Short description of the remote station:
The following devices can be remotely accessed:
- 2 radios (HAM transceiver or SDR-receiver)
- 1 amplifier
- 1 PC (SDR server)
- 1 antenna rotor
- 4 antennas – can be divided among 2 receivers
- heating – to warm the place up in winter
- 4 analog output lines or 8 digital input lines to select from for special functions (antennas)
Above mentioned devices can be controlled via a small server which provides all the necessary relay outputs and inputs, as well as analog ports. The server can be contacted by webbrowser or smartphone. We deliberately did not use a PC because these are always susceptible to fault and need a lot of maintenance.
The rotor position can be controlled with an additional circuit (closed loop servo control, including the rotor potentiometer). One of the mini-servers analog output determines the rotor reference position and one of the mini-servers analog input is reporting rotors real position.
The transceiver is controlled via ethernet-compatible interfaces like the ones offered by “Remoterig”.
SDRs either have an ethernet-interface or use an additional computer with server functions.
The WAN connection (internet) is divided into 4 ports through a router (gateway & ethernet switch) – 1 port is used by the mini-server, the other 3 ports can be used by transceivers and SDRs.
All electronics can be found in two switch control boxes – one of the boxes is there to distribute electricity and secure electrical circuits, the second box is home to everything concerned with controls.
We built all this into a 10-feet-container. On our two desks there is enough space for all our radios and additional devices.
