Remote Opera ng Not For You?
You may want to rethink that
Fred Glenn, K9SO
I’ve been opera ng my sta on via remote links since the early 1990’s. Back then it was hard
and very technical. Today it’s easy. In the beginning I had all the typical reasons for wan ng to
operate remotely, my homeowner’s restric ons being the biggest one, so I set up a sta on at
my work loca on in an industrial park and never looked back.
This isn’t a how-to ar cle on remote opera ng but more like a why-to ar cle. Why would
you want to operate remotely? You probably don’t have that dream remote loca on on a
mountain top or the beach home in the Hamptons but I’d like to give you some ideas about
how remote opera ng has enhanced my Ham Radio experiences even without having the
resources of the “Rich and Famous”.
Most of my “remote opera ng” is done locally these days. Right here in my home. I do
almost everything remotely now, some mes out at a bench at the local park or far away when
on vaca on of course… but mostly right here at home. I have the flexibility of opera ng from
several different loca ons around the house without isola ng myself from the family in some
cold corner of the basement and without disturbing anyone.
My modern remote loca ons act like a remote radio head so the experience is s ll almost
iden cal to the experience of actually si ng in front of
the radio. Forget for now about HOW I do it (over
Ethernet/Internet), but just think of it as a long control
cable. I get to turn knobs, change frequencies with a
dial, talk into a real microphone, operate RTTY or FT-8
from a keyboard, and operate CW from a paddle. All
the big mess of cables, noisy amplifiers, and heat
genera ng devices are tucked away (not so neatly) in
the basement. But my opera ng posi ons are as neat
as a pin.
Much to my surprise, opera ng quietly from the family room in front of the TV cut down on
the complaints that I spent en rely too much me away from the family in the basement. I was
s ll opera ng much as before (with headphones of course), but I was visible again. Eventually,
even I didn’t want to be anywhere near the mess in actual shack. If you think about it, I became
part of the “modern family” with everyone else on their computers, wearing ear pods, and
tex ng away on their cell phones.
So I set out to build a simple and “family friendly” opera ng loca on in the family room.
First, I simply used the remote capabili es of a rig control/logging program (TRX-Manger)
and ran some wires for the paddle down to the rig in basement. I later added a control head
from an old Icom IC-706MKIIg and ran a remote head cable into the basement. When I acquired
my new FlexRadios, it eventually evolved into what I’m showing in the next photos using,
so ware rotor control, and the IC-706 control head. I added a FlexControl tuning knob.
While I’m primarily a CW operator, I occasionally operate low band SSB or operate for long
periods of me in a few big me contests. It’s hard to keep that quiet so I set up another
opera ng posi on in a more isolated corner, but s ll not too isolated from the family. At this
loca on, I use a FlexRadio Maestro control head to keep that real radio feel.
I have separate and permanent setups for RTTY and digital modes too, so I don’t have to
fiddle around with all the computer setup changes required for those modes. Modern
“desktop” computers are barely larger than a pack of cigare es these days so with a small
monitor they don’t have to take up much room in the house.
Next, I wanted to operate my base sta on IC-706MKIIg in the basement from the car.
Building on the remote capabili es of RemoteRig, I installed another IC-706 control head in the
car. Linking it to WiFi and via a cell phone hot spot, I’m now never out of range of my favorite
repeaters (since I’m actually opera ng my base sta on).
Since the IC-706MKIIg (and its more modern replacement) is an all band, all mode radio, I
have “mobile” HF capability too for those long drives at night. Using a simple RJ45 A/B switch, I
can switch the dash mounted control head between the cellular link and another Icom radio
unit in the trunk. There are many radios that have remote head capabili es and these
techniques are not limited to just FlexRadio and old Icom radios. More on that later.
Recently, I wanted even more portability. To operate from anywhere (my boat, my back
porch, etc.), I built a completely portable version of what I had installed in the car. I added an
internal ba ery, charger, and amplified speaker to the mix. Since it turned out looking a lot like
an old 1960’s era CB radio, I called it the “RetroRig”. I can literally take it anywhere in the world.
With a 7 A-H SLA ba ery inside, I get 12-14 hours of con nuous opera on.
Here’s RetroRig si ng on the dashboard of my boat. Not exactly “mari me mobile” from an
inland lake, but s ll a lot of fun.
So I hope I’ve opened your eyes to some of the non-tradi onal “remote opera ng”
possibili es out there. Use your imagina on and remotely operate the way YOU want. There
are countless ways of achieving these ends and many “how-to” ar cles and videos out there.
You can operate modern radios directly from your cell phone these days, but I think that loses a
lot of the “real radio” feel I’ve always wanted to maintain. I built my systems around the radios
I had, and you can do the same thing with
radios you have.
As a final teaser, here’s a RetroRig I
built linked to the remote radio side of a
Kenwood TM-V71a:
Happy Remo ng!
Special thanks to Jeff Whalin, KC9JOB, and his cra smanship skills. These projects would not have been possible without him.
Fred Glenn, K9SO, is a re red Electrical engineer with BS and MS degrees in Electrical engineering. Primarily a CW operator, he now enjoys
many other modes of opera ng, all remote from the actual radio. He has two previous ar cles published in ARRL publica ons.