Remotely Controlled Amateur Radio

                 

Wherever there is a reliable, fast Internet Connection, wireless or static, even in Outback VK, you may be able to remotely control your Amateur Radio station.

Whether it's drones, even underwater drones, satellites, space craft, radar systems or you name it, remote control has been for a long time now and always will be a part of our lives. As we extend our reach into the Universe, remotely controlling equipment in space will become ever more vital. Thanks to the people who have developed the Internet, remotely controlling and operating Amateur Radio stations worldwide is a reality nowadays too. My remotely controlled Amateur Radio station is located on our property, out in the middle of nowhere in the South Australian Bush, about 10 miles or so from the nearest town and about 100 miles away from home, from where the radios are remotely controlled. The radio station is unattended, solar powered and turned on remotely when about to operate and then turned off again remotely when closing down. Other wise, if left on all the time, the battery would soon become depleted and unusable. A 4G Wireless Internet connection is used between the property and the town and an ethernet Internet connection at home.

By writing this page, I'm trying to inspire you to give remotely controlling your station a go. In my case, without it, I would hardly be able to operate at all. I am no expert with this. If any thing, I am at the other end of the scale. Personally, I found this difficult to achieve but with perseverance, was eventually able to works things out. Perhaps you can too and hopefully the information here may help you to do that and at the same time, help Amateur Radio too.

As an alternative to remotely controlling your own AR station, you can pay money online to remotely operate Amateur Radio stations

via the Internet which are located mostly in the USA. If interested, Click on this website link  RemoteHamRadio  It opens in a new window.

                 

This 9 minute high definition video shows my solar powered and remotely controlled Amateur Radio station which is located on our Bush property,

about 150 klms away from where we live. It's remotely controlled from the home Qth. Speakers On.

 
                 
                 
                 

To see a basic remotely controlled FT-450D station which is less confusing than that below, click on this image. The page, 'Remote Green Shed,' will then open in a new window. Having read it, if interested, come back to this page which gives more information.

                 

 
                 

This  remote  radio  system,  operated  via  a  cable  Internet  connection  at  the  Control  End  and  a  wireless  Internet  connection  at  the  Radio  End, uses  the  'RemoteRig'  configuration  shown  below.  A  desktop  PC  at  the  Control  End  which  uses  the  program  Ham  Radio  Deluxe (HRD)  controls  the  Amateur  Radio  station  which  is  about  150  klms  away  on  our  property  in  the  South  Australian  Bush. The  Swedish  made  RemoteRig  system  enables  various  configurations  to  be  employed  so  that  you  can  operate  remotely.  ie.  there  are  a  variety  of  ways  of  going  about  it. If  interested,  have  a  look  at  their  configuration  page  to  see  which  would  suit  you  best.  click here.

                 

                 

The home Qth from where the station is remotely controlled. It's 150 klms away, located on our Bush property.

This system uses a Wireless Internet connection (4G, 2.4Ghz) at the Radio End.

                 

                 

External  Internet  (mobile  phone)  antennas  are  needed  at  our  property  to  receive  the  Internet  signals  from  the  nearest  town,  ten  kilometres  away.  The  property  at  the  radio  end  is  fairly  isolated  so  the  background  noise  level  on  the  radios  is  strength  zero.  Since  the  radio  station  at  the  property  is  unattended,  an  SMS  Relay  switch  is  used  to  turn  the  radio  and  wifi  RemoteRig  on  and  off  when  I'm  at  home, 150  klms  away.  In  my  case,  the  SMS  relay  switch  and  wi-fi  modem  are  connected  to  a  12  volt  battery  and  left  turned  on  all  the  time.  { Rik, VK3EQ, who uses the same NightHawk modem, was kindly telling me that if you download the latest software for this modem, then you don't need to leave the battery in the modem. You can use a separate power supply for it and switch the power to the modem on when about to operate remotely, and then turn it off again when finished. Apparently this modem draws about 170 or 180mA. This is what Rik has done with his RemoteRig system and IC7000. He was saying that he needed to find this solution to the problem of the modem not always staying turned on when using the inbuilt battery. - I haven't had this problem with mine though - so far. Rik was also saying that you can use an Ethernet cable between the modem and the RemoteRig RRC, although I don't. }  One  of  the  radios in my case,  the  IC7600,  draws  around  3  amps  on  receive,  so  the  SMS  switch  is  used  to  turn  on  both  the  radio  and  RemoteRig  when  operating  and  then  afterwards,  switch  them  off  again.  This  particular  SMS  switch  has  4  separate  switches.  By  using  your  'smart'  mobile  phone,  the  SMS  switch  is  turned  on  or  off  when  you  send  the  appropriate  SMS  message  to  the  number  of  the  Sim  card  within  the  SMS  switch.  A  few  seconds  later,  an  SMS  message  is  then  sent  back  to  you  to  let  you  know  that  the  relay  switch  has  been  turned  on  or  off,  as  the  case  may  be.  This  SMS  relay  switch  was  very  expensive - about $600 Aus. This particular one  works  on  the  3G  network. Also,  with  most  modern  radios,  within  the  menu  settings,  you  can  find  the  'Time  Out  Timer'  or  'TOT'.  For  remote  operating,  I  understand  that  this  should  be  set  to  3  minutes.  This  is  a  safety  feature  for  remote  operating  (eg.  in  the  event  of  losing  Internet  connection)  whereby  the  transmitter  having  been  turned  on  for  3  minutes  will  automatically  switch  off  -  from  transmit  to  receive.

                 

The  wireless  Internet  antenna  and  the  SMS  Relay  switch  external  antenna  at  the  Radio  End.

(You  could  probably  use  a  single  antenna  with  a  'splitter.')

                 

SMS Relay switch on the left and SMS text sent to and received from the switch - click to see a larger image in a new window.

                 

12 Volt Relays to turn the radios and wifi RemoteRigs on and off.  NightHawk, Netgear 4G  wifi modem at the radio end. (not shown with external antenna plugged in.)

                 
                 

The following only applies when using a wireless Internet connection at the radio end. When I replaced my wifi router at the radio end with a new one because I had had it for a few years and it had deteriorated and was no longer usable, I ran into a problem which I thought was unsolvable.

Nowadays, most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use a function called 'CGN' on their wireless Internet connections. This means that the wireless IP address is no longer public and therefore, when, at the control end, trying to find the remote modem at the radio end (using a dynamic website address), this RemoteRig system will not work. This caused a lot of problems whereby I had to cease remote operating for about a year, when as luck would have it, a fellow Ham here in Adelaide, Matt, VK5HZ, who is a network technician, sent me an email to say that he had helped VK3SSB who, not long ago had suffered from the same problem. The following applies for my Service Provider here in Adelaide, South Australia, which is 'Telstra'. It would probably be a little different for your Provider if you live outside of Australia. If using a wireless Internet connection at the radio end, you will probably need to look into this matter to resolve the problem of CGN. { For more information about CGN,, click here. } In my case, I had to ask Telstra to switch off the CGN function on my account (according to the SIM number used in the modem). However, they would not do that unless you have a business account with them, whereby you need to supply them with an Australian Business Number (ABN). I am retired and have been so for a few years now, so there is no way that I could obtain an ABN. Here in VK5 with Telstra, it is a matter of getting access to a special 'APN' called telstra.extranet  which is enabled on the Telstra end of your account (Sim card numbered account) and then set up in my wifi modem at the radio end. The code that was needed to be put on my account is 'GPTEXB3'. I am hoping that this information will be useful for Amateurs here in Australia and possibly overseas. After having sent my Internet Service Provider - Telstra - a kind letter via snail mail, not email, explaining my situation, they agreed to switch off the CGN function on my radio end, wireless router account (the Sim number account within the router) and I am more than happy to say that this remote system is now working again. For VK Amateurs, the address that I sent the letter to is: 'Telstra. Locked Bag 20026, Melbourne. VIC. 3001.' Probably one of the reasons that they agreed to do that, without an ABN, is because we have been a customer of theirs for probably 40 years or more.

                 

                 

The  radios  shown  are  the  IC-7600  and  IC-7300.  It  may  look  confusing  but  of  course  only  one  remote  radio  is  used  at  a  time.  This  particular  SMS  relay  switch  has  4  separate  switches.  Individual  30A,  12V  relays  are  connected  in  series  with  the  SMS  relay  switches  to  turn  each  radio  and  wifi  RemoteRig  on  and  off.  When  the  wifi  RemoteRigs  are  first  turned  on,  they  automatically  connect  to  the  modem  and  soon  become  reachable  (usually within  a  minute  or  so)  from  the  control  end  by  use  of  their dynamic website addresses.  If  you  intend  to  use  this  system  and  are  using  only  one  radio,  then  use  the  free  RemoteRig's  dynamic  address.

Every  thing  here  is  powered  by  the  large  lead  acid,  deep  cycle  battery  (670AH)  as  seen  above. Power  Line  Interference  at  my  home  Qth  is  often  strength  nine  but  the  background  noise  level  on  the  remote  radios  is  close  to  strength  zero, depending  on  static  and  over  the  horizon  radar.  This  is  one  of  the  greatest  benefits  of  remote  operating.  In my case, there  is  plenty  of  room  for  antennas  at  the  radio  location  too.  I  should  think  that  you  could  do  this  sort  of  thing  with  a  satellite  Internet  connection  too  and  the  military  would  have  more  sophisticated  systems. The system here is working well now. The 4G modem in use now at the radio end is very reliable and receive and transmit on SSB work very well. The old 3G modem which was previously in use, was not as reliable. This does not mean that 3G wont work for you. You may have a better 3G modem than I had, for example.

                 

You  may  like  to  download  and  print  this  PDF  -  Remote Control Your HF Rig via the Internet By ... - ARRL.  If  you  are  an  ARRL  member,  you  might  be  interested  in  this  page  -  http://www.arrl.org/link-remote-control . Also, have a look here at Mike, K6YNP's system. To see the settings in my Control Remote Rig device, click here. To see the settings in my Radio Remote Rig device, click here. The settings used may be helpful to you. Also, the APN which my ISP, Telstra put into my wifi router remotely via the Internet can be seen here. They turned off the CGN function at their end too. Kevin at Ham Radio Deluxe has been very helpful with configuring their program but I would especially like to thank 'Matt', VK5HZ, without whose help the CGN problem would not have been overcome.

 

The home Qth from where the solar powered Amateur Radio station is remotely controlled via the Internet. It's located on our Bush property which is fairly isolated and about 150 klms from home. A wireless 4G Internet connection is used at the property to the nearest town which is about 10 klms away. Remote Control of Amateur Radio stations is a Reality these days and they can be remotely operated via the Internet even if on the other side of the world from you. So, it could be said that you as the operator are 'on the other side of the planet.' Of course you need a fast reliable Internet connection.

 

                 

 You may also be interested in this remotely controlled $100 camera which is located near the radios, positioned behind a window in the shed. If interested, click on the picture. The page will open in a new window.

The 2 youtube videos below show my setup using the Remote Rig system and Ham Radio Deluxe. The 4 minute video on the left shows the reception from the IC-7300 remote radio, and the 10 minute video to the right shows the reception from the IC-7600 remote radio at the home Qth. They were made in Dec. 2018 using my cell phone. Each will open in a new window.

 
                 

Setting up this remote radio system was a learning experience for me. I found that it paid to do things slowly, otherwise it could be very frustrating at times.

My hope is that this page may be helpful to you in acquiring information which can enable Amateur Radio operators

to remotely control their stations, whether in your own country or just about anywhere on planet Earth.

 

To view feedback from fellow Hams about this Remote Control Amateur Radio system, click here. The page opens in a new window.

 

As an alternative to remotely controlling your own AR station, you can pay money online to remotely operate Amateur Radio stations

via the Internet which are located mostly in the USA. If interested, Click on this website link  RemoteHamRadio  It opens in a new window.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                 

 

Music video featuring pictures of Australia. The background song performed by Australian Super Group, 'The Seekers.'  Runs 4 minutes. Speakers On.

 

 

'True Blue' also features images of Australia. Music track performed by fair dinkum, dinky di Aussie John Williamson. Runs 4 and a half minutes. Speakers On.

 

 

'Follow your Dream' features Amateur Radio pictures. The background song performed by Australian Super Group, 'The Seekers.'  4 minutes.

 

 

This Youtube music video was made in Jan. 2020. It features Young Lady (YL) Amateur Radio Operators. 4 minutes.

 

 

   'Beautiful and Inspiring Australian Women.' Uploaded 3rd April 2020. Pictures of Beautiful and Inspiring Australian

Women enhanced by John Paul Young's classic Australian song, 'Love is in the Air.'  Runs 3 and a half minutes.