Remote Control for the Ham Radio Station Operate

Remote Control for the Ham Radio Station Operate your station from anywhere Don Steinbach AE 6 PM Santa Clara County Amateur Radio Association March 10, 2014 AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 1

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” AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 2

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 AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 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 AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 4

Literature Search • • • Remote Operating for Amateur Radio (ARRL book) Vo. IP: 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) K 7 RLD Remote Ham Operation (Internet) Internet Remoting Toolkit (Internet W 4 MQ) Tools & Techniques for Remote Operation (K 6 TU presentation) How To: Wake on LAN/Wake on WAN (Internet smallnetbuilder. com) AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 5

Cost: Make or Buy • Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) – Can be expensive • Remote. Rig ~ $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 AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 6

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 AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 7

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 AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 8

Architecture HOST CLIENT Complete Station PC and Headset Software: Skype Log. Me. In Ham Radio Deluxe Software: Skype Audio Data Control Power AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 Antennas 9

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) Wave. Node™ (Optional/Buy) Network TV Camera (Optional/Buy) Answering Machine (Exists) AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 10

Host (Station) Software • PC Control – Log. Me. In • Transceiver Control – Ham Radio Deluxe • Audio – Skype • Station Monitoring – Wave. Node • Antenna Switching – Wave. Node AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 11

PC/Radio Audio IFU Provides DC isolation and level adjustment for audio channels between transceiver and PC AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 12

PC/Radio Audio IFU Audio from radio Audio to radio AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 13

PC (Eee. PC) Added connections for controlling power switching Found a schematic on the Internet. AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 14

DTMF Controller (Decoder) Decodes DTMF tones from telephone line and provides 16 independent logic-level outputs DCI 2 kit from Ramsey AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 15

Telco Isolator Provides AC and DC isolation from the telephone line Added to resolve polarity issue with DTMF Controller connection AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 16

Telco Isolator AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 17

Remote Power Controller Provides opto-isolated switch closure to PC for power control and relay drive for AC power switching AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 18

AC Power Control Timer AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 19

Remote Power Controller AC Power Control AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 20

Remote Power Controller PC Power Control AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 21

Remote Power Controller Power Control Timer AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 22

Station Control Unit Provides for antenna switching among other things Power supply board provides ± 24 V for existing remote antenna switch. Relay board is a kit from qkits. com. AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 23

Station Control Unit AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 24

Host System Interconnect Diagram AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 25

Host System Interconnect Diagram AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 26

Host System Interconnect Diagram AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 27

Wave. Node™ Displays RF power, SWR, DC voltage and current plus several diagnostic displays. From Wave. Node in Campbell, CA. Sensors connect to the box. Box connects to the PC via USB port. Wave. Node WN-2(d) I use the Logic Outputs to change antennas. AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 28

TV Camera (Webcam) Airsight XC 36 A handy for looking around the station and for troubleshooting PC problems Access directly from the internet. E. g. , http: //192. 168. 0. 106: 8092 I purchased two of these. The first died in a few days – the second is still working. AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 29

TV Picture Screen shot of the network TV camera operating AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 30

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) • Log. Me. In is no longer free ($98/yr) – Consider Go. To. My. PC ($9. 95/mo/PC) – Consider Tight. VNC (free) – Consider Real. VNC ($30? ) – Consider Net. Meeting (Caution – See QST Nov 2002) – Consider Windows Remote Desktop (May require OS upgrade) – Try HRD in Server mode? AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 31

Issues & Answers • Host PC waiting for keyboard input was a major pain in the beginning –Skype, Norton, Microsoft Skype AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 Norton 32

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 AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 33

Operation STARTUP • Start client computer (VGN-FS 940) • 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 Log. Me. In on client computer – Ae 6 pm@arrl. net/remoteops/mp 6 ea 0491 • Call host telephone number – Send DTMF 5 then 7 to turn on host switched ac power • Launch Wave. Node on host computer • Launch Ham Radio Deluxe on host computer AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 34

Operation SHUTDOWN • Close HRD on host computer • Close Wave. Node 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 Log. Me. In on host computer – So that program is not running when host computer tries to shut down AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 35

Operation AE 6 PM 3/3/2014 36