1. AE6PM 3/3/2014 1 Remote Control for the Ham Radio Station Operate your station from anywhere Don Steinbach AE6PM Santa Clara County Amateur Radio Association March 10, 2014

2. AE6PM 3/3/2014 2 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”

3. AE6PM 3/3/2014 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

4. AE6PM 3/3/2014 4 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

5. AE6PM 3/3/2014 5 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)

6. AE6PM 3/3/2014 6 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

7. AE6PM 3/3/2014 7 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

8. AE6PM 3/3/2014 8 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

9. AE6PM 3/3/2014 9 Architecture Complete StationPC and Headset Software: Skype Software: Skype LogMeIn Ham Radio Deluxe Audio Control PowerAntennas Audio HOSTCLIENT Data

10. AE6PM 3/3/2014 10 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)

11. AE6PM 3/3/2014 11 Host (Station) Software PC Control –LogMeIn Transceiver Control –Ham Radio Deluxe Audio –Skype Station Monitoring –WaveNode Antenna Switching –WaveNode

12. AE6PM 3/3/2014 12 PC/Radio Audio IFU Provides DC isolation and level adjustment for audio channels between transceiver and PC

13. AE6PM 3/3/2014 13 PC/Radio Audio IFU Audio from radio Audio to radio

14. AE6PM 3/3/2014 14 PC (EeePC) Added connections for controlling power switching Found a schematic on the Internet.

15. AE6PM 3/3/2014 15 DTMF Controller (Decoder) Decodes DTMF tones from telephone line and provides 16 independent logic-level outputs DCI2 kit from Ramsey

16. AE6PM 3/3/2014 16 Telco Isolator Provides AC and DC isolation from the telephone line Added to resolve polarity issue with DTMF Controller connection

17. AE6PM 3/3/2014 17 Telco Isolator

18. AE6PM 3/3/2014 18 Remote Power Controller Provides opto-isolated switch closure to PC for power control and relay drive for AC power switching

19. AE6PM 3/3/2014 19 AC Power Control PC Power Control Power Control Timer

20. AE6PM 3/3/2014 20 Remote Power Controller AC Power Control

21. AE6PM 3/3/2014 21 Remote Power Controller PC Power Control

22. AE6PM 3/3/2014 22 Remote Power Controller Power Control Timer

23. AE6PM 3/3/2014 23 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.

24. AE6PM 3/3/2014 24 Station Control Unit

25. AE6PM 3/3/2014 25 Host System Interconnect Diagram

26. AE6PM 3/3/2014 26 Host System Interconnect Diagram

27. AE6PM 3/3/2014 27 Host System Interconnect Diagram

28. AE6PM 3/3/2014 28 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.

29. AE6PM 3/3/2014 29 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., http://192.168.0.106:8092

30. AE6PM 3/3/2014 30 TV Picture Screen shot of the network TV camera operating

31. AE6PM 3/3/2014 31 Issues & Answers Ham Radio Deluxe is no longer free –Last free version (5.24.38) 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?

32. AE6PM 3/3/2014 32 Issues & Answers NortonSkype Host PC waiting for keyboard input was a major pain in the beginning –Skype, Norton, Microsoft

33. AE6PM 3/3/2014 33 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 (1-800-945-2288) 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 www.whatsmyip.com from host PC to find new address Need better protection from in-house phone dialing –Add “combination lock” to enable DTMF Decoder

34. AE6PM 3/3/2014 34 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 –Ae6pm@arrl.net/remoteops/mp6ea0491 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

35. AE6PM 3/3/2014 35 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

36. AE6PM 3/3/2014 36 Operation