Well the 802.11b got put up on Mt. Diablo (3800ft) and it works well. However that was the end of the 802.11b project. Still it was kinda cool to be sitting up on top of Mt. Diablo and acessing the internet.

My next project was putting my HF radio (FT-100D) onto the internet so I could sit in my easy chair and chat with people around the world. I used GOTOMYPC ($19.99 a month) to connect to my other laptop in my garage. Gotomypc emulates as if you are sitting right in front of the laptop. That simplified things immensely. For audio I used SKYPE a VOIP program that KAZAA brought out. I got excellent audio reports with that. I hooked up a data cable (CAT) from the laptop to the radio. That enabled me to control the radio and switch bands and modes. The program that does that is FTBcat. It has memories and allows you to easily switch modes.the radio into transmit as soon as it hears audio coming through. What is nice about the Signalink is that it has a switch that you push on that allows the unkeying of the radio being delayed as you pause in your speech. Before that bright idea of using the switch my transmit audio was dropping at even the littlest pause. Kinda annoying.

The interface I used to interface the audio to the radio is a Signalink Plus. Rather than using a hardware switch to key your audio it has a VOX built that switchesthe radio into transmit as soon as it hears audio coming through. What is nice about the Signalink is that it has a switch that you push on that allows the unkeying of the radio being delayed as you pause in your speech. Before that bright idea of using the switch my transmit audio was dropping at even the littlest pause. Kinda annoying.

I ran into a problem though where I needed two com ports. One to control the rig and one to key the rig. So I bought a usb to serial port adapter. Works pretty well. I plugged the CAT cable into it and everything worked fine.

I bought a serial cable key cable from Hosenose and plugged it into the serial port. After trying a couple keying programs I found that MIXW worked the best. It keys the rig nicely. However the sidetone comes blasting through. So I click audio mute when I transmit. Another problem I ran across is that Skype loaded down the laptop enough that the CW sending was choppy. I ended up having to use Netmeeting for the audio. It works fine. I will probably end up using MIXW for everything. It has all of the digital modes built in along with the CW. So I wouldn't have to switch between them.