Amateur radio station of Zante Island Greece (EU52) (KM07KS)

FIRST SV REMOTE CONTROLLED HF-VHF-UHF STATION

DESCRIPTION

I am leaving on the island of Zante (Zakynhos KM07KS) that unfortunately we have the west direction completely close due to the high mountains from North to South that cover all the West direction from 180 deg. to 360 deg. For that reason I have constructed my first remote controlled set-up in 1984 with a Kenwood TS430s and with 16 digits DTMF decoder completely home made. With the 16 digits I operated the HF rig , I turned the antenna (TH6DXX) I switched from dipoles to beam and all the other operations of the TS430s.

Now with the help of my good friend Laurent F6DEX I am using the fine program TRX-MNGR that with the packet radio commands I can make everything to the remote site HF rig. Also with this project I can turn my antenna at the remote site. To switch the antenna switch from dipoles to beam and to open and close the rigs , the PTT etc , I am using a DTMF decoder with 8 digits from the INTUITIVE CIRCUITS, LLC http://www.icircuits.com model DTMF-8.The most important thing in the program is that with a click on the dx spot from cluster in the master computer at QTH the slave at the remote going immediately on the QRG and mode and of course with an other click the qso i.e. already in the logbook .In my case I am using the Yaesu FT767 gx with the modules of 6m,2m and 70 cm. Of course any other rig is Ok as you can see at the F6DEX program (Parameters > setup > transceiver). Now the set-up is at the top of a mountain in a height of 550m a.s.l. and around has only the sea. Now all the amateurs around the area of about 100 km can access the remote site station and operate with this big gun on HF with few watts on UHF even with a handie talkie!

To remote controlled your station from your QTH you need at home :

- A COMPUTER a TNC and a VHF/UHF rig. ONLY !!!

Computer configuration at QTH : Parameters > Preferences > Terminal -- control enabled and Master

The program that doing this job is the F6DEX trx-mngr .

At the remote site you need : (see block diagram above)

A VHF/UHF rig that take all the commands from the qth VHF/UHF rig ,with packets commands and the UHF rig receive also the audio from QTH to be transmitted on the HF. The VHF section is all the time transmitted the audio from the HF rig.

- A TNC (either TNC2 or PK232mbx).The PK 232mbx going on enable mode automatically by the program.

- A computer with the program of F6DEX (trx-mngr) that must be configured at the remote site in this way:Parameters > Preferences > terminal -- control enabled and slave

-A CAT (for the Yaesu or Icom or Kenwood transceivers).

- The HF rig with the capability to go on 6m,2m and 70cm.The PTT is enabled by a COR (carrier operated relay) or via the VOX. The COR is activated from the squelch of the UHF rig and with a circuit with a transistor and a small relay the PTT goes on all the time that the UHF rig receives a signal. The audio output of the HF rig going to the mic input of the VHF rig with the PTT always On. In this case we can use the Phone patch in and out if the rig has this option.

The linears HF (broadband) 6m,2m,70 cm with the relative power supply

The antenna switch is used (controlled by the DTMF decoder) to switch between the 160,80,40m dipoles to the beam for the highest HF bands.

The DTMF takes its audio from the UHF rig and decodes up to 8 digits. It is used with the relative relays for switch on and off all the setup (except of the UHF/VHF rig) to switch on/off the operation of the PTT (for non authorized operators) to switch the antenna switch from dipoles to beam, and the linears (optional).

If you want ,you can use a separate vhf rig on both sites to send the packets commands and the DTMF tones.

With the DTMF you can also rotate the antenna at the remote site from your QTH.

Special thanks to Laurent F6DEX for the help and the patient and to the remote cotrolled testers George (SV8RX) and Nick (SV3KH).

Enjoy the project and have a lot of DX!....73 de SV8CS e-mail zante@otenet.gr

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