Remote Control for the Ham Radio Station Operate your station from anywhere Don Steinbach AE6PM

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Architecture HOST CLIENT Complete Station PC and Headset Software: Skype LogMeIn Ham Radio Deluxe Software:Skype Internet Audio Data Audio Control Power Antennas

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. Host (Station) Software • PC Control • LogMeIn • Transceiver Control • Ham Radio Deluxe • Audio • Skype • Station Monitoring • WaveNode • Antenna Switching • WaveNode

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

13. PC/Radio Audio IFU Audio from radio Audio to radio

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

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

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

17. Telco Isolator

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

19. AC Power Control PC Power Control Power Control Timer

20. Remote Power Controller AC Power Control

21. Remote Power Controller PC Power Control

22. Remote Power Controller Power Control Timer

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. Station Control Unit

25. Host System Interconnect Diagram

26. Host System Interconnect Diagram

27. Host System Interconnect Diagram

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

29. TV Camera (Webcam) Airsight XC36A 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.

30. TV Picture Screen shot of the network TV camera operating

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. Issues & Answers • Host PC waiting for keyboard input was a major pain in the beginning • Skype, Norton, Microsoft Skype Norton

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. 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. 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. Operation