Adding Echolink Interoperability to the XIPAR System

The XIPAR package includes the Echolink channel module.

Manually edit the file /etc/asterisk/echolink.conf to add your Echolink station information and restart Asterisk (amportal kill then amportal start). You can edit this file from the XIPAR web interface by selecting the Configuration Editor under the Asterisk tab.

Depending on the current stability of the chan_echolink driver, it may or may not be installed as a part of the default XIPAR install. Therefore, from a root shell go to "/usr/src/EVB/ast_base/asterisk-1.4.21.2" and type "make menuselect". Under Channel Drivers you can enable or disable chan_echolink. Thereafter you must recompile "using make" and then "make install".

You must forward tcp port 5200 and udp ports 5198 and 5199 to your Asterisk server. The Web site http://www.portforward.com and this page on the EchoLink site discuss port forwarding, and may provide you with solutions for your network.

This is a pure software IP solution. No additional processes or hardware are required to enable Asterisk to interoperate with EchoLink.

The developers adopted the numbering plan convention that Echolink node numbers are padded out to 6 digits in length with leading zeroes as required and then prefixed with a 3. For example, to connect to Echolink node 1234 from a XIPAR system dial *3 followed by 3001234 (*33001234). To connect to a 6 digit Echolink node number such as 123456, dial *3 followed by 3123456 (*33123456).

Echolink users connect to your Asterisk based node as they would to any other EchoLink node by dialing the 4 or 6 digit Echolink node number.

To test EchoLink connectivity log into the Asterisk Command Line Interface (CLI) with the command "asterisk -vvvr". After about 60 seconds issue the CLI command "database show". This should print the downloaded Echolink node directory to your screen. It is very long list!

Connect to an Echolink node and ask them to call you back at your Echolink node number after you disconnect the link. You can disconnect the last link connection by entering *10. You can disconnect a specific link with command *0 and then the node number. For Echolink connections use the full 7 digit node number that begins with a 3. For example, to disconnect node 405490 enter *03405490.

We recommend that you register your callsign with Echolink and obtain an entry for both your plain callsign (e.g. W9SH) and your callsign with the repeater suffix (e.g. W9SH-R).

The Echolink directory and connection service works reliably only if each entry has its own unique Internet IP address. This means that you cannot have a single Internet connection and Internet IP address for use on a NAT'ed network and run both the PC client software and repeater server software at the same time.

Echolink allows only 3 node numbers per callsign. This consists of your primary callsign without suffix, plus your callsign with the -L suffix anr the -R suffix. These are used for links and repeaters by convention but they can be repurposed as Asterisk nodes.

You can determine your Echolink node number from your callsign by using the Echolink Node Number Swap page. Enter your primary Echolink Callsign and one of your secondary callsigns with suffix. Select Check Node Numbers. This will not swap the numbers but display them.

Jim Dixon, WB6NIL, is the lead developer of chan_echolink. He thanks the following people for the immeasurable amount of assistance they provided: Scott (KI4LKF), Skip (WB6YMH), Randy (KC6HUR) and Steve (N4IRS). Per their source code comments, this is a work in progress. The work to be done includes but is not limited to:

---> does not send its station info.
---> does not process chat text.
---> recognizes a few remote text commands.
---> no busy, deaf or mute.
---> no capacity limits.
---> no banned or privare station list.
---> no admin list, only local 127.0.0.1 access.
---> no welcome text message.
---> no login or connect timeouts.
---> no max TX time limit.
---> no activity reporting.
---> no event notififications.
---> no stats.
---> no callsign prefix restrictions.
---> no announcements on connects/disconnects.
---> no loop detection.
---> allows "doubles"

Please report any issues using this site's bug list to help the developers.