Remote SDR LAN/WAN access

Walt - KZ1F

I've looked at what is displayed with search criteria is WAN and what is displayed when search criteria is iPad. And I believe people are referring to different things as remote SmartSDR. I think what Stu has done with his iPad app available via the App Store, complicates this conversation. Correct me if I am wrong Stu, that is a native IOS application running on an iPad that remotely connects directly to the 6x00 box and has a different UI than SmartSDR for Windows. Presumably it also has an audio component. That would seem logical.

 Screen shots of the SmartSDR display on an iPad or iPhone are merely remoting from said iPad or iPhone into one's Windows machine, virtual or physical, that is running SmartSDR for Windows.  By using Skype or some other audio processing software on said iPad or iPhone one can get audio output remotely.  Am I correct so far?

I can take my Windows laptop into some other room and connect either via RJ-45 or or via wireless 5G and control the 6x00 remotely. No audio though. I gather I can receive audio if I mess with the DAX control panel and my laptop's audio panel. But no audio input. I am getting there, please bear with me. Am I correct so far?

If memory serves, SmartSDR for Windows 1.4 will incorporate WAN access or was that 2.x?. To my knowledge what WAN access means has not been really disclosed beyond you can control your 6x00 from your job site; neighbor's house; Bali, Indonesia; etc. Minimally it will contain some degree of access/identity management. Has it / can it be disclosed what it is in any more specificity?

Prior to the WAN enabled release there will be a LAN enabled release to vet some of the WAN technology in advance of the WAN enabled release. Has it / can it be disclosed what it is in any more specificity specifically the LAN enablement  over what exists today?

Another way of, perhaps, framing this is the difference between running your 6x00 remotely through SmartSDR and accessing your home PC, MAC, whatever, remotely which is running SmartSDR for Windows locally. Two years ago I had a conversation with Barry Baines (President of AMSAT) who was telling me how he ran his Flex 5000 remotely while on the road, controlling the rig, the amp, the rotor and shack power. Clearly that was not a feature of PowerSDR. So, to the extent it can be discussed in this forum, what differentiates the future SmartSDR remoting features from what Barry was doing 2 years ago with PowerSDR and I suspect people are doing now with SmartSDR calling it WAN access.

Thanks and 73,

Walt - kz1f

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Walt,

Sorry the slow response but I've been out on the road.

You are fundamentally correct - what folks are doing today to operate SmartSDR remotely is to use their iPad running a remote terminal/PC access program and Skype to control their radio.

So SmartSDR is running under Windows - the iPad controls the remote PC.  The remote PC runs Skype and and so does the iPad so you can get to hear the audio.  You control the radio by controlling SmartSDR on the remote PC.

My iPad app is a native app that controls the radio INDEPENDENTLY from SmartSDR - you can operate the radio without SmartSDR even running.

As an application, K6TU Control does not and will not support remote audio.

I designed K6TU Control to provide an independent control surface for the radio for use with SmartSDR as a pan adaptor display while operating in a contest or Dxing at the normal operator position at your station.

By doing this you can control the radio without having to use the mouse or keyboard of your computer and so keep the window focus on your logging program.

At some point, I may implement a second app that will support full remote operation of the radio together with audio and panadaptor support.  That waits upon the delivery of remote control capabilities into the radio.

Hope this clarifies!
Stu K6TU 

Walt - KZ1F

Thanks Stu. I was pretty comfortable you would largely concur with my depiction. However, I don't understand the following, "I designed K6TU Control to provide an independent control surface for the radio (yep, understand that part, continuing) for use with SmartSDR as the panadaptor (question here). So, should a user want to be viewing the waterfall or band scope they would need another application to be a remote connection to their home PC/laptop for that use case?  I just didn't want to be talking authoritatively about something I don't have and have never used without "correct me if I am wrong".

The point of that question to FRS folks was more to clarify, or help clarify, what people mean when they talk about remote operation. Currently SmartSDR for Windows is blocked due to broadcast packets or whatever (bypassing a discussion of IGMP) from spanning multiple network segments. To operate remote that needs to be addressed, or does it. In my example Barry was operating his full station from the road and that happened to include his Flex 5000. But PowerSDR was not in the remote solution set. Implicit in that is the assumption that, for purposes of WAN access for SmartSDR the solution set includes natively bridging a WAN. But for the person who does run his station remotely or wants to run his entire station remotely, controlling the radio alone, remotely doesn't turn rotors or operate linear amplifiers much less electrically disconnect antennas and rotor controls during a storm.  It must of been another thread where I made the observation, anyone who has read anything I've written on here knows I am no fan of Windows and would very much like to minimize if not eliminate it as a requirement to operate my shack. One Windows app is better than 2, 2 is better than 3, etc. I was trying to illicit a reply from FRS as to what could be discussed on here about what, beyond remotely connecting to the radio proper from a different network, FRS envisioned for this feature. Maybe put all of DDUtil inside the 6000 chassis, maybe have a new mini chassis connected through that USB to a **** processor that connects to a DCU-1, Ameritron, Elecraft, RFConcept amp, that thing annouced  in Dayton that electrically disconnects the coax and rotor control from the shack etc but one integrated control surface.

I've talked with people who did dine on FRS's dime in Dayton and, I gather, the attendees were asked a sort of prioritization question about WAN vs pre-distortion whatever. I assumed if people were sought of asked to prioritize their wishlists what the actual feature was they were voting for or against as the next best thing. Where I didn't get to go to Dayton, I wasn't part of that conversation so I thought I'd try to get it going in this venue.  As part of that I wanted to level set what people drew in their minds when they heard remote operation of their Flex 6000 series.

But, again, thanks for responding Stu. I continue to hope you and I won't be the sole voices in this thread.

Walt - kz1f

Bill -VA3WTB

I always thought connecting to the Flex 6000 would to just find the IP address of the radio over the net or home network and control it. No extra programs and messing around.

Stu Phillips - K6TU

It will and does - currently on your local subnet.  Thats how SmartSDR or the iPad app displays the radios that are available on your network - currently via listening for a UDP broadcast.

UDP broadcast message generally do not get routed across the Internet so some other mechanism will be required - its called a rendezvous point - although I prefer the "agreed meeting point" personally ;-)

No extra program or messing around required.

Stu K6TU

rfoust

I was wondering if Flex would do that, or if they would require you to put in the IP of your router, which would require you to configure port forwarding from your router to the internal IP of the Flex.  The only problem that I see with having a rendezvous point is that that point is probably a server run by Flex HQ.  So, if their network/server goes down (power outage, hardware failure, etc), we're outta luck.  Maybe they will provide a secondary configuration option to point directly at your home network. *shrug*.  Either way, I'm looking forward to it.  I love new features. :-)