See SMS interference warning here: SMS Interference Policy

The Hamshack Hotline (HH) allows extensions to be tied to an RF connection to allow others to dial in and use the RF link. Hamshack Hotline offers this service to AllStar RF node owners with the intention that you, the node owner, want to allow ALL HH users the ability to connect to your node.

Note that this does not enable Autopatch from the RF connection. This is a one way connection from the HH to your RF system, basically a reverse autopatch if you will.

We are not allowing RF extensions to be created with the sole purpose of the node owner to restrict any HH user from connecting and have the extension only be accessible for the node owners exclusive use.

If you, the node owner, want exclusive use, please program a spare button on your VOIP phone to call your node direct. There is no need to use valuable HH resources to accomplish this, while forbidding all other HH users any access.

Please note that users who request an RF extension MUST also already have an active HH voice extension so that in the event there is an issue with the RF extension, we can contact you.

To create a connection to HH, you first need to have configured an Allstar Node. Asterisk is needed to connect to the HH system as the HH system is based on Asterisk as well. There is plenty of documentation online on configuring an AllStar Node, so that is outside the scope of this document.

On your AllStar Node you will need to edit the iax.conf and extensions.conf files.

In your iax.conf you will need to configure a stanza similar to this:

Please note in the code below, that you must prefix your callsign with hh-. The reason for this is that the HH Stanza identifiers must be unique. And just your callsign only most likely exists somewhere else in the file, and having two (or more) stanza's with the same identifier inside the [ ] brackets will cause a link failure with us.

[hh-your_callsign] ;Data here must match data on the next line
username=hh-your_callsign ;Data here must match data on the previous line
type=friend ;
context=hhphone ;
host=dynamic ;
auth=md5 ;
secret=my_secret_password  ;
disallow=all ;
allow=ulaw ;
transfer=no ;

Footnote: For your username and secret/password, you can not use special characters, Except a 'Hyphen', and those parameters are limited to 20 characters each.

In your extensions.conf you need to configure a stanza similar to below. Note that you need to change the node numbers to the node that you are having the connection dial into.

Below is a configuration examples.

Example. If your public node number is 12345, then you would use the code below:

[hhphone]  ;This MUST MATCH the "context=" parameter you used from iax.conf file
exten => 12345,1,answer() ;
exten => 12345,n,Playback(rpt/node) ;
exten => 12345,n,SayAlpha(12345) ;
exten => 12345,n,Playback(rpt/connected) ;
exten => 12345,n,rpt(12345|P) ;

Footnote: Hamshack Hotline policy requires users to have a connection announcement that both alerts users the connection was successful, and the AllStar node number that the user has connected to. Using the code above will accomplish this. You are allowed to customize it, should you wish to. However, if you totally remove it and users who connect to your node get no connection confirmation at all, we will ask you to re-install it. If you fail to do so, we will delete your extension.

Connecting to Hamshack Hotline

You will also need to have a Fully Qualified Domain Name [FQDN] already established that resolves to the IP address of your Trunk. We will not accept IP addresses directly, PERIOD !

In most cases, HAM VOIP has already create one for you: node#.ip.hamvoip.org

Once you have your node configured, you will need to request an extension through the HHOPS ticketing system. This can be reached at https://hd.hamshackhotline.com/

Select the “RF-Link Request” from the drop-down Help Topic menu.

You will need to make sure to include an IAX2 Dial string that includes the stanza information you setup for your node’s connections. The IAX2 Dial String looks like:

IAX2/hh-your_callsign:password@domain:port/node#

So for example:

If your callsign was: AA9XYZ
and your password was: Test-1234
and your FQDN was: 12345.ip.hamvoip.org
and your AllStar node number was: 12345

Then your IAX2 Dial String would be:

IAX2/hh-AA9XYZ:[email protected]:4569/12345

This is the most important part. Without this, we are not able to connect to your system.

Once your extension is provisioned, you will be contacted with your extension number to test and make sure that you can connect to your node.

Some AllStar configurations can inadvertently send silent sms node connection lists to the voip phones, which can cause the voip phones to disconnect the calls around 30-45 seconds after the call is answered.

HH will test your connection before we grant you an RF extension, and if your setup is transmitting sms to us across the connection, we will not grant you an extension number until the sms is removed.

Please see our wiki here: How to remove SMS from HamVOIP versions of AllStar

Please see our wiki here: How to remove SMS from ASL versions of AllStar

In some cases you may need to forward UDP port 4569 in your router to point to the LAN IP address of your node. Please only forward port 4569 as UDP. Forwarding as TCP will not work.

If you have altered the standard setup to use a port other than 4569, then you would simply substitute 4569 for what ever port you are using on your node.

Note that if this RF connection shows offline on our side for 30 days, the RF extension will be deleted. This action is designed to ensure that numbers are being utilized and therefore justified since they are a limited resource.