.2 release article.
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.
Node-RED Flow Editor import Menu Item
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.
Node-RED Flow Editor Palette Install Tab
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.
ASL Dashboard Settings
You are now ready to deploy your AllStarLink Control Dashboard! Press the red Deploy button at the top of the flow editor window.
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.
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 make the following changes:
1: Using your favourite command line text editor, 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:
NOTE: The info in this article is out of date and does not work with the latest version of AllStarLink. The Debian O/S it is based on is no longer in support.
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.
M0AWS – Coding the BASH script for the automated AllStarLink installation
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:
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:
For those of you who prefer Supermon you an use the following URL:
http://your-RaspberryPi-IP-Address/supermon
M0AWS – Supermon Web Admin view
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.
M0AWS – Supermon pre-populated Favourites drop down list
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:
Please note: This build is now deprecated and will no longer work. Please use the new AllStarLink 3 build process as documented on the AllStarLink website.
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.
Jumbospot SHARI SA818 Amateur Radio AllStarLink Radio Interface Front Panel ViewJumbospot SHARI SA818 Amateur Radio AllStarLink Radio Interface Rear ViewJumbospot SHARI SA818 Amateur Radio AllStarLink Radio Interface stripped down View
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.
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.
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
Download removed as deprecated.
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:
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:
The gpioBASH 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.pyPython 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:
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.
First visit to the AllStar Monitor Web Page
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.
M0AWS AllStarLink Node 61928 connected to 55553 Parrot
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
M0AWS AllStarLink Node 61928 sitting on the equipment rack
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 …
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