Wednesday, February 17, 2016

One step closer to being a ham techie!


 Now that I can use one Signalink USB unit on either my Elecraft K3 or KX3 I thought it was now due time to investigate operating my rigs remote from my laptop using my router. I have read many ham who do this  so it’s not anything new…BUT….for me this is cutting edge and can be “kinda fun” to get it up and running.  I can across software called Timeviewerwhich allows you to remotely access your PC from another PC. Once logged on and a connection is made you have (on your remote PC) a mirror image of your home PC. You have the same control over your home PC as if you were sitting in front of it. The software allows you to access your Windows PC via a Mac and so on. This Windows/Mac cross over was great for me as my home PC is Windows and the laptop is a Macbook Pro. I set out to download and install the software on my Windows PC. It went very smooth and error free, I then installed it on my Macbook pro laptop and all went well until I started the program. The program just
would not start it just got hung up and I had to do a force shutdown. I tried a few things but just could not get the program to run. I then installed it on my wife’s Macbook pro laptop and it operated without
a hitch! The only thing I can figure is my Macbook is a bit older and may not be up to the task. I was on the internet to see if I could see what the issue might be but could not find anything. I am going to email the company and see what their input is. On the weekend I was not interested in troubleshooting or emailing for an answer I just wanted to get the program up and running. With the program installed on both PC’s and it was time to make the link. It is very straight forward to do, you open the program on each PC. You are given a 9 digit ID number on each PC and since I want to use my laptop to control my main PC on my laptop I enter the 9 digit ID number from my main PC and press “connect to partner”. I then enter a password (setup during program install) and in no time I have full control of
My remote PC operation
my main PC from my laptop. Note: if you want to have control of your laptop from your main PC justenter on your main PC the 9 digit ID number shown on your laptop and press “connect to partner” along with the password. After using this program several times I can honestly say it works flawlessly and very smooth. I was able to open Win4k3suite and WSJT-X and make contacts with JT-65 from my laptop. There was absolutely no latency issues, lockup or programs refusing to operate or open. One great piece of news is if you use Teamviewer for personal use the program is FREE!! If any of my readers has ever wanted to toy with remote desktop operation or you are using a program that has issue give Teamviewer a go!

2 comments:

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hello Mike, as you probabely know I use teamviewer for remote controlling my station as well (already for some time. Have been testing several programs over the years. Teamviewer is the best till now. Another advantage of teamviewer is that it can be accessed with every computer connected to the internet not even with a program installed but through the browser. That's how I can do remote from the job at my lunchbreak sometimes. At the moment I'm trying and testing the experiment from Skip KH6TY with his article in QST about "pocketshack". I'll write about that later as I need to make some videos. The disadvantage with his project is the use of splashtop which is only free when you use it within your own network. You have to pay when you want to access from the outside. Lately I'm using my android phone to remote control my station and till now I made contact with about 20 stations with WST-X using this system. Good luck with this experiment and most of all enjoy! 73, Bas

VE9KK said...

Good Friday evening…..best day of the week! I will give pocketshack a look at, you will have to post on your blog once you try this program and see how it works for you. I am very happy with Timeviewer.
Have a great weekend
73 Mike