Why We Need More Remote HF Access Nodes

[AF4LY]

I was reading in QST this month about remoteing using HRD and Skype into a base station when you are in a situation where you cannot put up antennas at your current QTH. This is great, but WHAT IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE LUXURY OF HAVING ANOTHER LOCATION! I have seen quite a few people complaining on this forum about how they are QRT because of HOA's, extremely bad RFI, etc.

I have seen a couple of HF remote stations on Echolink, and there is another site that allows people to get on a remote transceiver. Even with those you have a lot of Hams trying to get on these machines.

I am proposing a central site where you can find people that are willing to let other people reserve a time slot, rent time on the radio (I don't know if that falls under getting compensation for you Amateur Radio services but it is a thought), or have access for certain people (like a member of a certain club to use their station), or even people that are willing to put your radio at their location, you just supply the radio, server, antenna.

Right now I am having a lot of trouble getting on HF given my current QTH. I am having trouble finding somewhere that I can put my radio to even remote into.

[WY5V]

Why not remote yourself and your radio? Take your rig out to a local park when the weather permits and set up a temporary station. Most cities have pavilions that are covered with tables and power. Make it a family outing.

[WB2WIK]

We don't need more remote "access nodes." These are privately owned and the owners can restrict or open access any way they wish.

You don't need to own a remote property to set one up. I know many on the air right now that are at company locations, on rented tower space, and all sorts of places. There's cost involved, but you don't have to buy a second home.

As suggested above, another alternative is to make your own "site" by taking your station portable. When I lived in a rented condo many years ago, I did just that for more than a year and operated almost every day from locations that were far better than my home site. I just built a mobile station that worked well and parked it at the beach, or on a mountaintop, or wherever I felt like it. Once I was "home," I parked the van outside the condo in a clear spot and ran the coax from the mobile antenna to inside (routing cable behind bushes and such so people didn't really see it) and operated from inside, using an antenna outside. It worked better than antennas in the attic and such, and I broke pileups with that.

I had a kW amplifier (Henry 3K Classic III) in the condo and the mobile antenna, an old "Texas Bugcatcher" mounted high on the van, could handle that without failing so I could run 1kW "mobile" while inside the nice air conditioned condo.

Not a beam on a tower, but it worked and made a lot of contacts. I used that to work Bouvet 3Y0X on 30m CW and was the first contact they made when they first fired up, beating out the pileups (just good timing, and they announced when they'd be on). Worked HZ1AB in Saudi on 40 CW using the mobile antenna and a kW inside the condo. It worked pretty well, considering.

[KC7YRA]

I like the idea of what you propose. I know there are some out there. Heck, I would gladly set one up here with my radio/amp/tower.

The problem I have is the monitoring of the system. Every time you hear folks operating on a borrowed remote base through the internet, there is a control operator. I don't have any interest in sitting there and monitoring a bunch of QSOs to make sure rules are followed. What time I do have to monitor, I want to be making my own contacts or doing something out of the shack.

If there were a way to allow folks to remote in while I was at work, and I could be sure they weren't going to break anything or violate rules, I would have no problem doing that. I see no way to do that however.

Brad

[NA0AA]

I think that in general, amateur radio is better served by a local station with local antennas and I would rather see our enegies spent overturning antenna restrictions - I think that would be a better goal overall, otherwise, 'remote operation' becomes a further excuse to deny us the right to antennas..."OH, your a Ham, well, here's a list of remote operating stations you can use via the internet....".

[AC0FP]

I like the idea of what you propose. I know there are some out there. Heck, I would gladly set one up here with my radio/amp/tower.

The problem I have is the monitoring of the system. Every time you hear folks operating on a borrowed remote base through the internet, there is a control operator. I don't have any interest in sitting there and monitoring a bunch of QSOs to make sure rules are followed. What time I do have to monitor, I want to be making my own contacts or doing something out of the shack.

If there were a way to allow folks to remote in while I was at work, and I could be sure they weren't going to break anything or violate rules, I would have no problem doing that. I see no way to do that however.

Brad

I agree because what the OP is proposing is more HF repeaters! We don't need open HF repeaters, as they will turn into something like the trash VHF/UHF repeaters scattered around the country!

fp

[N0AZZ]

I personally hope that "Never" happens it's a poor idea and not well thought out by any stretch of the imagination by whoever came up with the idea.

My suggestion for the HOA dilemma "NEVER BUY OR RENT" in any place that has them there are too many other choices available. For those that do choose that route they should do so with open eyes and a plan if your a ham.

I know of a local younger ham who in 4 years living in a HOA with a attic mounted antenna. Has worked WAS/WAC 4 Bands/WAZ/DXCC 4 Bands and 231 countries confirmed using a max of 100w and a lot of the time QRP. So he has made be beleive even in a HOA if you want to work HF there is no excuse not to, all it takes is desire and a little thought and some wire.

[KQ9J]

I could see perhaps a club setting up a station that members could remote into, not that I would ever be interested. And certainly never on a commercial, pay for use basis. Not plunking down money to live in a place where somebody tells you that you can't have antennas is the best solution. If you do get stuck in a place like that temporarily, make the best of it.

[N0SYA]

I agree because what the OP is proposing is more HF repeaters! We don't need open HF repeaters, as they will turn into something like the trash VHF/UHF repeaters scattered around the country!

fp

Yeah! That 14.313 repeater is the worst!

[AF4LY]

Yeah! That 14.313 repeater is the worst!

They should really link .313 to 147.435 in LA. Now that could get interesting.