[Elecraft] Advice needed: Remote Station Enhancement

[Dennis Ashworth]

My original post (below) morphed into a thread on standards, etc ... the discussion was insightful and useful in defining my solution to question #1 below. Thanks. 

Question #2 remains. How do I remotely switch between 4 positions on an RX antenna switch (e.g. K9AY switch box) via some kind of Windows based UI. Ideas?

Thanks
Dennis, K7FL


Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dennis Ashworth <dennisashworth49 at gmail.com>
> Date: February 24, 2018 at 2:23:20 PM EST
> To: "elecraft at mailman.qth.net" <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: Advice needed: Remote Station Enhancement
> 
> I’ve been remoting my K3, KPA500, KAT500 station via the RemoteRig boxes and K3/0 mini for two years with solid results. Later this year, I want to make several enhancements, including the replacement of the KPA500 and KAT500 with a KPA1500. The amp/tuner should be a fairly straightforward hardware replacement, but it does necessitate a few station changes which I’m not certain how to implement. Let me explain and hopefully the masses have ideas/approaches for consideration.
> 
> 1. I feed a HyTower vertical (optimized for 40M & 80M) on all bands. Where the driving impedance is close to 50 ohms on 40M & 80 (my bands of interest) there has been no attempt to match the HyTower on other bands. With the KAT500, matching was not a problem and I reduced mismatch losses on the feed line by using hardline from the in-shack tuner to the antenna.
> 
> When I switch to the KPA1500, operation on the unmatched bands might prove problematic. To address this, I plan to provide switchable matching networks to transform the HyTower drive impedance on each band to something the KPA1500 can match. I can design the required impedance transformation networks, but not sure how to automatically select the various (relay based) impedance networks required for each band. Clearly, I need to grab band data from the K3, but what’s the best hardware to use for this task? 
> 
> BTW, I want to power the KPA1500 ON with the K3, which requires a Y-cable modification, or perhaps one of the N6TV boxes? 
> 
> 2. I want to interface a K9AY RX antenna 4 position switch to some sort of UI that I can access remotely. I can design an electrical interface to the K9AY switch, but controlling and monitoring remotely is the issue. Ideas?
> 
> 3. I have a Windows computer available at each end of the radio circuit. The only other hardware is a SignalLink used for digital mods.
> 
> 4. Configuring the station for future antenna enhancements (e.g. SteppIR if we live long enough to see sunspots return!) are great if they come without significant reliability impacts.
> 
> Any ideas how to accomplish the required switching/monitoring? 
> 
> Thanks
> Dennis, K7FL
> Currently in Panama City, Florida
> Station in Battle Ground, WA
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad