Tim, I will post the results, good bad or indifferent.
Greg, I have an LDG AT-1000Pro II Auto Tuner which is currently deployed
next to the F5K and Linear. It has a wider range than the built in ATU so I
bypass the built-in in favor of the LDG. The LDG is a nice tuner but... I
still often manually optimize it before engaging warp drive. Another project
is remoting the tuner with its 8 buttons while keeping the accessory analog
meter with 3 buttons and 7 indicator LEDs in the shack. The MFG of the
tuner says you can’t extend the analog meter more than about 3 ft.
Balderdash! It can be done, it just isn’t so simple as splicing in a long
cable.
There are 4 towers involved, One is a Hy-gain Hy-Tower 8 band vertical atop
a metal barn (base at 23 ft and 52 ft of antenna), another (call it #2) is a
customized tilt-over/crank-up about 100 ft or so north of the Hy-Tower for
supporting a K4KIO hex beam, #3 is 141 ft north of #2 and has a 40 ft high
base with legs on 14 ft centers (yes, feet not inches) made of 4" ID tubing
with 1/4 inch walls which is to support another automatic crank-up, and then
another 141 feet north of #3 is #4 which is a Rohn 25 tilt over free
standing made of 4 each 10 ft sections and a 9 ft top section which takes a
mast which will have insulators added to its legs so I can make it into a
DIY Hy-Tower. Off to the west of #4 is the site for some rhombic
experiments (Beverage site not selected) which are only in the thinking
stage just now. To help control costs while getting decent performance I am
using mostly Andrew 1/2 inch hard line coax. Still when you daisy chain well
over 500 ft of cable and have a few coax switches in-line losses add up.
A good question from you, Greg. We'll see how this plays out.
73,
Patrick AF5CK
-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Ellison
Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2013 2:33 PM
To: Patrick Greenlee
Cc: t...@flexradio.com ; Burt ; Flex Radio
Subject: Re: Another way to rempote an F5K
Good luck. Let me know how it works out.
Happy Thanksgiving
-Tim
---
Tim Ellison, W4TME
Product Management
FlexRadio Systems
(Sent from my iPad)
On Nov 27, 2013, at 3:20 PM, "Patrick Greenlee" <patric...@windstream.net>
wrote:
I don't know if anyone else in the community is interested in separating a
Flex5000A farther from its companion computer than the limitation of the
firewire cable but I am preparing to test a candidate solution. Depending
on the results of the test I may be able to remote my F5K well over 100 ft
from the computer. I am hoping that placing the radio with its ATU
seriously closer to the antenna will allow the ATU to do a better matching
job, get more power going out the antenna and not circulating it around
erroneous zones.
The method I am preparing to test (pending the arrival of a couple short 9
pin to 6 pin IEEE-1394/ Firewire cables) uses a satisfaction or money back
guarantee adapter pair. These adapters takesa 9 pin Firewire input (the
adapter is female 9 pin) and has a RJ-45 (Female Ethernet/Cat5/Cat6 )
connector/socket. for output. There are two identical adapters used. One
connects to the F5K and the other to the computer. Alternatively you can
use 6 pin to 6 pin cables with adapters at one end to get 9 pin male. I
prefer an adapter free cable.
I will be using Cat5e cable to interconnect the two adapters. The
adapters support the full 800 Firewire data rate and are backward/downward
compatible 400, 200., 100 so should work fine (says here in the fine
print.) The adapters are powered by the Firewire port or can use an
accessory power supply. The accessory PS I got is 12 VDC at up to an amp.
The power requirement is DC from 8 to 19 volts. Long runs may require
15-19 volts but shorter runs can use 12VDC or less depending on cable
length, conductor size, et. AC input is OK from 100 to 240 VAC at 50-60
Hz/
Sorry to not be able to drop the other shoe yet, I like instant
gratification as much as the next guy but the Thanksgiving holiday may
delay the cable delivery a bit.
There are no controls on the adapters. There is no software programs or
drivers. Just hook it up and it should run. I queried the seller about
latency and was told the latency was essentially due to the length of the
cable and its velocity factor. I cannow violate the laws of physics,
cap'n! This approach has the possibility of beating some of the other
approaches requiring multiple Skype accounts and multiple computers. Any
way you slice it you still have to turn the radio on and off remotely.
Anyone here old enough to remember the computer to keyboard interfaces
that used solenoids and rubber fingers to type on a typewriter? A solenoid
with rubber finger to press the off/on switch will git 'er done and you
don' have to ship the radio back and forth to its mama, lose it for a
couple weeks in queue, or risk a DIY oops.
The adapter pair is a tad under $400 + shipping but if it works as it
should it is very straight forward.
Patrick AF5CK
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