Paddle CW with Maestro on WAN?

K9SO · August 2015

I'm anxiously awaiting delivery of my Maestro and it sounds like an amazing LAN device. For us WAN users, there has to be another solution other than VPN (correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Maestro will be able to access a VPN)

So I've been playing around with an extended LAN concept linking my two houses (Chicago and Charlotte) and I have it working fine. Essentially, both networks are on the same LAN now, but it takes some hardware on each end to accomplish this (I'm using older Cisco ASA's available for ~$150 each). I got around the UDP problem with a pair of Linux devices ($10 each) that I programmed to translate the UDP broadcasts into TCP and back again at the other end.

The main advantage over a VPN approach is that there's only one PC involved. Nothing to crash on the unattended radio side except the radio itself.

I'm guessing this will work fine with Maestro too. While this is working on keyboard CW, digital modes and phone, I'm anticipating problems with the paddle input to Maestro simply from the packet jitter I expect on my long distance "LAN" connection.

The REMOTE RIG folks have resolved this with misc. delays and it works exceptionally well. I believe they delay the paddle contact closures by the PING time and reconstruct at the client end correcting for any jitter. Then they have a "phony" local sidetone.

I wonder if anyone has any ideas for paddle CW over WAN without a separate pair of REMOTE RIG devices (my current solution)? It would make Maestro the ultimate accessory.

Fred
K9SO

Al_NN4ZZ · August 2015

Fred,
See this reply when I asked about it a while back. Click to enlarge the picture or go to this link:

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/k1el-winkeyer-in-maestro-what-are-the-implications-...

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com

K9SO · August 2015

Hi Al,

Thanks for pointing out that thread.

I may have missed the WAN part, but it looks like a conversation that led up to the CW paddle jack on the front of Maestro (a great decision by the way!) Again, talking about LAN primarily.

I've tried several WAN solutions over the years and the best I've found is what the RemoteRig boxes are doing. They introduce a small amount of latency (~40-50mS) in order to compensate for the path jitter. It works well even in contesting situations. The latency is small in human terms (at least for this human).

Conceptually, with two boxes (Maestro and a 6x00 radio box) one could do the same thing (given an infinite amount of programming time). I have a solution that works, but it just doesn't seem "elegant".

I'm trying to avoid using a PC at the unattended site 800 miles away too.

73,
Fred
K9SO

K1ESE · August 2015

Yesterday at the Boxboro Hamfest (Aug. 22) the rep for Flex Radio showed me the KEY jack in the back of the Maestro. He said it was connected to an internal K1EL Winkeyer. Having used a pair of Winkeyrs for remote operation, that was not what I was looking for.

I asked, "Will the key jack allow you to use a straight key or the output of an external keyer?" He said "Yes, it will. The Winkeyer will interpret to on and off states and send that wirelessly to the Flex radio."

I was both pleased and surprised. I had not realized the Maestro would handle an external keyer.

73 de K1ESE
John

Paddle CW with Maestro on WAN?

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