[Elecraft] How reliable an internet connection is needed for a K3 remote to work well?

James Beitchman jbeitchman at jgbconsult.com
Wed Jul 16 16:51:18 EDT 2014


Barry and others,

 

I have been following the discussion and want to add the description of a
problem and its solution that I encountered with my remote operation.

 

My set-up:

 

Control site:  Manhattan, New York; k3/0 mini to RemoteRig with wireless to
WiFi router to Cable ISP (ping 10ms; 15Mbps forward; 1Mbps return); more
than 25 strong WiFi networks in range

 

Radio site:  Town of Clinton, NY (rural); K3/100 to RemoteRig with wireless
to WiFi router to cable ISP (ping 16ms; 55Mbps forward; 25Mbps return); only
my own WiFi Network in range

 

Parameter settings: All settings of the RemoteRig and Elecraft equipment at
both ends were without any exception at the values recommended by Microbit
and Elecraft in the manuals

 

Problem: Dropped packets resulting 0.1 - 1 sec audio drop outs both ways and
messed up CW; worse during business busy hour (5 - 6 pm) and at night from 8
- 11pm

 

Solution: The problem is clearly not caused by line speed or ping time. At
first I though the problem might be congestion at the cable node in the City
(400+ business and residential users on the fiber fed node), but the cable
company convinced me with tests that I witnessed that this was not the
issue. Then I talked to some folks about WiFi issues. What I learned is that
most WiFi equipment as-delivered is set for channel 6 as default and most
users leave it there. I checked my router in the City and found it was on
channel 6.  I changed my router to channel 8 and the dropped packet problem
completely disappeared and CW is just fine. So the problem appears to have
been something we hams are all familiar with - QRM.  My suggestion is, if
you are having a dropped packet problem and are using WiFi in a dense WiFi
environment as part of your remote system, try changing your router WiFi
channel as a first very easy step to solving the problem.

 

73,

 

Buzz

W3EMD

 

 

 

Message: 9

Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 18:36:27 -0700 (PDT)

From: Barry <w2up at comcast.net>

To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net

Subject: [Elecraft] How reliable an internet connection is needed for

     A K3 remote to work well?

Message-ID: <1405301787274-7591154.post at n2.nabble.com>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

 

A while back we tried Remoterig with a Kenwood radio and the CW generated
was poor on the other end.  This was presumably from dropped packets and or
latency issues (Comcast on one end and a terrestrial microwave connection on
the other end).  Some dits/dahs were lost and others were prolonged, due to
the lost stop signal.  My understanding of the remoterig protocol for CW is
it's not very robust, with no error correction or ACKing.

 

We got around the CW problem by using a VNC and the CW is generated at the
host end within the VNC window, using N1MM, directly keying the radio.

 

If we were to use a K3 and K3/remote for the radio, would there be potential
radio control issues due to the flaky internet connection, or is there
redundancy and/or error correction built into the Elecraft remote protocol?

 

Barry W2UP

 

 



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