Echolink choppy audio

AllStarLink
1

Hello Group,

I have echolink installed on my ASL3 node and when someone connects via echolink the audio is choppy. It seems to only happen on the audio from Echolink, not the audio to Echolink. I have tried to adjust the "erxgain" and the "etxgain" in the rpt.conf file with the result of just lowering the audio not fixing the problem. I have updated my ASL3 to the latest as well.

If you want a demo of the problem please connect to my my node (647870) and I will connect via Echolink.

Thank you!

73's

Mike WA3O

2

What's the node hardware and ASL3 version?

3

How do I display the version?

4

asterisk -V from the command line

5

Asterisk 22.2.0+asl3-3.4.5-1.deb12

6

That's the version that fixed a bunch of echolink issues. :slightly_smiling_face:

What's your node hardware?

7

Raspberry pi 3 via cat 5 and a AURSINC Allstar RF Node UHF SR-FRS Radio. Allstar works great and the audio to Echolink is great as well. The only problem is a thumping on the Echolink audio to the Allstar node.

Thanks!

8

I can recreate various "choppy" echolink audios here if I restrict bandwidth on my EL node to something less than my incoming bandwidth from the internet + other nodes on my net. Ethernet on RPi 3 does about 200 Mb/sec max so you might not have that issue. It's worth checking, though.

EDIT: Do you see anything unusual when you look at /var/log/asterisk/messages.log?

9

This is a copy... the last 2 warmings I connected via echolink and talked.

2025-05-28 17:28:21.656] WARNING[3626][C-00000009] func_channel.c: Unknown or unavailable item requested: 'peerip'
[2025-05-28 17:28:21.656] WARNING[3626][C-00000009] func_channel.c: Unknown or unavailable item requested: 'peerip'
[2025-05-28 18:43:49.940] WARNING[7953][C-00000014] func_channel.c: Unknown or unavailable item requested: 'peerip'
[2025-05-28 18:43:49.940] WARNING[7953][C-00000014] func_channel.c: Unknown or unavailable item requested: 'peerip'

10

I'm having exactly the same problem with the same version of Asterisk. Mine is running in a Debian 6.12.22 VM on Digital Ocean.

11

The logs look normal for an EL connect. I think peerip is an unsupported/unneeded message field at the ASL end.

Dan, do you happen to be using EL in relay mode? If so, try proxy mode if you can.

12

Chuck,

I am not sure if you got the PM however, I verified that the problem still happened in relay mode or public proxy.

73's

Mike WA3O

13

That's a bit of a surprise. I'll try a couple of further tests here to see if I can narrow down what's up.

14

I can also confirm that ASL-Asterisk 3.4.5 audio from Echolink is very choppy, both on rPi and X64. Audio to Echolink is OK. Audio coming back from it is quite broken.
I still have a couple of HamVoIP nodes around, so I tried exactly the same hardware (rPi 3 model A Plus with a UCI120) with both. On HamVoIP, Echolink audio was fine. With ASL 3.4.5, it was not. I can provide audio samples later if anyone wants.

15

Mike, I think the issue is not related to your settings.
It is either bad routes to the node in communication (network)
Or perhaps you are shy on cpu/memory, which I doubt but worth looking.

Make sure your software is up to date FIRST !.

16

What kind of radio do you use for the node?

17

I mostly have the problem narrowed down. I will share the results when I do some testing to verify the problem is gone.

Thanks!

73's

Mike WA3O

18

Chuck,

I want to be careful to not hijack WA3O's thread. I only jumped in to suggest he's not the only victim of this problem.

My node is an attempt to have a stable node that has reliable internet and no RPi. It has no radio attached. I have nodes with radios that i link to it with Allstar. The problem seems to be caused by Echolink connections.

I'll add more if it helps with WA3O's issue, and if my problem doesn't get solved here I'll start a separate thread.

Dan
W4DTO

19

Understood Dan. One of my nodes is an amd64 Debian 12 VM for just that reason.

20

Group,

I just wanted to let everyone know what was causing my choppy audio with Echolink. It was my AURSINC Allstar RF Node UHF SR-FRS Radio seen here.

When I unplugged the radio's USB the choppy audio went away.

Big Thanks to Chuck for helping diagnose this trouble.

73's

Mike WA3O