Remote Control & Operating for Amateur Radio Steve Maskrey – G6FDK & M3DVA (Deva / Chester!)

Objective To show how, with your existing mainly commercial radio equipment, it can be remotely controlled - thus adding another interesting dimension and further enjoyment of our hobby To learn a little about Internet Protocol networking

Introduction Early radio remote control Boot-mounted Pye Cambridge & Westminster 2-wire controlled remote base stations Broadcast Monitoring & Control Telemetry Unmanned transmitters, microwave & satellite downlinks, RBRs All equipment parameters, video & audio, CCTV & site access Lights-out data centres Full server & network systems remote control Internet & Computing Ubiquity Music, TV, social apps, smart-phones & tablets, energy M&C etc. The Internet is becoming everywhere Amateur radio adoption of the Internet EchoLink, remote repeater & node-to-node communication

The Case for (Internet) Remote Control Operating anywhere in your home Avoiding the cold garden shack Taking access to your favourite (but very heavy & expensive!) radio on holiday Domestic planning restrictions Making use of your quiet (QRN / QRM) caravan or holiday home (I wish!) radio location all year around Making use of a ‘supervised’ ham friend’s radio & antenna system* Thanks to the Internet we now have the opportunity to operate our station from almost anywhere we desire.

So how does it work? Requirements ‘Host’ or Station ‘Client’ Station Radio transceiver with computer interface Desktop or laptop PC with RS232 / V24 serial interface Host software Internet connection – assumes ADSL/2/2+, VDSL (BT Infinity) or cable ‘Client’ Station A PC or even a smart-phone or tablet Mic & Headphones Internet connection

Ofcom Licence Conditions 10 Unattended and remote control operation 10(1) The Licensee may conduct Unattended Operation of Radio Equipment provided that any such operation is consistent with the terms of this Licence. Must have a Full licence which can mean reciprocal, temporary reciprocal or club licenses Foundation & Intermediate licensees can operate remotely controlled stations using 500mW amateur band radio links I’m not sure about the validity of remote contacts made for contests etc.

Internet Connectivity Assumption that you have a broadband Internet connection at the ‘host’ station We need a fixed public IP address for our Internet router Most of us have a public IP address that changes periodically when our connection is reset by either the ISP or ourselves when we power off Solution: www.dyndns.com – free to register & use So your home Internet router address becomes: ‘yourname’.dyndns.org:[port] Your router updates dyndns each time you have a new public IP address

Router Setup Remote Desktop port: 3389 Ham Radio Deluxe port: 7805 www.portforward.com for help with your router

PC Requirements Minimum 1Gb RAM, 10Gb HDD & RS232 / V24 serial port or possibly a quality USB serial com port adapter Recommend Windows XP, 7 or 8 Pro You must set a password for RDP to work

PC Setup Setup a password Fix your LAN IP; e.g. 192.168.1.120 Open up port 7805 for Ham Radio Deluxe remote control

Host Control Software Ham Radio Deluxe – developed by Peter PH1PH and Simon HB9DRV in 2003 then sold to Rick W4PC, Randy KØCBH, and Mike WA9PIE in 2011 www.hrdsoftwarellc.com v6.0 recently released $99.95 v5.24 build 38 free Other software products available CAT cables from here: www.xggcomms.com/

And the Tx / Rx audio? PC Sound card Skype! PTT transmit keying Free and reliable Setup Skype host account to auto-answer from your contact list – which should be just you & possibly ham friends PTT transmit keying

Recap Broadband Internet connectivity Host PC / laptop with minimum Win XP/7/8 Pro, 1GHz, 1Gb RAM, serial port(s), password, fixed LAN IP & open Windows firewall port 7805 Client PC / laptop Ham Radio Deluxe v5.24, v6.x Skype; set for auto answer client at host Register & setup dynamic DNS Router Port Forward ports HRD 7805 & RDP 3389 Open port 7805 in Windows firewall

Other Solutions RemoteRig for remote control & audio www.remoterig.com/wp/ Downside is you need to take the proprietary unit with you TRX-Manager software solution similar in concept to Ham Radio Deluxe Glentek www.glentekcorp.com

Further Reading & Links Remote Operating for Amateur Radio Ham Radio, the Internet and Remote Station Control Steve Ford, WB8IMY Many remote project demos & ‘instructionals’ on YouTube as well as many example setups & photos

My other technology interests Computer networking for home & office Home & office real-time energy monitoring, management reporting & control; LED lighting IP CCTV for home and office security Raspberry Pi & Arduino computing Multi-media including Internet radio