WAØTDA Remote Base Ham Radio

The time has come! Prior to its move north, the station will be taken apart and all accessories and cabling will be labeled prior to packing it up. This is the strategy we used to get the Park Rapids station configured here on my workbench before sending it up north for installation by Bill, NØCIC.

The WØZSW station, with new callsign WØJH, will be moving to the Hayward, Wisconsin area, with the new QTH in a rural area.  It should be ideal for a low noise floor!

My son Will, KCØLJL, and I will begin the process by taking the station offline and packing up the IC-7300 and its accessories. Some labeling may be required to facilitate reassembly at the new remote QTH.

The Host PC will need to be prepared for the move as well. It has been running for several years continuously and will need to be opened up for a cleaning to assure that its cooling system is clear of dust. Other “housekeeping” will need doing as well – we will need to be sure that the OS and all necessary software is up to date. Old software that hasn’t been used will be removed. Remote admin software will be updated as necessary. This will allow the station admins to manage the user base and fix most problems involving the host computer.

If the club decides to rename the station to WØJH, that change can be made in the RCForb host software prior to the move. We will consider changing the ZSW callsign to WØJH this year as long as we are making so many other changes. This leaves the WØZSW callsign free for use by the HANDIHAM Radio Camp. The callsign is already managed by Matt, KAØPQW. The station will continue to be open to use by Handiham members no matter which callsign is used.

Once the PC is cleaned up and tested, it will also be packed for its trip up north. Cabling and accessories will be included and labeled as necessary to facilitate reassembly.

There is no date certain for the station’s return to service.  A new antenna will need to be installed.

To ensure consistent operation and not overdrive the radio, please start with the MIC Gain set to 50% for SSB operation.  If you are operating CW, disregard this setting.  Set the RF power slider to 90 watts to start.

Overdriving the radio can result in locking up the remoting PC, which will cause loss of control.  If this happens, please send an email to wa0tda@arrl.net and let me know so I can reset the system.

HF band conditions are terrible today with poor propagation on all HF bands predicted.  It’s not the radio’s fault!

IARU Amateur Radio Day 2023

During the two weeks centered on World Amateur Radio Day, 18 April 2023, special event stations operated by IARU member-societies and others will be on the air to celebrate and call attention to the United Nations Human Security For All (HS4A) campaign. Human Security measures security at the individual level. First introduced by the U.N. in 1994, the concept identifies seven interrelated dimensions of security that are essential to an individual’s wellbeing: economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community and political.

World Amateur Radio Day (WARD) celebrates the anniversary of the founding of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) in Paris in 1925, 98 years ago. IARU is the global federation of national amateur radio associations in more than 160 countries and is the recognized representative of the amateur and amateur-satellite services.

https://hs4a.iaru.org/

This is a quick look at how to navigate the software radio interface.

Use the latest version 0.9x software or it will not work on Windows!  Download the new client software to use the remotes here.

IMPORTANT:  Register with Remotehams.com using YOUR CALLSIGN as the username, or this will not work!

Dear HF Operator:

Welcome to the HF Remotes!  This website has information on the following stations:

W0EQO – Northern Minnesota in the tall pine forest near the headwaters of the Mississippi; Icom IC-7300 radio equipped with speech readout feeding a 300 foot dipole antenna fed with 450 ohm ladder line and a current
balun.  160 through 6 meter operation. Grid square is EN27mc in Hubbard County, MN USA. Callsign admin is WA0TDA.  Station hardware admins are N0CIC & WA0TDA.

W0ZSW – Metro Minnesota Twin Cities location at WA0TDA QTH; Icom IC-7300 radio feeding an off-center fed dipole antenna.  80 through 6 meter operation.  Grid square is EN34mw in Washington County, MN USA. Callsign admin is KA0PQW.  Station hardware admin is WA0TDA.

WA0TDA – Metro Minnesota Twin Cities location at WA0TDA QTH; Icom IC-7300 radio feeding an inverted vee maypole antenna system fed with underground coax. 160 through 6 meter operation. Grid square is EN34mw in Washington County, MN USA.  Callsign & hardware admin is WA0TDA.

All of the above stations can run up to 100 watts and all are SSB and CW capable. All are subject to occasional maintenance outages or weather outages.

Please contact wa0tda@arrl.net to report a problem with any of them.

W0EQO is back in service after upgrades to the shack & internet completed.  In the photo on the left, you can see the rig control laptop and the Icom IC-7300.  The RCForb host software is running on the PC.  The Yaesu FT-897 is used for in-the-shack communication and is not available as a remote controlled radio.   In the photo on the right, you can see the new Netgear router and the uninterruptible power supply (installed on 5 August 2022), as well as the new wooden shelf built by Bill, N0CIC, that makes having the UPS available to power the router possible in the limited space we have.