Will pay for help

#1

I am a radio ham, and volunteer member of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service. For some time I have been working on a small portable “telephone company” that can be used in an emergency when normal
services have been disrupted. I have everything else working but am unable to configure the PBX, due to my lack of experience in this area.

The system consists of 4 analog telephones connected to 4 Grandstream HT701s, 5 Iphones running
Grandstream Wave Lite software, a TP-Link wireless router, a W7 PC and a Grandstream UCM6102 PBX.

This system is very important to me, so I am willing pay $50 of my own money to someone who can configure the PBX to support the system. That includes all phones talking to one another, and a connection to the Internet.

I am hopeful that someone will help me.

Bob

#2

As a ham myself, you have to seperate the emergency communications aspect of ham radio vs the a PBX setup you are indicating. A UCM6102, W7 PC, etc are all outdated and beyond updates and support, as well as a potential security nightmare. Then you want to use analog phones on ATA’s which don’t even take advantage of the potential of VOIP, NAT configurations that might change based on environment changes, opening ports to the internet for softphones, etc. Use hamshack hotline if you want a VOIP phone that’s ham radio centric. In addition to Analog 2M/440, you can use DMR with and without hotspots, Echolink, etc. Best of luck. 73.

#3

Many if not most hams use equipment that is no longer manufactured or supported, with great success.
Security is not a significant issue here, because it is a closed system used only during emergencies.
I did not include all of the system components earlier, as they are not relevant to the current problem.
There is a 144/450 Mhz transceiver, a portable bluetooth speaker/microphone, and two wifi relay boxes
which provide much greater range for the iPhones. The system works fine except for the PBX, so there is
no reason to make any major changes. If someone wants to construct a different system, fine.

I am just asking for some help with a system that mostly works fine, and if I get no help I may have to abandon the effort, which would be a shame.

#4

A couple of observations and questions -
What is envisioned as being the telephone service? You mention the HAM aspect, but not how or if that somehow has a tie to the telephony aspect. You simply mention getting the UCM to talk to some phones and then be connected to the Internet. You further imply that the system is to somehow be used in the event that the “normal services have been disrupted” which to me would very likely mean the Internet is down.

What is the model of the TP router?
You do realize that the 6102 has 2 FXO and 2 FXS ports of which the 2 FXS port could, depending on what you want, replace 2 of the HTs which implies less points of failure as well as less power consumption as I also assume power grid could be down.

I get it that price is important, but just be advised that of all the telephony equipment that you listed is obsolete and no longer really supported.

#5

Thanks for your note.

I envision this being used in building or small neighborhood that has no telephone service.

The internet connection is probably not used, but may be handy for testing etc,

The TP Link is Archer C50.

Yes I know about the port on the UCM, but I already have the HTs installed and working fine, so I would just as soon leave them.

I forgot to say that the system also has a 12V battery to power everything.

Bob

#6

An idea here.

Can we use service as Starling to connect the switch to the world?

As for the local internet, I have seen a report about peoples in La Habana, Cuba, who have setup a mesh network to bypass government restrictions.

With such an environment, you can build a local telephone system connected to the world in minutes.

Add a couple solar panel and a good battery to have enough power to operate the system.

#7

W8erd, at your convenience ping me for a remote session

#8

What telephone service will be employed? You indicate that the Internet service will probably not be employed and still the normal service disruption you mention likely involves the PSTN being down as well. I am still trying to understand where the HAM aspect comes into play.

Setting up the UCM as nothing more than an internal phone system so that calling between extensions is pretty simple. As you indicated that they are installed and working, which I assume to be with the UCM, I am trying to understand the scope of what is actually needed.

#9

It should be noted that there are email conversations about this going on as well.

Bob

#10

On Jun 16, 2022, at 7:51 AM, lpneblett <kody.abney@grandstream.com> wrote:

\ 45x45 lpneblett Grandstream Guru, Moderator
June 16

What telephone service will be employed? You indicate that the Internet service will probably not be employed and still the normal service disruption you mention likely involves the PSTN being down as well. I am still trying to understand where the HAM aspect comes into play.

No external telephone service.
The primary purpose here is for internal connections among the local phones. The internet connection is for testing and demonstrations.

The ham aspect is a ham transceiver attached to one of the iphones. That allows the system to extend to radio participants.

Setting up the UCM as nothing more than an internal phone system so that calling between extensions is pretty simple.

Simple for you, hard for me.

As you indicated that they are installed and working, which I assume to be with the UCM, I am trying to understand the scope of what is actually needed.

They have worked by dialing the IP address of one another. But the iphones do not always work reliably in that mode, for reasons I do not underdstand.
So I am hopeful that using the UCM will solve that problem and make a more robust and easy to use system

Visit Topic to respond.

In Reply To

\ 45x45 w8erd
June 15

Thanks for your note. I envision this being used in building or small neighborhood that has no telephone service. The internet connection is probably not used, but may be handy for testing etc, The TP Link is Archer C50. Yes I know about the port on the UCM, but I already have the HTs installed…

#11

Thanks for your note.

Not sure what you mean by ping me. What do you have in mind?

Bob

#12

iOS is somewhat finnicky as Apple has placed a premium on battery performance and they will move running apps into the background so they are idle and will only be returned to the foreground as a running app under certain conditions - push, user wakes app, or other similar actions.

Scan the forum for Wave and iOS as there are some posts that discuss the configs that you can do to the phone settings to minimize the disruptions.

#13

I am ready to go here for remote connections. Thanks!

Bob

#14

I have received 3 great offers of assistance, but unfortunately none of them have been able to follow thru.
I am sorry if I have done or said anything that discourages folks from helping me. I am still desperate for help. If you send me your email address, I will send you my system diagram.

Many thanks.

Dr Robert Dixon

#15

I believe I had sent you my email some 4 days ago, but had not heard back since. I had provided you with some indications of what you needed to think about and do in order to make any effort expended in the setup less time consuming so that the configuration of the system would be more so to what you wanted rather than trying to figure it out what you want/need along the way.

I don’t think it’s anything you have done that has discouraged, but rather there is a worry about scope creep which is why I continued to query you as to the desires in order to better define the work content and what time that might require.

While the PBX you have is EOL, it still has a lot of functionality that, based upon what you have expressed so far, will be untapped.

You have my email. I am willing to take a look and assist. The ball is in your court.

#16

If the ball is in my court, please tell me what to do.

Bob

#17

Respond via the email that I had sent to you previously.

#18

I believe I have answered all your emails. If not, I apologize.
Please send me again the email that I need to respond to

Thanks!

Bob

#19

It is in you PM from grandstream

#20

I am sorry, but I guess I don’t now what PM means in this context.

Bob