[Elecraft] Minimum bandwidth?

[Fred Jensen]

To speak to the original question directly ...

I run remote to W7RN [right now, all I have, just getting local stealth 
antenna up] using RemoteRig RRC-1258 Mk2.  We have DirecTV and ATT 
Uverse at 45 Mbps.  I have watched the Win10 Task Manager WiFi display 
when I'm on CW and my wife is not watching Netflix or Amazon and it 
hangs around 150 Kbps with some occasional peaks to perhaps 200 Kbps.

I've only done one NAQP SSB remotely, and it was about the same.  I 
suspect it is using as much BW as it wants to and since we have way more 
than it needs, it uses it.  I'd bet it would work OK on 128 Kbps ISDN 
... do they still have ISDN?

My RT ping times to W7RN range from about 25 to 60 ms, 70 ms is the 
highest I've ever seen and that was just once, average is about 35-40 
ms.  BW does not seem to be the big issue ... jitter, and 
dropped/delayed packets is more important.

Initially, the latency bothered me, however after a couple of contest 
efforts, I no longer notice it.  The W7RN radio is a K3+KPA500+KAT500. 
I connect to the local PC and remotely control it using TeamViewer and I 
see and control just as if I was on-site.  The Green Heron rotator 
controls are on one screen, I just drag the display for the stack I want 
to use to the heading I want.  The latency is apparent there, I've just 
learned to drag it slowly.  The KPA500 monitor also appears, as does a 
webcam shot of the K3 and antenna usage indicator.  My K3 front panel 
repeats what's on the remote radio.

Jitter and dropped packets are annoying, the severity varies some.  At 
30 WPM, it appears that one dit more or less fits into a packet, and if 
delayed, it is delivered out of sequence to the codec.  That too has 
faded somewhat into the distance for me as I gain experience using the 
remote.  And, the very high CoAA [Coefficient of Aerial Aluminum] at 
W7RN makes up for a lot of other small annoyances -- if I call, they 
generally answer me first. :-))

The RemoteRig manuals and UI are a bit obscure and as my friend N6XI 
mentions, "too many moving parts," but once set up and optimized for the 
I'net connection, you never really need to touch it again.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2016
- www.cqp.org

On 4/11/2016 11:04 AM, Lynn W. Taylor, WB6UUT wrote:
> My connection here has exceptionally high jitter, which is worse, but
> also fairly unusual.
>
> A half-second of latency means you're hearing what happened a
> half-second ago, and when you key the transmitter, it's going to happen
> a half-second from now.
>
> Going back to the original question, it is nearly impossible today to
> buy too little bandwidth.  We're also talking about audio, not video.
>
> The question "is 1 megabit/sec. enough" is like asking if you can pull a
> kids wagon around with a very large truck.  Yes, you can, but you can
> also pull it with one hand.