Disclaimer: Although I believe the information in this document to be accurate, it is YOUR responsibility to verify any information written within this document. By reading this document you agree this information is provided on an as-is basis, and you agree to hold no one liable in anyway for any information contained in this document. Even negligence.

Author: Ricky Bryce (Montgomery County, Illinois)

EchoLink Proxy (for ham radio)

EchoLink Proxy can be used by licensed amateur radio operators only. If you are a licensed amateur radio operator, you can use the VPS Server to connect to EchoLink if you are behind a firewall, or do not have a public IP address. For example: Licensed amateur radio operators who travel would greatly benefit from EchoLink Proxy since each room in a motel has a private IP address, and the operator does not have control of the router, so cannot direct EchoLink traffic to his computer.

This document will assume you have opened the appropriate ports on your server. We did this earlier in this document under the section “IPTables”.

Be sure you are logged in, and type su if you are not the root user.

Now we need to install Java, since the EchoLink proxy is written in Java. To install java support, type yum install java

Be sure all packages are complete. I had to run yum install java twice when building this example.

Now, we need to get the EchoLink packages. Go to echolink.org, and click “Download”

Enter your callsign and email address, then submit.

Under “Other Downloads”, right click the http link for EchoLink Proxy, and choose “Copy Link Location”.

Now, back in PUTTY, type cd / to enter the root directory. (cd to change directory, then a space, then a forward slash)

Now, in PUTTY, type wget then hit the space bar.

Right click just after your cursor in PUTTY to paste the Link of the EchoLink Proxy file that we copied earlier.

Press “Enter” within PUTTY, and verify your file downloaded properly.

Now we need to unzip the EchoLink Proxy file. Type unzip Echo* (Note: the text is case sensitive.)

Verify the files did unzip.

Now, the ELProxy.conf file must be configured with a password. Type vi ELProxy.conf (This will edit the ELProxy.conf file with the vi editor)

Tap “i” on your keyboard for insert mode.

Cursor down about 5 lines, and set the password.

Hit esc on your keyboard to exit to command mode.

Press :wq (colon, then w to write, and q to quit)

Next, we'll set EchoLink to run as a service when the computer boots. Type cd init.d

Type vi EchoLinkProxy to create a new file with the vi editor.

Tap “i” for insert mode.

Paste the following text into your editor.

#!/bin/sh

# description: Echo Link Proxy (java file)

# chkconfig: 2345 99 00

case "$1" in

'start')

java -jar /EchoLinkProxy.jar /ELProxy.conf &

touch /var/lock/subsys/EchoLink

;;

'stop')

rm -f /var/lock/subsys/EchoLink

;;

echo "Usage: $0 { start | stop }"

;;

esac

exit 0

Hit esc on your keyboard to enter command mode.

Type :wq (colon, then w to write, and q to quit)

Now, we have to set permissions on the file. Type chmod 755 EchoLinkProxy

Next, we'll create a symlink to the script in the rc3.d file. Type cd /etc/rc3.d/ to enter the directory for run level 3

Type ln -s /etc/init.d/EchoLinkProxy S99EchoLinkProxy

Type reboot, and we'll see if EchoLinkProxy starts.

If you haven't done so, go back to EchoLink.org, and download the main EchoLink program. You will have to register, and get validated if you haven't already done so. That could take a couple days.

Click Tools | Setup from the menu bar

Be sure all fields are populated on “My Station” tab.

Click the Proxy Tab, and enter the hostname of your server, and the password you specified in ELProxy.conf. Then hit “ok”.

You should now be connected. I'm going to test my connection by searching for a station:

I can verify I've sucessfully connected through the proxy. You need to actually test this by voice to verify communication is possible through the proxy.

More information can be found at EchoLink.org