Remote Control and Automation

Welcome to this week’s post.

Ok, so I´ve listed and organized all my equipments and components and managed to find suitable softwares and apps for most of them, now what´s next?. Enter remote control and automation.

As some of you may know my shack is located in one half of my oldest son closet in his bedroom, which is kind of challenging to operate freely most of the time therefore I ended up working remotely most of the times. Sometimes remotely means from the living room, from my bedroom, from my office, from anywhere. And that pushed me to set up everything with remote operation in mind.

It was simple: I wanted to control all (or the most of) my equipments and components thru my computer and in turn, access my computer from anywhere. I started looking for this capability in any piece of equipment I needed to buy, started reading how a lot of hams have been doing it and then adapted and adopted a system that works for me.

Flex radios is an excellent choice when remote operation is wanted. With Smartlink we can access our radios from literary anywhere with a Maestro, a laptop, a PC, an iPhone or an iPad. Now we can even do FT8 natively with SDR for iOs. For the Icom there are plenty of software available that can be used for rig control but I find Win4Icom to be the best available, as explained in my previous post.

But then, there are other pieces that needed to be controlled as well. We have antennas, amplifiers and tuners that need to be managed in any given moment. And there is the safety aspect of being able to control your shack remotely in case anything goes bad, for example being able to turn off the radio and other components.

As I mentioned in my software post, the help and guidance of fellow hams in reflectors and groups is invaluable. For the purpose of my remote operation set up I´ve been blessed with the help of a lot of hams that had done it before, they had stayed with me during the process, answering endless questions (including a lot of dumb ones), making recommendations, etc.

I would like to name a couple : Jeff -W2FU from Green Heron Engineering,  Mack W4AX, John AI4FR and there are many more that in reflectors and groups had helped.

Remote Operation

As mentioned, I ended up remote operating due to limitations to access my shack freely. One thing led to another and the rest is history.

Using the Flex 6300

When I want to use my Flex radio, I simply ask Alexa to “Turn SMX on” and Alexa run the following Gosund tasks:

    1. Turn on the shack PC
    2. Turn on the Flex power Supply, wait 5 seconds
    3. Turn on the Flex relay causing the radio to turn on
    4. Turn on the DCU-2 rotator control
    5. Turn on the Acom 600s
    6. Turn on the Palstar HF Autotuner

Once I´m done I close all apps, shut down computer and ask Alexa to “Turn SMX off” and Alexa will turn off all equipments.

Using the Icom 7300

In case I want to use the Icom 7300, then I simply ask Alexa to “Turn Icom on” and Alexa will:

  1. Turn on the shack PC
  2. Turn on the Icom Power Supply
  3. Turn on the DCU-2 rotator control
  4. Turn on the Acom 600s
  5. Turn on the Palstar HF Autotuner

Once the computer boots up, using Win4Icom I turn on my Icom 7300 and then I open the rest of the apps.

Once I´m done I close all apps, shut down computer and ask Alexa to “Turn Icom off” and Alexa will turn off all equipments.

Operating remote

Once I´m set to operate here is what I do:

  1. Access my shack pc with AnyDesk (I use TeamViewer too sometimes)
  2. I use Green Heron Software to select my antennas using the Green Heron Select 8 switch. with this I can choose and change antennas as I want. Currently I have 4 antenas (6-20 Hexbeam, 40m kit on the hex, a 5elem 6m LFA and a 10-80 end fed).
  3. I use PSTRotator to move the hex and the LFA around as needed. PstRotator could also be controlled with Log4OM and with FRLogger as well.
  4. I use Acom Director Plus to control my Acom 600s amplifier
  5. I use HF Auto Software to control my Palstar HF Autotuner

This gives me complete control of my radio while remote.

Automation and Alexa

After reading a post in the Flex Community I got interested in using Alexa to automate certain parts of my shack operations. Based on the recommendations in that post and the off line help of some members I ended up doing the following:

  1. Got some smart sockets for the equipment. I decided to go with Gosund smart socket . They are good, not that expensive and have performed quite fine. See here
  2. Put an enclosed relay on my Flex 6300 to stimulate the on/off switch. With the relay and the Gosund Smart Socket I can turn the Flex on and off remotely. See here.
  3. Gosund has its own mobile app to control the sockets from the web. This way I can turn the equipments on/off thru my phone in any moment.
  4. In the Gosund app you can create scenarios grouping multiple equipments and automation that are triggered by conditions, such as weather. In example, I´ve created a scenario where if the weather is lighting or storm all the equipments are shut off.
  5. In my Alexa app I´ve created routines that triggers the Gosund scenarios such as weather, proximity to my home, etc.

Everyday I try to find things to do and to incorporate into my remote operation and shack automation. Now, I´m expanding this set up to include a Green Heron Remote base and two A/B switches from Top Ten Devices which will give me the control to (i) select between the 2 radios remotely and (ii) select which radio will use the Acom.

Please feel free to share your comments or questions. See you on next week post.

73, Santiago

Breaking news…

Earlier today the President of the Dominican Republic issued the Presidential Decree No.091-20 approving the new Frequency Allocation Program (PNAF in Spanish) which includes the 60 meters band for the country.

With this approval, now Dominican Republic ham operators are authorized to operate on 60m, according to the following:

5 351.5 – 5 366.5 KHz with a maximum of 25w.

So, as of today, 60m is legal in the Dominican Republic.

73, Santiago

About the software

On my previous post I mentioned all radios and components that I´ve collected on my shack and this time I´m going to talk a little bit about the softwares. I´ve alway have been more of a plug & play kind of operator, when it comes to equipments and when it comes to programs (I tried learning coding but had to leave it), so most of my solutions have come with the help of existing programs and help from fellow hams.

Loggers

I think I hold the world record on logging software testing. I´ve used or tested CommCat, DxLab, Logger 32, Log4OM, HRD, N3FJP, among many more. Currently I’m using Log4Om V2 and FRLogger (a multifunction logging program developed for Flex radios by WS7M, Mark). These logger not only help me log my qso’s but also upload them to the different online services (Lotw, QRZ.com, eQsl, Club Log, Hrdlog.net and so on), but also assist me on my rotor control, awards statistics, clusters and a whole lot more.

If you have a Flex I recommend you take a look at FRLogger (here) and also recommend Log4Om, the new version (here). The programs are robusts, complete, great support, great user communities and they are free.

Rig controls

Here I’ve done my share of testing and trying also, specially with my Icom rigs and I’ve narrow it to these two solutions: Win4Icom for my Icom 7300 and of course, SmartSDR for my Flex 6300.

If you use an Icom rig then I certainly recommend you invest in purchasing a license for this software, not only it can handle most (if not all) or the controls but also has an extraordinary GUI and a lot of capabilities. You can see it here.

Digital modes

I must begin with the obvious, I operate FT8 a lot and I really like it. Due to some of my current operations conditions I find myself operating remote from the shack most of the times and FT8 (among other digital modes) gives me flexibility to do it with ease. I´ve done my share of RTTY and PSK on the past, but not lately.

For FT8 of course I use WSJTX (the regular version, not the bot one) in conjunction with JTAlert, both of which are working nicely with the latest version of Log4OM and FRLogger. I must say that Laurie has done an enormous and great job with the software.

For the other modes I´ve recently been using FLDigi, but in the past also used HRD Digital Master.

Support Software

There are other softwares and apps that are complimentary to my shack operations. I will only list, the ones I currently use:

  • Dimension4 for my computer clock sync
  • K9DUR´s SDR Monitor to monitor my Flex temperature and voltage
  • FRSTack to complement my flex operations and interface with my HF Auto Software
  • HF Auto Software to control my Palstar HF Auto Tuner
  • PSTRotator to control my DCU2 Hygain rotator control
  • SliceMaster to complement my Flex operations, specially to open multiple slices of WSJTX and FLDigi when doing digital
  • Green Heron Software, to control my Green Heron Select 8 wireless remote antena switch
  • Acom Director Plus to control my Acom 600s amplifier

As you can see, my objective is to be able to computer control all the components on my shack.

I´m in the process of incorporating another Green Heron product, a Green Heron Remote base so I can control a couple of A/B switches for choosing from the Flex and the Icom and to choose which radio gets the amp.

Ipad and Iphone

Because I use a Flex 6300 I´ve had the opportunity to use SDR for iOs both on my iPad and in my iPhone and can do SSB and FT8 remotely with the app.

I also must say that all these softwares and apps have reflectors and groups which are very useful and resourceful and the developers help everybody all the time.

And this is my friends how I came to the conclusion that I needed a better computer in my shack and ended up with a Gaming PC. Any questions, comments or recommendations please feel free to comment on this post.

73, Santiago

Look at some of the screenshots of the softwares listed here in my gallery page.

 

First things first

Ok, so let´s begin this difficult task of updating my shack. It is quite a job, specially when it comes to decide what goes where and what is better from the ergonomics of the operations.

At first I beleived my shack was done one year ago when I set up an 7300, a laptop with an extra monitor, an 7000 (later sold it). Then I started FT8 and it demanded better computer and more monitor real state; then I started operating remote and it demanded flexibility on the rotor control (I had an old CDE controller) and the antennas plus more monitor real state. And then I found myself watching a youtube video on a Flex radio and, well you can imagine. After the Flex, I wanted a better computer, more power and a good tuner and more control on the antennas.

The first thing I had to do was to list the equipments and accesories so I can play a little chess with them. And even that I had to think of an effective way of doing it, so I opted to do it by main and backup lines.

On one hand there is my main radio line, a Flex 6300 which I really love and been using it for 6 months now.  For the Flex I use the following set up:

  • Flex 6300
  • Samlex Power Supply
  • Enclosed Relay (for remote on/off)
  • Logitech Speakers

Now for the backup radio, an Icom 7300, which was my main radio before discovering the world of Flex. The Icom set up is comprised of the following:

  • Icom 7300
  • Icom PS 126 Power Supply
  • Icom SP-38 Speake
  • LDG 100 Pro II Auto Tuner
  • MFJ 816 Watt Meter

After that, I had to list the rest of the equipments that are complimentary to the shack and/or shared between the radios.

  • Palstar HF Auto Tuner
  • Acom 600s amplifier
  • Hygain DCU2 rotor control, controlling my Ham IV rotor
  • Green Heron Wireless Base, which goes with my Green Heron Select 8 on the roof
  • MFJ 1146 DC Injector, used to power thru the coax the Green Heron Select 8

On top of that, I had to include

  • shack PC, with Logitec Speakers
  • 3 monitors
  • Rapberry 3 Pi, with an 7″ display

As you can see, the list is large and varied, specially considering that my shack is no more than half the closet of my 15 year old son. This is the reason that my equipment and set up selection is mostly “remote operation friendly“, but I would talk about that in another time.

To all that please add all the cables (usb, hdmi, coax jumpers, serial, power, etc…) and you can imagine the headache.

On the roof things are a little easier. I have a homemade 5 elements 6m LFA (made by recently silent key HI8T), an EA Hexbeam with the NA4RR 40m kit and an end fed 10m-80m dipole. It is good to say that the NA4RR kit tunes on 30 just fine and that the EFD tunes to 160 sufficient enough.

Later on, in the gallery section of this page I will post photos of my shacks and all components.

73, Santiago

 

 

Shack Upgrades

Yes, it´s time for some shack upgrades. Since my last post I´ve changed a few equipment and added new ones and multiple new setups, which are coming together very well.

Upgrades includes a Flex 6300, an Acom 600s amplifier and a Palstar HF Autotuner, plus a Green Heron Select 8 remote antenna switch, some Smart Sockets for remote on/off control, etc. Now I even have the help of Alexa on the shack.

I will be posting more in the coming days and will include pictures as soon as it is ready.

73, Santiago – HI8SMX