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Hi all,

I started this forum as a place to have fun discussions and to post download links to software, drivers, etc.

Unfortunately, the hackers went crazy and filled the place up with spam posts.  So I had to kind of reset and restart.  My fault because I left guest posting on.

I'm going to put the effort in here shortly to get this forum up and running.  Please be patient.

How do i get fr logger?

Links to some good hardware.  The links may not all be valid.  Let me know if one does not work and I will try to keep this list up to date.  If you have items you would like to add, let me know and I'll get them added:

Radio Gear

• Flex Radio - Flex Radio
• Icom - Icom
• 100w Tuner - GooZeeZoo Tuner
• Ham Radio Outlet - HRO
• Dx Engineering - DX Engineering

Controllers

• Web Power Switch - Web Power Switch
• DIN Relay - DIN Relay
• IOT Relay - IOT Relay

Batteries & Chargers

• NoCo dual 10A charger - Noco Dual 10A
• NoCo single 10A charger - Noco Single 10A
• 100AH Heated LifePO4 Battery - 100AH Battery
• Small Solar + Battery - Solar + Battery
• Power Station - Portable Power Station

I own a 2016 Subaru Outback.  It is a smaller car with not as much room inside as one might think to house ham radio gear. 

As of Jan 2024 here is my mobile setup:

Gear

• Icom 705 - Mounted to a pax seat bolt arm
• Yaesu FTM-400 - 2/440 and APRS
• GOOZEEZOO ATU-100 100w Tuner
• Custom control box - Houses SSRs to control power to devices
• Digital Loggers DIN Relay - In control box
• RM Italy HLA 305 amp
• Heated 12V LiFePO4 battery
• Powerwerx DCDC-8A 14.5V, 8A Adjustable DC-to-DC Battery Charger for 12V LiFePO4 Batteries
• NoCo Genius 10 110V charger
• GRM-EM7 12 Volt DC Motorized Antenna Lift
• Cellular, WiFi access point
• Begali Adventurer CW paddle

Antennas

• 80-10m HamSticks with QD2 quick disconnects
• 102 inch metal whip with QD2 quick disconnect

Summary
The IC705, while only 10w is small enough to fit nicely on the arm from the passenger seat bolt.  I've actually made many mobile CW contacts at 10w.

A simple throw of a switch and the HLA 305 amp comes online and can deliver up to 200W if needed.

The GeeZeeZoo tuner is small and fast and provides excellent easy tuning of the 102" whip.

Inside the control box is a relay timer that turns on 15 seconds after the car engine is turned on and that enables the Powerwerx DC-DC charger to keep the LifePO4 battery charged.

A console mounted switch panel enables power to various devices including the FTM-400, ICom and GeeZeeZoo tuner, Amplifier and WiFi access point.

The antenna lifter allows antennas to lay relatively flat for entering parking garages.  It is mag mounted to the Subaru roof with four sturdy magnets.  A console mounted switch raises and lowers the antenna.

An added benefit to this setup is it can be used fully remote when parked.  Enabling all the gear allows full access to the IC 705 and relay control of all the devices from my laptop.  So can be say inside of a camper with friends running my car mounted gear.

The reason for having the heated LifePO4 battery to power everything is so that I never run down my car battery.

After much searching and learning, here is a list of great items for remote stations:

Radios

• Flex Radio 6x00 Series - Flex Radio
• Icom 7610 - Icom 7610
• Icom 705 - Icom 705

Amplifiers & Tuners

• PGXL Amplifier - PGXL
• TGXL Tuner - TGXL
• HF Auto Tuner - HF Auto
• Antenna Genius 8x2 - Antenna Genius 8x2

Control and communication

• 110V remote power switch - Pro switch
• Remote relay - DIN Relay
• USB over internet - Virtual Here
• RS-232 over internet - Moxa Serial Servers

Computers

• MacBookPro M1,M2,M3 - MacBookPro
• Raspberry Pi4 - Raspberry Pi4

Software

• SmartSDR - Mac - SmartSDR Mac
• SDRControl - Mac - SDRControl Mac

Rationale
The gear listed above is certainly pricy and far from the cheapest route you can go. But in my experience the time, energy and cost of continuously going to/from your remote site can easily make you wish you had spent a little more.

The devices above have proven themselves with long up times, reliability and ease of use. They simply work!  The digital loggers devices have built in scripting that allows you to automatically restart things if networking goes down.

An avid remote radio user once told me, that the more things you have in your remote shack the more things you have that can go wrong.  That is certainly true, but if you follow that logic you would have just a radio and nothing else. In today's ham shack that is likely not enough.

So a modification to this theory or rule is to ensure that anything you add, can be remote controlled.  Provide a way for automatic power cycle and if possible provide a way that when turned off that device is bypassed.

Mac - What!? Why!?
I can hear it now.  The grumbling that you don't like Macs and you would never own one.  But here is the thing. Over 3+ years now I converted my ham shack to be Mac based and with the addition of the SmartSDR and SDR Control for Mac, the solution solidified into the most reliable setup I've ever had.

The Mac software packages are far superior to the Windows equivalents.  They work remote fantastically and are very full featured.  Each includes a RTTY and CW decoder and built in FT8/FT4 functionality as well as full remote CW.  In keeping with the KISS principle, the Mac software apps allow you to do more with less software.  So that means less to go wrong!

So why is the Raspberry Pi4 listed!?  It's not a mac?

It is listed because it works.  The raspberry Pi5 is a disaster in the making as they changed some of the fundamentals that many things depended upon.  But the Pi4 is a solid device and you can set it up for VNC which allows you to place the radio and computer together and connect to it remotely.

I still do not believe it approaches the Mac, SDR app, Flex solution in any way but it does work and works well.

An Ideal Remote
Here are the things that make an ideal remote station, again this is my opinion:

• Flex 6400 or 6400
• PGXL - Optional
• TGXL - A great tuner with a built in 1x3 switch
• DIN Relay - To control the various things

At home you would have a Mac, running SmartSDR Mac. As long as your networking is setup right you will be able to restart all the remote devices, connect and run all the remote devices from virtually anywhere in the world.

This is, in effect how my personal station works. It is setup pretty much like the above and I can run it from the office, from an airport, a coffee shop or even on my phone.

I put a DIN Relay, a WiFi access point, a 100w amp, and an IC-705 in my car.  When everything is alive I can run it from my laptop without even being in the car!

Summary
Go the route you wish on your remote setup. But if you are like me you will soon learn what works and what doesn't and with enough frustration you will move towards the things that work and stay way from the cheap things that do not work.

For my birthday in 2024, I decided to get a Seestar S50 smart telescope.  See: Seestar S50.

I had to wait days for clouds, snow, superbowl, you name it.  But finally on 02/17 I got a clear night and managed to take these: