Remote Ham Radio Operating

Of all my hobbies, Ham radio has passed the test of time. I have been a ham since I was 15. At that time, getting your license was about the equivilant of a credit course. It included 3 tests: electronics and RF theory, Industry Canada regulations and, of course, Morse code (and, yes, we still use it today).

Until just recently, you needed to have all your radios, antennas, amplifiers, etc. at your home location. The internet has changed all that. I now run with all this equipment in a remote location that allows me to 'connect' to it from anywhere in the world.

My monthly internet bill at my remote base is about $45/month. Well worth the expense.

At the heart of this solution, are 2 software products. Both are free, however I do donate to the author of Ham Radio Deluxe on a regular basis. Simon HB9DRV does an amazing job with this product. Not only that, it is very solid code, even in beta versions. HRD manages all the radio connections, radio control, log book and many other features (too many to list). Adding a Griffin Powermate gives you a nice VFO feel.

That takes care of the radio control. What is left is the audio, and for that I use Skype. Skype's audio quality is darn good, and it can even be improved further by doing some tuning on your network/router just by opening a port that Skype can reference (this keeps your audio from being routed through a super node).

While contesting, I actually use my Heil Proset just plugged right into my laptop. Amazing audio reports.

I often go months without even touching my remote base (most of the winter). That means I need to make sure I can do things by remote control if need be. If the computer goes offline for what ever reason, then I can't do anything and I am off the air. I installed an internet based control board (designed by Hugh VA3TO), that allows me to:

1) Reboot the computer

2) Turn on the Astron PS70 power supply for the SGC500

3) Turn on the SGC SGC500 amplifier

4) Alarm back to me if the SGC500 trips offline

When setting up Windows XP, I have no antivirus installed, the firewall turned on and automatic updates turned off. I do apply all my updates when I am actually standing in front of the computer. I also run Spinrite a few times a year to ensure the hard drive health (this is an amazing tool and money well spent). No other product available does what this does. Also, taking some time to turn off all the services you need helps to improve the reliability of your remote computer. Last winter (2009), I went from Thanksgiving (Canadian) to mid May without even logging into the computer with VNC.

HRD will turn the radio on and off, so that isn't a problem. However, if the power to the TS-480 actually drops, then I can't turn the radio on at all. Majour problem, so I had to install a small lead acid battery in parallel to the Astron PS12 that runs the radio. I was able to go to a small power supply since I had the battery there as well. It has been 4 years now and no problems with that.

Cooling is a minor issue with the items all installed in box, so I added a small muffin fan and a thermostat to control it. It can reach 30C in the box, but that hasn't caused any problems. Even in the dead of winter, I have always been able to connect.

Antennas are controlled by a Elecraft KRC-2. Very well made unit and it gives you lots of options for controlling antennas. Right now, I am using an 80/40m trap dipole, a 6M vertical, and a Butternut HF6V. I am planning on adding the tower at some point and HRD will be able to handle the rotor control. When I do that, I will install a web cam so that I can keep an eye on the antenna and rotator.

Having just finished the RAC Canada Day Contest, I have to say that this is a great solution. In fact, it would be able to set up a full Multi-Multi station on a site like this and not even have the operators onsite here with the radios. All the operators would have a very long mic cord.

When it blows, it blows

I just spent the weekend helping the Hobie fleet in Syracuse run their annual regatta.  This was the 33rd hosting of this event.  What a blast it was.

Saturday was looking like a great day.  Winds were good and solid (out of the east though).  We got all 3 fleets started and I then went down below to fire up my laptop to see what the weather radar was showing as there was a threat of thunderstorms.

Oh Crap were my first words.  Actually, it was worse than that, but this is a family channel.  We could see this really tight line of t-storms headed toward us.  All we had time to do was to get this race in the books and then wait out the storms.  It took a bit, but the storm did hit and then it rained for about 7 hours.

Sunday was a beautiful clear day with the winds blowing 30 knots out of the west.  The air temp was about 50F, so there was a significant wind chill.  But, what a great day for the heavy air sailors.

Lots of great pics here.

A friend of mine sent me this video of the Milky Way rising.  Now, this is cool!  Make sure you watch it in full screen.

Another one in the bag

The nights events went off without a hitch.  If there was one, Broder's team covered it pretty well.  If you watched the event, penalties were the key part of winning our losing.  The winners took home a pretty good check.  Results and some video are here.

I've got all the pictures uploaded.  This link will show the gallery you've seen before.  This link is a pretty cool slide show of the same event.

I'm off (back) to Syracuse now to the annual MadCatter Hobie Cat race where I am the race officer.  Fleet 204 puts on an amazing show as well.

Show Time

I got the T-Mobile thing sorted out.  Funny, they don't like a Canadian to pay by credit card.  So, I had to go to a CVS, buy a T-Mobile phone card and deposit that in my account.  But, that isn't the account for the actual phone.  

I then have to log in and move the money.  I'm so glad this was simple.

The guy at T-Mobile was surprised when I told him I was able to do this in London in about 90 seconds.

Pictures will be here.

T-Mobile - buying a SIM card

How hard can this be???

90 seconds .. in and out of a T-Mobile store.  New SIM card in hand.

This morning, I try to activate it.  Hmm... they didn't give me the activation number.

AND, the only way to get one is to walk back into the store.  

It only took an hour on the phone with them, and 4 separate people to figure it out.  The last lady was more than helpful, but could not help me get on line remotely.  I have to go back to the store.

Nascar - wow, that is a show

So, I go from it being quiet and working on job hunting, to getting an invite to come down to Charlotte, NC to be part of the Nascar Pit Crew Challenge.  I was able to manage a trip down here, and make it to Syracuse for the annual Madcatter Hobie Cat regatta this weekend.

I drove down to Syracuse on Tuesday and stayed with some good friends, Tom and Sue.  With a flight out today at 6am, via Washington and into Charlotte, I made it to the arena by 1pm to work with Jimmy, James and Andy.

The show times all 4 parts of a pit crews job.  Gas, Jacking, Front and Rear wheel change.  Once that is all done, you get to push the car about 100 yards.

Very cool show!  If you are in the US, you can watch it live Thursday on Speed.  I am not sure what they are showing in Canada.  

With all the travel I did yesterday and today, I only managed a few hours sleep.  As I am writing this, I'm listening to the weather channel that is describing the ongoing Tornado outbreak that is going on.  Ron and team, I hope your safe and have grabbed some great pictures.

It has been a while - since the last post

It has been pretty quiet for the past month.  Other than getting some skiing in out west, I have been focusing on getting my resume up to date.

However, last week, the timing bug raised its head and I jumped on the train to head over to Montreal to work with my friend Ted on some timing equipment.  We wanted to do some testing on a newer technology from our friends across the pond.  (Note to all:  Via rail from Toronto to Montreal all is great.  Although they do provide Internet, there is only 1 thing worse that no internet, and that is some internet.  I used my Telus Air Card which was really good.  No less then 10 people walked by me to ask how come my internet was actually working).

So, in front of his his house, we set up a few computers and the Line Scan camera.  The line scan camera is the one we use at World Cup ski races both in Lake Louise and Austria.  The beauty of this is it allows us to make some tests with equipment we trust to the newer technologies.  

This was a 'chip' or wireless product.  So, that means we need to lay down or tape some wires down on the road (a big antenna actually).  In the middle, we put down some pink tape that would allow us to determine exactly were the middle of the line is (or the start/finish line).  

After about 3 hours of setting up the finish line, it looked great, until....   I could hear this rather large truck climbing up the hill.  Wait, I know that sound.  Oh no... it couldn't be.  Yep, this is spring in Montreal and the street cleaner was headed our way.  With Ted no where to be found I knew we were in trouble as there was about an 80% chance this guy only spoke french.  Well, we got lucky and he made the turn to the left just below us.  We could hear him rumbling around the streets, but never headed our way.  Lucky us.

I would then ride be the finish while Ted and Andy captured the results on a laptop.  Now, Ted's house is above Montreal and so the slope goes from left to right in the picture.  This means I had to blow down the road, hammer on the breaks, then turn around and climb back up the hill.  

A few dozen of those will get your heart rate going.  In the picture above, it is key to note that the background is NOT moving while I am.  Some of you might have to think about that for awhile.