N2JEU's Web Controlled Radio - About This Site
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since 12/14/1997.
The web controlled radio provides near real time audio from a Ten-Tec RX-320 receiver and
the Icom IC-R75 desktop shortware receiver. This is a RECEIVE ONLY application. There are
no plans to add full transceive operation to this site. Please visit www.ralabs.com/remote/ for information on my
Internet Remote Base project.
It works like this:
The main web site uses a 112K ISDN full time connection to the Internet via Dreamscape in Syracuse, NY. The main web server uses
Microsoft Windows NT and Website version 1.1f to provide the web pages. It also runs a
copy of the RealNetwork Basic Server software to
provide the near real time audio.
The Acsend Pipeline 75 router connects the ISDN line to the coaxial based Ethernet network in the house and ham shack. This lets me use a PC located in the ham shack as the radio controller and audio digitizer system. I use a Pentium 133/166 systems running Windows 95/98 with Website 1.1f, RealNetwork's Encoder software for the audio and special Windows CGI software I wrote to provide the web to radio interface.
The software is written in Visual Basic 6.0. It sends the frequency entry page when you enter a frequency and mode. The frequency and mode you select is converted to the proper format for the radio and sent to the radio by a serial port.
1) The whole thing connects to the Internet using a 112k ISDN line. As a result there are limits on the number of users connecting to the system at once. The connection will handle up to 7 audio/video connections.
2) Currently there is no control on frequency changes. You could change the frequency then another user could change the frequency a few seconds later. Limits on who uses the system and how often will come in a future software version.
3) The audio stream does not change immediately after a frequency change. This is because the RealAudio player buffers a few seconds of audio to smooth out network congestion problems. It can take up to 15 seconds or more for the audio to change. THIS IS NORMAL.
4) This is not a full time effort. The radios and PCs are part of my ham station. I do plan on getting back on the air as the conditions improve. If the servers don't respond then I'm either using the radio, the computer or working on the software. The radios will return to operation when I'm finished.
A few users have reported error 19 messages from the RealPlayer software. It simply means that the server has all the connections it can handle when you tried to connect. Please try again later if you have trouble getting an audio connection.
A big thanks to the folks that reported the problem. The site has become much more popular than I ever thought it could be. The system activity reports show hundreds (closer to thousands actually) of "hits" per day on nearly everything on the site.
If you get other error messages when trying to connect to my audio server, make a note
of the message number then click on the link below to search the RealNetwork
troubleshooting pages. Their KnowlegeBase is located at:
http://service.real.com/kb/default.htm
Please look at this site BEFORE you send me a message about troubles with the RealPlayer software. All known problems have been corrected on the system here. It's likely that any remaining problems are due to configuration or older versions of support files on your computer.
That about wraps it up for now. Please feel free to send suggestions or trouble reports to the address below. If enough folks ask I may make the software to do this available.
Questions? Go ahead and send email to Bob Arnold N2JEU at arnoldr@mail.ralabs.com
Visit the Random Access Labs web pages for additional
information on electronics, SWL'ing, amateur radio, robotics and much more.
This page last updated - 6 September 2000 - RDA