[TowerTalk] Computer control antenna switch

[Dave Jordan]

I built one of the first totally Internet Remote amateur radio stations 
in VA several years ago when RS232 ports were plentiful on the back of 
PC mother boards. Now I'm using USB to RS232 converter cables because 
most of the ham gear is still RS232 while the rest of the world has 
moved on to USB.
The Intennet Remote station has several control modules but the three 
below should provide all functionality requested. It will work from the 
CAT next tot he equipment or over the Internet via a PC Anywhere 
connection. The station design provide for full antenna switching, 
antenna rotation capabilities, as well as
full legal limit amplification on all bands, etc

Good Luck,
dave
wa3gin

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Remote Coax Switch Control
Ameritron (www.ameritron.com) produces an automatic RC-10 remote coax 
switch w/SO239 connectors that can be used to select up to eight 
separate coax inputs, etc. There are several manufacturers of these 
types of remote coax switches. Prices and quality vary. I find the 
Ameritron adequate for my needs.

 From an adjunct relay interface board (USB interface to the server) 
produced by ECC Inc., a control cable will be installed in parallel with 
the Ameritron coax switch control head. In this way both manual and 
remote control methods can be used to select antennas or the Ameritron 
control head can be eliminated completed for dedicated IRAR service.

The relay interface board selected for the remote automatic coax switch 
is manufactured by:

Electronic Energy Control, Inc., Columbus, OH
Phone 614-464-4470 or “www.eeci.com”.

The capability to switch 8 relays rated at 10 amps/125 VAC requires the 
following components:

1 - AR-16 Relay Interface
1 - RH-8 Relay Card
1 - CO-USB converter (USB-RS-232)
1 - CC-DE9S serial cable

Remote Antenna Rotator Control
To provision remote antenna rotor control there are several products 
available. I selected a universal rotor interface (utilizes the parallel 
port) produced by EA4TX. You can find out more about this interface at 
www.EA4TX.com/products/ars.htm. Freeware is available to operate the 
EA4TX interface via IRAR. You will find all the details at the EA4TX web 
site.

LINEAR AMPLIFIERS FOR IRAR
There are several HF linear amplifiers sold on the market today that are 
suitable for IRAR. These amplifiers are either solid state auto band 
switching or tube auto-tuned/auto-band switching units. Both types are 
high-end legal limit amplifiers 160-10/6m linear amplifiers with RS-232 
CAT interfaces. These amplifiers come with proprietary CAT software that 
is easily utilized in an IRAR application. More details can be found at 
http://www.alpha-amps.com/, 
http://www.henryradio.com/amp_specs/sshf.htm, 
http://www.hfpower.com/ACOM2000A.htm.

Pete Smith wrote:

>I thought I had read, though, that some new-generation laptops do not have 
>an LPT port.
>
>73, Pete N4ZR
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