A Small Yagi for 50 MHz - ONZ.be

Working radio at remote location!By Ulf Larsson SM0LCB/SM7LCBIt’s a fine feeling to get home from work, settle down in thatcomfortable chair and then check out the bands. I put out aCQ call with the keyer and get a reply from a station inEngland. Sure it’s fine but a little strange since I have noantenna or radio in my shack here in Solna (close toStockholm) where I live. My antenna and radio are in oursummer cottage down on the island of Öland off the southeast coast of Sweden. Working a station in England isn’tespecially unique – but it is when you work it on 10 GHz.How is this done then? Let me try to explain in this article!I will let others explain how long range QSO’s can be madeon microwave.Ulf SM0LCB at home in Solna activeas SM7LCB on ÖlandI first started to plan remote operation at the beginning of the 1990’s but at that time couldn’t findsuitable cheap technical methods to implement remote control within a reasonable frame.Towards the end of the century when the Internet became more widespread and with it broad­band, Ibought an Icom IC­706 transceiver. The best thing about this station is that it has a removable frontcontrol panel which is absolutely necessary for remote operation since the control panel remains athome and the radio is at the remote location. In year 2000 I had the radio remotely controlled betweentwo computers at home in the shack. Then began a few years development to find out how the rest of afunctioning remote system would work out. In my case a remote system would cover the following items:­ Remote control of the IC­706 transceiver.­ Remote control of the antenna rotor.­ Remote control of the transverter, firstly for 1.3 GHz and higher bands.­ Sound transfer to and from the transceiver.­ The Transfer of CW – manipulator keyer or hand key signals to and from the transceiver.All these items excepting the last one were soon operational and worked locally in my shack. I workedmany Nordic Activity Contests on 1.3 Hz with this setup. I tested the remote control of the rotor systemduring my many visits to the island. In the spring of 2004 broadband was introduced on the island and itwas time to seriously launch remote control between Solna and Öland. The summer of 2004 becameintensive, installing the antennas, building the radio hut by the antennas, hanging up the coax betweenthe antenna hut and the cottage and finally installing the computers broadband and the software. WhenI left the island in August 2004 everything was fixed and working.[ HAM­MAG N.12 January 2010 ]