There is a group of hams that have formed a global PBX called Hamshack Hotline, that allows hams to use VOIP phones to connect to each other. The service is free (donations are encouraged).
After checking their website, it appeared that a Cisco SPA525G2 was especially easy to provision. This phone is often available on the used market via eBay. Prices seem to run from the $30 to $50 range (shop around for sure). The provisioning process is simple: fill in a service ticket with a copy of your original license and a photo of MAC address of the phone. The most difficult part was discovering the internal network address assigned by my router. I expected it to identify it as Cisco, but it didn’t. In my case it began with the letters “spa” (the first three letters of the model name), and was followed by the MAC address. Within a few minutes I had a desk phone (great speaker phone too) on the Hamshack Hotline network.
A Cisco SPA525G2 connected to Hamshack Hotline (chatting with W2DAN on the speaker phone)
I was surprised to find that Hamshack Hotline can connect to our club’s W1SYE repeater.
