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Reviews For: Remote Ham Radio (RHR)

Category: Specialized Amateur Communication Products

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Review Summary For : Remote Ham Radio (RHR)
Reviews: 23MSRP: $99/yr + $0.09-$0.49/min
Description:
Provides remote access to a number of DX and contesting stations in the USA and worldwide.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.remotehamradio.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15234.7
AI6II Rating: 2015-01-27
It works great for me Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Having retired in 2012 I finally had a lot more time for ham radio. By June of 2013 my DXCC count was 181, up from the 110 I already had when I got back into ham radio in 2010 after a ten year absence. Pretty good considering my antenna challenged home qth, but it became apparent I would never break through the wall of east coast stations to get the EU and AF contacts I needed.

Then Rock, WW1X, gave a demo at REDXA meeting and I could see a way to compete by operating an east coast station remotely. So in June 2013 I signed up. It was still in the early days and only one station had a sub-receiver. The second tier stations and Webpage-only interface were still to come, but I like having my local K3 buttons and knobs change the remote station's K3 anyway, so the experience was super. RHR staff is great and the remote stations and interfaces have constantly been upgraded.

I think price has kept up with good business practices and made it more affordable for many hams. ARRL directors embraced the technology and need for HOA limit hams to have a way to pursue DXCC goals by recently changing the rules to clearly allow remote operations to continue to count, so that issue has been resolved.

I use RHR to snag DX when I cannot hear them on my local antennas. My log shows 3,020 qso’s since joining RHR, and 96 new DXCC entities. Of those, 16 were using my local station and 80 came from operating remote. As the sunspot cycle continues to weaken and the need for better low frequency antennas increases, RHR will be my answer to the lack of enough space at home to erect better 40 and 80 meter antennas.

Do I prize catching another ATNO from home? You bet. But as my entity count goes up the available new ones become more a scarce and RHR keeps me in the hunt. A great product by some amazingly innovative, bright, enterprising Hams. The future is now.
K6UFO Rating: 2015-01-26
Great Remote System! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
No antennas are allowed at my high-rise condo residence. I signed up with RHR in March 2014 to allow me to operate when I am at the condo. I also own a station in a different state, but it takes half-a-day of travel to get there, and I am only there for short periods of time, usually for contests that interest me. RHR has been wonderful to allow me to operate from the condo, during the week, or just whenever I have not traveled to my own station. I have been "dabbling" with remote operating to my own station for over 10 years - but I was never happy with the responsiveness or available functions. RHR uses the latest technology and their own software to create the best system I have used, very responsive with lots of functionality. I was so happy with the remote capabilities that I copied as much of their system as I could on my own, and then "signed up" with RHR to make my station available for myself, and to share with others. I can now operate my own station, or one of the other RHR stations, wherever I go with my laptop, and can enjoy everyday operating even from the "no antennas" condo. I love it!
WX2S Rating: 2015-01-26
Fills a niche, needs work Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
First off, I'm well aware of the intense political debate surrounding RHR. I don't intend to go there, but rather to review the service on its own merits.

RHR allows access, for a fee, of currently 6 premium and 9 basic stations. RHR builds and maintains these stations. A basic membership runs $99 a year and about a $0.49/minute operating fee. I watch the meter run constantly when I'm on and worry about leaving the station operating when I go away (there is no timeout.)

The interface to RHR is through the Google Chrome browser, so you'll have to install Chrome to run RHR. Mobile devices are not supported. Available modes include SSB and CW, but not RTTY.

Although the RHR user interface is workable, I definitely miss the fast reaction time and controllability of my own station. For example, there is a noticeable time lag between keying the mike and the station going live, which makes it somewhat difficult to work DX. CW keying has occasionally been glitchy too. Subreceivers are a premium feature and there is no panadapter. The Chrome UI is fairly solid, but it is clear that bugs are still being sorted out. Latency may remain a problem for a long time.

RHR's antennas are certainly effective, even at the basic membership level. I can hear and work DX using RHR that is impossible with my 6BTV. The improvement is about 6 dB, as I'd expect from a Yagi.

For me, RHR is a last-resort tool, not a a substitute for my own station. I could see how it could be a boon for hams who are stuck in HOA situations or who can't put up towers for whatever reason. Personally, I use RHR only to get ATNOs that I can't get with my own rig -- and only within the 200 km limit recommended by the DXAC.

In sum, RHR isn't going to put DXCC in a vending machine -- you still need to put the time in the chair for that. But it does fill a niche. Only time will tell if RHR stays in business.