Posted: 1/9/2012 1:42:23 PM EDT
|
Spoiled as I am by digital, where I run a remote setup all the time, I was determined to remote my station for SSB voice. Here's what you need and what I did. I received nothing but very positive signal reports with this setup, BTW.
What you need: At the rig end––a PC running Windows and Ham Radio Deluxe, a radio control interface cable (CAT, C-IV, etc.) and a sound card interface (Signalink, etc. I used a microHAM USB III). If you are set up for digital modes you should have all this already. You also need a copy of the Ekiga VOIP client installed on this PC. At the remote end––a PC running Windows, Ham Radio Deluxe, Ekiga VOIP client and a good microphone/headset. I used a USB Microsoft Lifechat headset. What I did for set up (this is just a general guide, not a mouse click by mouse click explanation): At the rig end––start HRD. Go to Tools>IP server. Enable it to start automatically. Quit HRD (a local copy cannot be running simultaneously with a remote copy). You only need to do this once, the HRD server will run whenever you start the machine now. At the rig end––start the Ekiga client. Set the audio devices to use your Signalink, etc. The Ekiga client is nice because you can set ringing and stuff to go to a third device so that nasty stuff doesn't get on the air. Make sure the CELT 48KHz codec is enabled (best quality). At the remote end––start HRD. Connect to your remote machine and radio. Cool, eh? At the remote end––start Ekiga. Set the audio devices to use your headset. Make sure the CELT 48KHz codec is enabled. At the remote end––in Ekiga, call sip:[email protected] (or whatever your rig end machine IP is, and the "radio" is totally arbitrary, you can use any "name"). At the rig end––answer the Ekiga call. At the remote end––set your receive levels so you can hear good in your headset. Use both the Windows sound control panel and Ekiga volume level controls as necessary. I had to max' mine. At the remote end––set your microphone level to 50% and AGC "on" if you have that feature (at least these were my settings with the Lifechat headset). At the remote end––push the TX button in HRD, call CQ and then... At the rig end––adjust your radio mic gain, compression level and sound card interface for good SSB drive. It sounds way more complicated than it is. Once you have it set up it is way cool. You can work the world from anywhere your home wi-fi network can reach. I drag my laptop and headset all over the house and can no longer have to sit in the basement. Of course, some guys may prefer to retreat to the shack "man cave" 
|
|
Quoted:
Add a secure VPN connection from the outside translating to your internal network and you've got a remote station you can access from anywhere on the planet. True. However there is an issue in that the Ekiga client does not have auto-answer yet. I've been looking for a lightweight VOIP client that has auto-answer, will make "direct SIP" calls, and will run on both XP and 7. The Ekiga client was as close as I could come, plus it has the 48KHz CELT codec which is very nice. I even got it to run MT63 successfully with that codec! If anyone has another VOIP client suggestion as above that would be great. It must run direct SIP, I do not want to use an external VOIP server. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Add a secure VPN connection from the outside translating to your internal network and you've got a remote station you can access from anywhere on the planet. True. However there is an issue in that the Ekiga client does not have auto-answer yet. I've been looking for a lightweight VOIP client that has auto-answer, will make "direct SIP" calls, and will run on both XP and 7. The Ekiga client was as close as I could come, plus it has the 48KHz CELT codec which is very nice. I even got it to run MT63 successfully with that codec! If anyone has another VOIP client suggestion as above that would be great. It must run direct SIP, I do not want to use an external VOIP server. Run real vnc or team viewer and answer your own call. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Add a secure VPN connection from the outside translating to your internal network and you've got a remote station you can access from anywhere on the planet. True. However there is an issue in that the Ekiga client does not have auto-answer yet. I've been looking for a lightweight VOIP client that has auto-answer, will make "direct SIP" calls, and will run on both XP and 7. The Ekiga client was as close as I could come, plus it has the 48KHz CELT codec which is very nice. I even got it to run MT63 successfully with that codec! If anyone has another VOIP client suggestion as above that would be great. It must run direct SIP, I do not want to use an external VOIP server. I just went in to check, I saw an auto answer option. It looks like it does support auto answer on Linux, but the option is not available on the windows clients. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Add a secure VPN connection from the outside translating to your internal network and you've got a remote station you can access from anywhere on the planet. True. However there is an issue in that the Ekiga client does not have auto-answer yet. I've been looking for a lightweight VOIP client that has auto-answer, will make "direct SIP" calls, and will run on both XP and 7. The Ekiga client was as close as I could come, plus it has the 48KHz CELT codec which is very nice. I even got it to run MT63 successfully with that codec! If anyone has another VOIP client suggestion as above that would be great. It must run direct SIP, I do not want to use an external VOIP server. I just went in to check, I saw an auto answer option. It looks like it does support auto answer on Linux, but the option is not available on the windows clients. You are correct, sir! As Jazz points out, you can work around that problem using VNC, or, as I do it, with Remote Desktop. VNC is kind of pokey, Remote Desktop much faster. However Remote Desktop Server is not available in all Windows versions. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Add a secure VPN connection from the outside translating to your internal network and you've got a remote station you can access from anywhere on the planet. True. However there is an issue in that the Ekiga client does not have auto-answer yet. I've been looking for a lightweight VOIP client that has auto-answer, will make "direct SIP" calls, and will run on both XP and 7. The Ekiga client was as close as I could come, plus it has the 48KHz CELT codec which is very nice. I even got it to run MT63 successfully with that codec! If anyone has another VOIP client suggestion as above that would be great. It must run direct SIP, I do not want to use an external VOIP server. I just went in to check, I saw an auto answer option. It looks like it does support auto answer on Linux, but the option is not available on the windows clients. You are correct, sir! As Jazz points out, you can work around that problem using VNC, or, as I do it, with Remote Desktop. VNC is kind of pokey, Remote Desktop much faster. However Remote Desktop Server is not available in all Windows versions. Well thank you for the tutorial, I am in the process of experimenting with a HSMM Mesh and have been looking for a decent open source VOIP software, combined with a Asterik PBX this may work out for me. I guess a real test when the network is up would be to control my rig from work 2 miles away, may set up on local repeater and do some tests. Either way very relevant to my interests. |
|
Quoted: Spoiled as I am by digital, where I run a remote setup all the time, I was determined to remote my station for SSB voice. Here's what you need and what I did. I received nothing but very positive signal reports with this setup, BTW. What you need: ... Oh, cool. Tagscribe. Quoted: Run real vnc or team viewer and answer your own call. Well I do talk to myself sometimes, but I never thought about doing it on the radio...  -Slice |
|
Quoted:
I haven't tried yet but ICOM has a software package called RCB You mean this: http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-010898 ? I've been thinking about that, too. It supposedly has a built in voice over LAN capability. I've been holding off because I have not seen any user reports with it on an IC7000. The 7000 needs an audio interface like a Signalink to make it work. The radios that have the built in USB codec, like the 7200, supposedly make it very easy. For $99 bucks, though, I've decided to order one of these to try at $130: http://www.silexamerica.com/products/usb_device_connectivity/sx-2000wg.html I will let you all know how it works out. Note that this is not a sharing device, by the way, only one PC can connect to a USB device at a time with it. Also note that if you are seriously going to try any of this cool remote stuff, it is FAR easier to do it with dedicated sound devices on both ends so that you can assign them freely and set levels more easily. If you start using the built-in, default sound devices things can actually get more complicated. |
If you are remoting your radio with HRD like this (over hTTP, etc), there is an iPhone app that will let you control and talk on your radio remotely 
CommCat Mobile |
|
Quoted:
If you are remoting your radio with HRD like this (over hTTP, etc), there is an iPhone app that will let you control and talk on your radio remotely
CommCat Mobile Interesting! I'm an Android guy, myself 
It's noteworthy that this method also relies on an external VOIP application. Since I'm only interested in remote operation within my own firewalled LAN I was using an app (Ekiga) that would support direct SIP. Either way, the entire problem just screams out for an integrated VOIP capability and, more importantly, one that does not cause sample rate calibration problems for digital mode users. So far I've found the CELT 48K codec in Ekiga to work very well. Perhaps now that HRD has been sold to a for-profit developer the next version will include an integrated VOIP module. |