N2JEU's Internet Remote Receiver Software

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To see the software in action visit my web receiver site at: http://www.ralabs.com/webradio/

Internet Remote Receiver Software News

28 Feb 2002 - Sorry for the extremely long time between updates. I have been working on the Intenet Remote Base Project almost to the exclusion of the receiver project. The IRB stuff is winding down for a while so I'm now working on the receivers. You'll notice a new version of the RX-320 software is in beta testing right now on the receiver site. If it holds up to some use without crashing expect a release of the Ten-Tec RX-320 software by the midle of March 2002. All that remains if this version is stable is to produce a user manual for it. I have decided that registration will be REQUIRED to use the software. I have not decided if the software will be totally free or be available at a cost to users under $25 (US). I have many hours into doing this and it would be nice to recover even a tiny part of the thousands of dollars that have gone into running the site over the past 4 years. Watch here for more news in a couple of days.

The Internet Remote Receiver - What is it???

The Internet Remote Receiver is a shortwave receiver or wide band radio connected to a PC that has access to the Internet.

By using some software I wrote to provide radio control functions and some type of audio transmission software users are able to control and use the receiver over the Internet without needing special software on their computers. Only an ordinary web browser and and some form of audio player program is needed on a remote user's computer.

The Internet Remote Receiver project started as part of the Web Controlled Receiver project that I've operated for the past three years as part of this site. The original concept was to place a computer controlled receiver (or the receiver section of a transceiver) online so that others could tune the radio and listen to a near real time audio stream. I first used my old Kenwood TS-440 transceiver as the receiver. Later radios used were the Yaesu FT-747 and Kachina 505DSP transceivers used as a receiver. Ten-Tec later provided the loan of the RX-320 and Icom loaned the new R75 receiver for the project.

The original software was never intended to be released to the public. At the time I thought that it would be a "one of a kind" experiment and did not write the software to be easily altered for use on another system. The work under way now is to make the software useable by others without the need to re-compile the software under Visual Basic every time a change needs to be made to the web pages displayed or how the software is configured.

What does it take to set up the Internet Remote Receiver?

The Internet connection - I suggest at least a 112K ISDN connection, a cable modem or a DSL line for best operation and response times. The lower the available bandwidth the better chance there is of poor audio performance. The connection should be up FULL TIME if you want others to use it while you are not. Other considerations for the Internet connection are a static IP address or using one of the Dynamic DNS services to make a stable place where your system can be found on the Internet. A good fast STABLE Internet connection will go a long way towards making the system a pleasure to use.

Users of the remote receiver need only have a 56K dial-up connection (even a 28.8K connection should work) to use the receiver. More bandwidth is needed at the remote receiver site because there may be several people accessing the site's web pages at the same time. The more bandwidth you have the more listeners you will be able to handle if you are running your own audio server software.

The Computer - The software has been tested on a Pentium 166, a Celeron 400 CPU and an Intel P2-333 system. It should operate just fine on any Windows 98 or NT4 system with a 166Mhz or faster processor and 64 MB of RAM. I suggest at least a 2 GB hard drive and a good medium performance video card. You'll need at least one serial port to control the radio, two (total) if you want to add antenna rotor control as well using the Kachina 505ARX rotor interface. Other rotor interfaces will be added. A Sound Blaster or compatible sound card is required. An option in the software provides antenna selection using an external antenna relay box controlled from the parallel printer port on the PC.

The Software - To connect your receiver to the Internet you'll need Microsoft Windows 98, NT4 with the latest service pack or Windows 2000 (the software has not been tested yet with Windows 2000). Windows 95 WILL NOT WORK properly since it has too many memory leak problems. You'll need web server software that supports standard CGI applications. A web server software package from Xitami has been used for testing. It's free and works very well. Microsoft's Personal Web Server software WILL NOT WORK. Internet Information Server (IIS) will work fine under NT4. A copy of my control software is also required (more about that later!). Some type of audio software will also be needed. Software is available from www.realnetworks.com. Look for their Real Server BASIC software and Real Producer Basic encoding software. Other audio server/player packages are available on the Internet as well. Check out a server package from http://www.shoutcast.com/ for another free streaming audio system.

The Radio - Software is under development for the Ten-Tec RX-320 receiver. A version for the Icom IC-R75 receiver is also in development. Other versions are possible if manufacturers will provide a receiver on loan for development and testing.

Your Experience - You'll need to know about Internet connections and full time operation, running a web server and DNS issues, creating HTML code and much more. If you are an Internet novice then this project is decidedly NOT for you. While I will help with your questions concerning my software I am not able to help with any problems you may encounter in setting up the Internet connection or running web server software outside of the interaction with my own software.

I haven't scared you yet? Good!..........

Here's where you can help. At this point I'm trying to determine the level of interest in the "Internet Remote Receiver" concept.

I need your comments! If you are interested in running some type of Internet Remote Receiver then please send me email at the address below with your comments. Even if you are NOT interested in running a system yourself please let me know if you would consider using this type of Internet resource if it became more widely available. Please keep in mind that NO COMMENTS received are just as important as LOTS of comments. There IS a page counter on this page that increments with each access. If I see the page access count go up and nobody makes any comments I'll have a pretty good indicator of just how much or little interest there is in others doing this type of project on the Internet.

Please send email to n2jeu@ralabs.com. Your email ONLY serves to let me know how many people may consider doing this type of project. I'll also gladly answer any questions you have. There's a CONTACT N2JEU box below with additional contact information. If you do call the best times are listed in the contact information. Please leave a message on the answering machine and I'll return your call.

Manufacturers and vendors:

Your support and encouragement is important too! If you have a product that you think may be of use or a receiver that you would like to have software written for please use the CONTACT N2JEU link below to reach me. The web controlled receiver project on this site is here to stay. I'm always looking for new equipment to place online.

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This software project would not be possible without support and equipment from the following companies:

Equipment on loan:
Array Solutions - 6 Position antenna relay box
ICOM - IC-R75 Receiver
Kachina Communications - ARX505 rotor controller
Universal Radio - RF Systems DA-4 signal splitter

I purchased equipment used in this project from these companies:
Amateur Electronic Supply (AES) - Coax cable and various supplies
BSOFT Software - DIG100/48 digital I/O board and accessories
EZ Hang - Slingshot/reel system used to get lines over trees
Idiom Press - Rotor-EZ HAM-x rotor to computer interface
Ten-Tec - RX-320 receiver
Radio Works - Dacron rope for the antennas
Universal Radio - ICOM PCR-1000 receiver

Do you need to send me email?
Send email to n2jeu@ralabs.com if your web browser does not have an email package configured.

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