Well, in the spirit of doing something new in radio, I’ve been able to connect my HF station so that I can operate across the internet.
I think most of you know that I’ve been operating the digital modes (PSK, SSTV, etc) for quite some time, by just remoting in to the computer desktop, and launching the program needed for that mode, and using Ham Radio Deluxe software to change freqs, modes, etc.I ran into an issue with using Ham Radio Deluxe to key the 706MKIIG. It is a known issue with this series rigs. You either have to modify your cable to pull a pin down on the serial port, or you can use a second com port. Unfortunately, the software doesn’t support a 2nd com port, so I haven’t operated SSB until now when I figured out a work around. I didn’t want to pull my nicely installed interface out of it’s install and do the hardware mod. Other radios do not have this issue.
The newer softare is ICOM 706 CONTROL – written by an italian ham. It supports a second com port, the radio uses one accessory connector to route commands, but a second one to actually key and route audio. I’ve setup SKYPE to route audio. I still have to log into the desktop of my PC at home and answer my SKYPE call, then launch the ICOM 706 CONTROL software, but then I can tune up and down the band all I want.
Tried it from work today and across the 802.11b network, it sucks. Lots of audio quality issues on rx, so I didn’t even bother trying to tx. Screen refreshes were super slow. On a desktop plugged into our network, things went fine, with no audio issues, and the screen updates were right on time. Will test TX out this evening with my sked with Neil. I tried it last night from the living room with the laptop across 802.11g, and worked a DX station on 40m (J20MM).
Here is a screen shot of the remote software and skype in action. I’ve also attached a shot of the ham radio deluxe software (complete with DX cluster interface) and a shot of me having a PSK31 QSO, and a SSTV QSO.
