Active club members can enjoy a unique privilege from the comforts of their home, whether that is in a dorm room on campus or thousands of miles away. A fully controllable TS-2000 is available through the internet for members to operate, that includes tuning, transmitting and any other action. Members that have achieved  "Full" membership may be given and account to log in with. Each member has their own account which is set-up with their own permissions, if a member has not shown the ability to effectively operate the radio for transmission there account may only allow receiving and tuning of the radio. The software that allows these neat features is the "Ham Radio Deluxe" suite of programs. A custom server set-up that includes the configuration and programs have been installed to allow this access. Over the summer the system was completed!

Goals

The current project goals include:

• Member access
• Increase radio activity within club
• Allow members to learn on-the-air techniques without walking to the clubroom
• Allow access during vacations
• Remote Conferencing to help operating

Software

The software used to set up the radio interface, server, and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol):

• Ham Radio Deluxe
  • Radio Control
  • Remote Server
• Skype
  
  • VOIP Software

Hardware

• Kenwood TS-2000 Amateur Radio
• Rigblaster
  
  • Audio interface/control

Getting access:

Access is given through a User name, Password, and IP address.

You must meet the following:

• K2GXT member
• Good Standing with the club
• Transmitting privileges follow your license class!
• Must have paid club dues

Performance

     The system has worked very good! The latency of the connection which includes both the radio data and the audio has seen an average of about 50 milliseconds. For a better idea of the performance, I am located at my home in Massachusetts, roughly 400 miles away! My initial contacts were spread around the bands and the earth! I made a 10 meter (28MHz) contact with an amateur radio operator in Argentina as well as several contacts on 6 meters (50MHz) to the southern states. I was also able to work several stations on 20 meters (14 MHz) that commented on the remote station and not only the "Neatness" of it but the functionality that it gives to the club members. Slight lags in the start and stop of transmission were notice but did not affect operation. I suspect this was more of an audio lag than a data lag.

Media

     This screen video was taken on my laptop 400 miles away from the radios location in Rochester, NY. The frequency may look jumpy but that's just the screen video capture software, the actual tuning was much smoother!The next video shows the K2GXT clubroom while Bryce (KB1LQC) was connected into the TS-2000 from his dorm room on the other side of campus. You can hear the audio on Skype over the speakers. Even thugh you can hear Bryce all the time, audio is only transmitted when the PTT is remotely switched on.

This is the FIRST remote contact! I (Brent, KB1LQD) had just finished finals and need to de-stress... so I set up the initial server. Bryce (KB1LQC) connect from his dorm room through Ham Radio Deluxe and Skype to make the first remote contact. Needless to say it was exciting and successfull! Below is a video demonstrating how to setup the remote system.