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Remote Club Station
At the October club meeting, we decided to complete the club station using existing club funds, donations from members, and the sale of a Yaesu FT-840 transciever which had been donated to the club. We allocated $1,000 from the club treasury, and have exceeded our target of $2,300 to finish the station build.
Please note that use of the remote station will be available only to paid, active members of the club.
The Club's remote station is located at the Star Haven Observatory in Strasburg, courtesy of Jim Moravec, N0COT.
The current configuration of our remote station:
- Fan dipole antenna for 40M through 10M on transceiver port 1
- Force 12 beam antenna on Port 2
The station currently supports Phone; digital modes, such as FT8; and CW. For CW operation, the Flexradio supports conversion of keyboard input to Morse code, but if you want to do your own keying, you'll need a key that will connect to your computer, such as a Winkeyer.
We're currently working on improving the antenna installation. Though the Flexradio has two VFOs and antenna ports, only one is currently active. There is a tuner on ANT1, so users will need to click on the TUNE button after changing to a new band to let the tuner dip to the new band.
The station will be accessible via remote, through the internet, using software provided by Flexradio (free for Windows) or Mac ($150) / iOS (free). If you run Linux, you can try running the Windows software using the Wine or Crossover packages. [Ed note: I have always found Wine to be problematic; maybe the Crossover (non-Free) version is better - YMMV.]
If you see an “UPDATE” notice on the FlexRadio console, do not click on it. This is an indication that you need to update the software on your computer.
- In your browser, go to Flexradio.com and click on Software > SmartSDR > SSDR for Windows / Mac / iOS > Download latest V3 Release > Download 3.4.23 Software - 3.4.23.
- When the download is complete, open the downloaded file, “SmartSDR v 3.4.23 Installer.exe”. Click YES, I accept…, NEXT, NEXT, NEXT, Install, Finish.
- Delete the old icons on your desktop (for 3.4.21) and use only the new icons (for 3.4.23).
Contact Mark - WØQL via email with any questions: w0ql (at) arrl.net.
Thanks to our club members for their tremendous help and support in achieving this goal.
- Mark, W0QL - Committee chairman, has provided significant time, effort, and material
- Jim, N0COT - Committe member, has provided a location
- Mark, KEØP - Committe member, has performed extensive station testing
- Larry, KØMHO - Committee member, has tested the station using software for Apple Macintosh
Thanks also to the many club members who donated to our radio and acquisition fund.
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