Now that Remote is available to all K4 owners, we'd love to hear how you're using it.
For me, Remote has added an unexpected new dimension to HF QRP operation. At my home station in the SF Bay area, I have a mediocre antenna farm (OCF dipole and a 16' vertical). Nothing rotates. Nothing changes length at the touch of a button. Birds who fly through my near-field live to tell their young. Worse, I'm at the mercy of my electrically noisy neighbors. Fortunately, I have a friend who lives 800 miles north of my QTH. He has huge directive antennas on a massive tower, not to mention an unbelievably low noise floor. I've been envious of his riparian RF ecosystem for years, mine being a desert in comparison. Now, using K4 Remote, I can virtually operate his station whenever he (or someone else) isn't using it. And since I'm controlling his K4 with my own, there's no difference in the UI or feature set. I've still got three 400-count optical encoders for VFO A, B, and RIT/XIT; QSK CW with AFX stereo; all the same computer and software interfaces, and his high-res panadapter on my LCD and HDMI monitor. (It's not just the next best thing to being there. It *is* being there.) Once he installed the new beta release, I kicked off a new effort: 1-watt CW DXCC. With his antennas, it shouldn't take long. For example, the other day I was tuning around 20 meters locally (i.e., using my own antenna) and heard only a few EU stations, peaking around S5. Three seconds later I was using my friend's station -- the band was now wall-to-wall S9+ DX. I dialed his radio down to 1 Watt and immediately picked up a few new ones. While many K4 owners will be using Remote with KPA1500s, chasing top spots in contests and adding to their 300+ country totals, some of us will be nibbling at the fringes, like so many cleaner wrasses on a great white. I hope to hear these stories, as well. 73, Wayne N6KR ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
