Remote Station: Using a MIDI controller

[g4fph]

Hi all!

Something that may be of interest to those of you trying to use AL SDR radios in situations where the 'shack' and 'operator' are in two different places.

I have an ANAN-7000DLE MKII set up in the shack at my home location in a configuration that allows me to use it remotely. Most of the time I'm just in a different room at home to the one the radio is in, so the extent of the remote-ness is just the few metres across my LAN. On occasion, I do also use the station from outside home / over a WAN, by dialling into my network by means of a VPN over the Internet. It works pretty well, although the number of software applications / integrations to make the station 'full-facilities' (linear, rotator, keyer, logbook,...) usable remotely is considerable and the user experience hardly slick as a result.

I came across a software solution today that has allowed me to put the final piece of my ANAN-based, remote HF station in place, namely being able to control the transceiver, operated remotely, using my MIDI control panel of choice. So now, I can enjoy using a proper set of knobs and buttons to control the radio, rather than having to rely solely on the keyboard and mouse of my laptop.

The software (yet another application!) I am using for this is called 'VirtualHere' (https://www.virtualhere.com/). It effectively tunnels a USB peripheral between two computers on an IP network, so a peripheral plugged into one computer presents itself as being connected (locally) to the other.

In my particular setup, I run the VirtualHere Windows Server software on my operator laptop, with the Hercules DJ Control MP3 E2 panel plugged into it. On the PC connected to that ANAN in the shack, I run the VirtualHere Windows Client, with the network transported Hercules controller (plus it's control application) selected.

Normally, VirtualHere Client looks on the network for VirtualHere Servers to connect to. My networks are segmented and heavily fire-walled, so this Client-side initiated communications would not work for me. Fortunately, there is, however, a special 'reverse' mode of operation built it to VirtualHere, where the Server can be made to initiate communications and go hunt for the Client. The configuration of the software for this is described here: https://www.virtualhere.com/node/893

So far, I've only tested the solution over my LAN, but would not anticipate any issues with it running down a VPN over a WAN.

A major plus point is that VirtualHere does not require a paid for licence / any annoying registrations when only a single USB peripheral is involved:-)

I have always found the CAT / MIDI setup in Thetis to be somewhat unreliable, but sticking at it it can usually be made good enough to use.

Hope someone else finds this useful.

Regards,

Mark, G4FPH.