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Would you like to put a receiver online?

Note: This offer is temporarily on hold, pending release of improved software.

Development of custom software and hardware interfaces needed to implement a remote S-Meter website like this one exceeds the abilities of most web developers and even many experienced programmers. Those who have the required abilities may not have the required time. They also may not have servers and Internet connectivity adequate to the task.

There are many ways to implement the capabilities available here. The various software modules that are required could be written in a wide variety of different programming languages. A variety of different communication protocols could be used to communicate data to and from website visitors and to and from the communications receiver. A wide variety of hardware interface circuit designs could be employed. A fundamental task in designing a system with so many options is to select the best technology or technologies for each part.

The first issue in performing that task is to define "best." Is best highest speed, lowest latency, easiest to develop, most secure, or what? Ideally, it is all those things, but unfortunately design is primarily a process of choosing compromises. Do you want the vehicle you drive to have highest possible performance or the best possible gas mileage? You want both, but highest performance and lowest fuel consumption are at opposite ends of the design decision spectrum, so you either have to accept a compromise or forsake one thing you want.

The same was true in designing this website. Everything about it could be made better some way by giving up something else. We choose a set of compromises that seemed best to us. Other designers almost certainly would have made different decisions. Regardless, if you like what you see, we have done that part of the design for you if you want to use what we have developed.

We decided to write various software modules in a variety of different programming languages, because no single language has all the needed capabilities and we are fluent in multiple languages. Various portions are written in HTML, JavaScript, PHP, Python, C++, and Visual Basic according to what we considered "best" in each case. Some of that code runs on the server. Some runs on the client side. Some server code is executed on-demand. Other portions run as a Windows service, eliminating the need to have a Windows user constantly logged in.

Development, implementation and testing of all that took a considerable amount of time. We would have charged a commercial customer many thousands of dollars to develop a system like that. However, you are welcome to use it without charge.

In addition to a Kenwood R-5000 receiver or a Kenwood TS-440S transceiver, you will need two hardware interfaces on your end. One is an S-Meter interface. The S-Meter hardware interface we developed is very simple. It will be easy for anyone with prior electronic construction experience to duplicate. The total parts cost will be less than US$40. We will provide a circuit diagram, photograph and other details if you decide to use our software. You also will need a receiver remote control interface. We use Kenwood's IF-232C interface. If you don't have that interface, you can buy a used one, or you can build a simple interface from information we will provide.

We are in the custom software development and hosting business. We normally charge for both software development and hosting. However, if you want to use the system we have developed to make your own web-controllable receiver available at this website, we will charge nothing for software or hosting on our 2.4GHz P4 servers.

Other things you will need

   1) A dedicated computer with:

       a) a Windows NT, 2000, XP or 2003 operating system
           (home or professional, desktop or server),

       b) two serial ports,

       c) 350 MHz or faster CPU speed,

       d) at least 256 KB memory (128 KB with Windows NT).

   2) A 24/7 Internet connection with a bi-directional speed
       of at least 64K (direct user satellite data feeds are not
       suitable, because of latency).

   3) A location anywhere on the planet (anywhere in the
       universe if you can figure out how to greatly exceed
       the speed of light!).

The First Step
Tell us you are interested!