[LCC] Bad weekend for LAQP

Sat Mar 18 14:31:14 CDT 2017

Mike (W4AAW in Virginia) has three stations set up at his QTH. Two of the positions have Yaesu FT2000 radios, each with a Windows 7 computer. These radios/computers are called POS 1 & 3 (for position 1 & 3). The 3rd is an Elecraft K3 which also has a Windows 7 PC. This radio/computer is called POS 2.  I don't know much about POS 2 other than  you have to have a K3 or KX3 to connect to it. You then tune the local K3 at your QTH and it, in turn, tunes the K3 in Virginia. All three positions have an Acom 2000 amplifier.

Mike has only three towers. One tower has a 20 meter monobander, one other has 15 monobander, the 3rd tower shares a 2-element 40 yagi with a 10 meter monobander.

N1MM+ Logger is used on all comptuers and they are networked together. The FT2000 has remote software. I'm not sure it directly ties into N1MM or not, but you can control the radio with N1MM. The radio can be shown on the screen of the computer, but for all practical purposes, it is minimized during contests. So you don't "tune" the radio. You can. Many of us have purchased a USB control knob which works in conjunction with N1MM. When you turn the knob, it changes the frequency of the radio and but the radio does not have to have the focus in the computer for this to happen because it's done through N1MM. The tuning knob works mainly for fine tuning stations in CW. It's not that great on RTTY.

To operate positions 1 and 3, you first have to connect to a special VPN router on site in VA. It's done through Windows VPN, but there's an extra layer of security and a special program that has to be run just once, each time you connect. The VPN is set up so that only traffic for the station is run through the VPN and not all your Internet traffic. That would bog down the network.

After connecting, POS 1 & 3 uses VNC to access the remote desktops. Audio is done one of two ways. Audio can be derived via a Skype connection to POS 1 or 3 or done using Remote Audio (REMAUD) by DF3CB (Google REMAUD). REMAUD has a server program that runs on the host computers (POS 1 & 3) and a client program on the users PC. REMAUD seems better than Skype.

Everything on Mike's end is automated. When you switch bands, the antenna/filters are switched automatically to the radio. You have to be careful not to switch to a band aleady in use by another position. If this happens, you will have no antenna. Nothing blows up but you just don't have an antenna. You keep track of where the 3 stations are in N1MM's Network Status window.

I have been doing this for just over a year now and it seems the K3 position is difficult. There seems to be a lot of issues with it although when it works, it's much better than POS 1 and 3.

There are some documents available which I can put out when I find it. 

Don AA5AU

From: Steve Lott [mailto:lottsphoto at gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2017 12:31 PM
To: Don Hill AA5AU
Cc: Contest Club Louisiana
Subject: Re: [LCC] Bad weekend for LAQP

Don,

I am really interested in hearing more about the MM via remote that you have been working with

A presentation on this would be awesome for one of our LCC Skype meetings

Things I really want to know is.... 

how you all do it (software and Hardware, routers etc)

which contest sponsors are agreeable to this
IOW Can it be done for ARRL SS ???

a Virtual mm makes travel issues and so much more a thing of the past

but still allows the camaraderie of a team

cheers!

steve

http://www.KG5VK.com
My Ham Radio Friends

On Sat, Mar 18, 2017 at 11:47 AM, Don Hill AA5AU <aa5au at bellsouth.net> wrote:

I'm doing triple duty... One my laptop, I worked BARTG remotely at W4AAW using the callsign W4TMO.

On my normal shack PC/radio, I'm working LCC at times and switching to JT65 on 20 and 17 meters looking for new prefixes. 

It will be better when 40 and 80 are active.

73, Don AA5AU

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