Transcript Remote connection options for the Ten Tec Orion II

Remote connection options for the Ten Tec Orion II
Background:
I have been in search of a method for some time to reliably control my
transceiver remotely when desiring to listen and transmit on a remote radio from
a quieter location. After some research, and comments received on the TT
reflector, I decided to put together this brief tutorial on how I set up my station at
the most basic level.
The following slides are just one method of remotely controlling a radio. Many
other options are available**. In the end this only cost me ~$110 to complete as I
already had most of what I needed around the shack.
Comments and questions are welcome. Most of all, have fun!
Brad Denison, W1NT
[email protected]
**In no way am I affiliated with any of the companies mentioned and this article.
Table of Contents
• Step one: Remote login to your station PC
• Step two: My computers aren’t talking
• Step three: Can anyone hear me?
• Step four: Control your radio with your PC
• Step five: My radio is turned off and on how?
• Step six: For the CW operator
Step one: Remote login to your station PC
To remote login to your
station PC your will
either need the Windows
application known as
remote desktop or some
other suitable virtual
network connection
(remote control) software
package.
One of these virtual
connections is known as
LogMeIn. This is free
software and the home
page for LogMeIn is
shown to the right.
After a few basic setup
steps you will be able to
see your home PC on a
remote PC and control
enough functions to
power your rig up and
control it.
www.logmein.com
Step one: Remote login to your station PC con’t….
If you decide to try
LogMeIn, simply follow
the steps shown here to
get started for free.
The free version is
enough to get on the air
from anywhere in the
world.
www.logmein.com
Step one: Remote login to your station PC con’t….
Another virtual desktop
connection software
package that works well
is known as RealVNC.
This package requires
installation on both the
server (host) computer
and the client (remote)
computer.
After performing the
basic setup steps you
can connect very similar
to LogMeIn.
www.realvnc.com
Step one: Remote login to my station PC con’t….
Again, this program is
also available free. I
would recommend
experimenting with this
version first and then, if
you choose, transition to
the full featured editions.
For all my operation on
both LogMeIn and Real
VNC I have never
needed anything above
the free versions.
www.realvnc.com
Step two: My computers aren’t talking
Common server / client remote control issues:
Port Forwarding
If the Server Connection fails, the most likely cause of this problem is a router, that does not forward the connection request to the
computer with your VNC software running. To solve this problem you will need to set up port forwarding on your router.
What is port forwarding?
A router can make a single internet connection available to many computers. But when a computer on the internet tries to establish a
connection to your computer through the router, the router will need to know which computer handles the request (even if only one
computer uses the router).
Port forwarding instructs the router to forward a request to connect to your VNC server on the appropriate computer.
How do I set up port forwarding?
To do this you will need three relevant pieces of information: Your external IP, your internal IP, and the port(s) your remote software
requires.
The external IP is the IP address that your computer has on the internet. The client computer will need to contact this IP to connect
to your router and in turn your server (or host) to which your radio is connected .
The internal IP is the IP address that your computer has on the router's local network.
Each service on the internet (web, mail, ftp) uses a specific port. VNC programs can use different ports by default.
You will need to instruct you router that all traffic from the internet on this port should be forwarded to the internal IP of your VNC
computer. The traffic protocol is always TCP, if you need to select this. How you set up port forwarding will depend on the brand of
router. A sample router software setup looks like this:
Step two: My computers aren’t talking con’t….
You will need to replace the values
shown here (port 8080, IP
192.168.1.103) with the ones for your
internal IP’s.
Once this step is set up correctly your
client and host should be able to
communicate.
Step two: My computers aren’t talking….
One other potential problem may be
that you have a dynamic IP address –
i.e. one that changes. If you use
LogMein this is no issue, however, it
could cause trouble over time on a
program like RealVNC. To solve this
get the free program called No-IP.
With this software running you will
have access to your PC via a free
domain name that you set up. No
matter what your ISP assigns as your
dynamic IP it will always be assigned
to this free domain name. This
domain name is only active when the
No-IP software is running on your host
PC.
www.no-ip.com
Step two: My computers aren’t talking….I’m still confused
There is a great website out there that
can help you. It’s called
portforward.com
On this site you will find a wealth of
information including a guide to the
issues I am covering, especially the
ports, the router issues, and the
language behind all of this.
www.portforward.com/guides.htm
Step three: Can anyone hear me?
If you plan on talking you need to get
your voice from your client (remote)
machine to your server (host) machine
and then to your radio. Again there
are multiple ways to do this, however, I
chose Skype.
Skype is a free method for calling one
computer from another and it works
well.
www.skype.com
Step three: Can anyone hear me? Con’t…
You will want to install Skype on your
remote and host machines and add
each of these machines to each other
machine’s contact list.
Ultimately you will see the remote
machine name that you assign in the
contacts list to the right.
Spend time calling the host machine
and testing the behavior of Skype prior
to connecting up your radio. This will
help you understand how Skype
behaves and what the critical audio
settings are.
www.skype.com
Step three: Can anyone hear me? Con’t…
Make sure you visit this menu for
setting up your audio. You will have to
play with this menu and your rig
settings to make everything sound
good so you might as well get familiar
with it now.
www.skype.com
Step three: Can anyone hear me? Con’t…
Take caution with the Skype sound
settings that are associated with
events. Ask yourself whether or not
you want any of these sounds being
transmitted while you are in the
middle of a rare one.
www.skype.com
Step three: Can anyone hear me? Con’t…
Finally, a neat feature is that you may
auto accept calls. This will make the
call connection as soon as the host
computer is called. I find this very
useful as it becomes one less thing I
have to manage over the remote
desktop connection.
www.skype.com
Step four: Control your radio with your PC
Most folks do this for one thing or
another already. In case not, there are
many ways to interface your radio to
your PC.
One example shown here is the USB
Interface II. This allows your rig to talk
to your PC in a number of ways,
depending on what your needs are.
www.microham-usa.com
Step four: Control your radio with your PC con’t…
A few simple connections and you will
be able to change rig functions from
your PC, pass audio and CW among
other things.
www.microham-usa.com
Step four: Control your radio with your PC con’t…
Once your rig and PC are connected
you will need to experiment with the rig
control software package that best
suits your needs. I chose N4PY’s
program to control my TT OII.
Using this computer control program I
can control about all of the OII radio
features from my desktop.
Again, there are many programs
available or you can write your own.
So now we have it. You can control
your rig, pass voice and connect to
your PC-controlled radio from
anywhere there is internet access.
www.n4py.com
Step five: My radio is turned off and on how?
With some minor web research on this
subject I did end up finding and using
a web based power switch to turn off
and on my OII and other shack gear
remotely. This was so convenient I
even use it to control other things
remotely over and above my radio
station.
The device is called the web power
switch II and it allows you to turn off
and on outlets via a web page based
control panel.
www.digitalloggers.com
Step five: My radio is turned off and on how? Con’t…
The sample page on the right shows
how easy it is to turn off and on your
rig. Just click and you even get instant
feedback on the current state of the
power strip.
I have cycled this strip many times and
have yet to have an issue.
www.digitalloggers.com
Step six: For the CW operator
If you prefer CW like I do then you may not need to
pass voice all the time. So how do you send CW?
Simple answer is use your com ports to your
advantage and a CW keyboard type software.
Two examples are shown on the right.
Type and send – it’s that easy.
k1el.com
www.polar-electric.com/Morse/MRP40-EN/index.htm
Summary:
Setting up your radio for remote control is extremely cheap and easy –
even free if you want it to be. All you need is an afternoon of your time and some
patience to be up and running.
Enjoy the bands.
Brad, W1NT
[email protected]