AE6PM 3/3/ Remote Control for the Ham Radio Station Operate your station from anywhere Don Steinbach AE6PM Santa Clara County Amateur Radio Association March 10, 2014

AE6PM 3/3/ Why Remote? Zoning restrictions Condo or Apartment living –Unfriendly HOA or landlord Poor antenna location –Small lot, obstructions –High noise level Dual residency / Vacation home –Maintain local contacts/nets Convenience –Get equipment out of the house –Travel with minimum equipment Combine resources –Partner with others for “Super Station”

AE6PM 3/3/ My Motivation Desire to operate my SF Bay area station while on travel –Operate from Butte, Phoenix, Pacific Grove, San Diego and ?? High noise level on 40-meters in Butte, MT –Magnetic loop is very effective, but received signal levels are marginal

AE6PM 3/3/ Objectives Keep primary station equipment in Saratoga –Transmitter, receiver, power supplies, antennas Operate the primary station from any remote location –Laptop computer and headset Use the internet for communication between locations

AE6PM 3/3/ Literature Search Remote Operating for Amateur Radio (ARRL book) VoIP: Internet Linking for Radio Amateurs (ARRL book) Remote Radio Control Made Easy (QST Aug 2012) Remote-Controlled HF Operation over the Internet (QST Nov 2001) Remote Control of Accessories via the Internet (QST Apr 2013) A Ham Radio Public Utility HF Station (QST Nov 2002) K7RLD Remote Ham Operation (Internet) Internet Remoting Toolkit (Internet W4MQ) Tools & Techniques for Remote Operation (K6TU presentation) How To: Wake on LAN/Wake on WAN (Internet smallnetbuilder.com)

AE6PM 3/3/ Cost: Make or Buy Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) –Can be expensive RemoteRig ~ $490 Web-controlled power strip ~ $150 –Definitely consider internet operability if buying a new radio Build It Yourself –Low cost ~ $50 –Implement with purchased and/or homebuilt hardware –Simple circuits -- not difficult to design or build

AE6PM 3/3/ Design Requirements Needs –Ability to turn station power on and off remotely –Transceiver capable of computer control (CAT) –PC to control the transceiver –Ability to operate the PC remotely –Audio connection to/from the transceiver Wants –Ability to turn the PC on and off –Monitor station dc power, rf power, swr, etc –Ability to switch antennas

AE6PM 3/3/ Design Requirements Deferred/Don’t Care –CW Operation Has been done by others – requires some more research Possible latency issues –Antenna rotator control I don’t have a rotatable antenna –“Wake on LAN” My PC BIOS doesn’t support Review of literature indicates this could be another giant time sink

AE6PM 3/3/ Architecture Complete StationPC and Headset Software: Skype Software: Skype LogMeIn Ham Radio Deluxe Audio Control PowerAntennas Audio HOSTCLIENT Data

AE6PM 3/3/ Host (Station) Hardware Transceiver (Exists) Power Supply (Exists) PC (Exists/modify) PC/Radio Audio IFU (Build) DTMF Controller (Build or buy) Telco Isolator (Build) Remote Power Controller (Build) Station Control Unit (Optional/Modify) WaveNode™ (Optional/Buy) Network TV Camera (Optional/Buy) Answering Machine (Exists)

AE6PM 3/3/ Host (Station) Software PC Control –LogMeIn Transceiver Control –Ham Radio Deluxe Audio –Skype Station Monitoring –WaveNode Antenna Switching –WaveNode

AE6PM 3/3/ PC/Radio Audio IFU Provides DC isolation and level adjustment for audio channels between transceiver and PC

AE6PM 3/3/ PC/Radio Audio IFU Audio from radio Audio to radio

AE6PM 3/3/ PC (EeePC) Added connections for controlling power switching Found a schematic on the Internet.

AE6PM 3/3/ DTMF Controller (Decoder) Decodes DTMF tones from telephone line and provides 16 independent logic-level outputs DCI2 kit from Ramsey

AE6PM 3/3/ Telco Isolator Provides AC and DC isolation from the telephone line Added to resolve polarity issue with DTMF Controller connection

AE6PM 3/3/ Telco Isolator

AE6PM 3/3/ Remote Power Controller Provides opto-isolated switch closure to PC for power control and relay drive for AC power switching

AE6PM 3/3/ AC Power Control PC Power Control Power Control Timer

AE6PM 3/3/ Remote Power Controller AC Power Control

AE6PM 3/3/ Remote Power Controller PC Power Control

AE6PM 3/3/ Remote Power Controller Power Control Timer

AE6PM 3/3/ Station Control Unit Provides for antenna switching among other things Power supply board provides ±24V for existing remote antenna switch. Relay board is a kit from qkits.com.

AE6PM 3/3/ Station Control Unit

AE6PM 3/3/ Host System Interconnect Diagram

AE6PM 3/3/ Host System Interconnect Diagram

AE6PM 3/3/ Host System Interconnect Diagram

AE6PM 3/3/ WaveNode™ Displays RF power, SWR, DC voltage and current plus several diagnostic displays. From WaveNode in Campbell, CA. WaveNode WN-2(d) Sensors connect to the box. Box connects to the PC via USB port. I use the Logic Outputs to change antennas.

AE6PM 3/3/ TV Camera (Webcam) Airsight XC36A handy for looking around the station and for troubleshooting PC problems I purchased two of these. The first died in a few days – the second is still working. Access directly from the internet. E.g.,

AE6PM 3/3/ TV Picture Screen shot of the network TV camera operating

AE6PM 3/3/ Issues & Answers Ham Radio Deluxe is no longer free –Last free version ( ) works fine –TRX Manager might be an option (QST Feb 2006 p 62) LogMeIn is no longer free ($98/yr) –Consider GoToMyPC ($9.95/mo/PC) –Consider TightVNC (free) –Consider RealVNC ($30?) –Consider NetMeeting (Caution – See QST Nov 2002) –Consider Windows Remote Desktop (May require OS upgrade) –Try HRD in Server mode?

AE6PM 3/3/ Issues & Answers NortonSkype Host PC waiting for keyboard input was a major pain in the beginning –Skype, Norton, Microsoft

AE6PM 3/3/ Issues & Answers Automatic updates need to be turned off –Microsoft and Antivirus (e.g. Norton) Sleep and Hibernation must be set to NEVER –Can’t connect to a PC that’s asleep or hibernating ISP fiddling around can knock cable modem offline –Keep their phone number handy ( ) ISP fiddling around can knock range extender offline (?) –Leave a key with someone (power cycle to restore) ISP changing WAN address disrupts TV camera –Use from host PC to find new address Need better protection from in-house phone dialing –Add “combination lock” to enable DTMF Decoder

AE6PM 3/3/ Operation STARTUP Start client computer (VGN-FS940) Launch Skype on client computer Call host telephone number –Send DTMF 5 then 6 to power-up host computer –Not required if host computer was left in standby Launch LogMeIn on client computer Call host telephone number –Send DTMF 5 then 7 to turn on host switched ac power Launch WaveNode on host computer Launch Ham Radio Deluxe on host computer

AE6PM 3/3/ Operation SHUTDOWN Close HRD on host computer Close WaveNode on host computer Call host telephone number –Send DTMF 5 then 8 to turn off host switched ac power Close Skype on client computer Select Start/Shutdown/Standby on host computer –Leaves host computer in standby mode Immediately disconnect LogMeIn on host computer –So that program is not running when host computer tries to shut down

AE6PM 3/3/ Operation