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Antenna switches

RemoteMyShack talks to a 4O3A Antenna Genius directly over your network. Each radio's console shows the switch port that radio is on, with a button for each antenna. For a relay-based switch, see Relay boards.

Add the switch

On the shack computer, open the agent's setup page and open the Antenna switches tab and choose + Add an antenna switch.
The agent listens for the announcement the switch broadcasts on your network, and lists it under Antenna switches on this network with its name and size (for example 2×8). Select it, or type its IP address.
For each port, choose the radio connected to it under Radio on port 1, Radio on port 2. Each radio's console then shows only its own port. If you leave every port at None, every console shows every port.
Choose Save & connect.

You can also manage antenna switches from your account page at remotemyshack.com.

Under each switch, the setup page draws it: its antenna outputs along the top with their names, its radio ports (A and B) along the bottom with the band each sees, and a line from each port to the output it's on. The line turns red while the port transmits. It follows the switch as it changes, and while you edit the switch it shows the settings in the form, so you can check the wiring matches your station before saving.

Set up the antennas

Once the switch is connected, choose Set up antennas next to it. Each antenna has:

Name: saved on the switch itself, so the switch's front panel and 4O3A's own software show it too. Up to 20 characters: letters, numbers, spaces and - . / + #.
Description (optional): a longer note, such as "Hex beam at 40 ft, rotor 1". RemoteMyShack keeps it, not the switch. The console shows it under the port for the antenna in use, and when you point at an antenna's button.
Bands: a button for each of the switch's bands, in frequency order. Tap one to step it through TX + RX (transmit and receive on that band), RX only (for a receive antenna such as a Beverage) and off. No band is what the switch sees when the radio isn't on a band it knows. The switch's custom bands show once you've set their frequencies in 4O3A's software.

Choose Save to send the changes to the switch. An antenna with unsaved changes has a colored outline. Changes made in 4O3A's own software show in RemoteMyShack within a second or two.

Nothing changes while a radio at the station is transmitting, because a port on automatic would switch to follow the new bands.

In the console

The switch's panel shows, for each port:

The band the switch thinks the port is on, and TX while the port is transmitting.
A button for each antenna, with the names set on the switch. The selected antenna is highlighted. Tap it again to select none.
The description of the antenna in use, if you gave it one.

In the Phone layout each port is a menu of its antennas instead, with No antenna at the top; antennas not allowed on the band are listed but can't be chosen.

An antenna's button is greyed out when it isn't set up to transmit on the port's band (see Set up the antennas, or set it in the Antenna Genius's own software).

Using it as a radio selector

Some stations wire the Antenna Genius the other way round: the eight antenna outputs go to radios, port A goes to the antenna and port B to a dummy load. To set it up like that:

Choose Edit next to the switch and turn on Wired as a radio selector.
Under Port A goes to and Port B goes to, name what each port is connected to, for example Antenna and Dummy load.
Under Radio on output 1 to 8, choose which of the station's radios is on each output. When an output's name on the switch matches a radio's name or model (say IC-7610), it's filled in for you. Leave outputs with radios RemoteMyShack doesn't run at None.
Choose Save & connect.

Each radio on an output then gets a button per port in its console, plus Off. Tap Dummy load to move the radio to the dummy load for a test, then Antenna to go back. The line above the buttons says where the radio is now. It's highlighted when the radio isn't on port A. If another radio is on the port you tap, the button names it, and a second tap (Take from …?) moves that radio off it. A radio can only move its own output.

In Set up antennas, the entries are the outputs (the radios). Keep No band on for each one. With nothing feeding band data to the ports, each port sees No band, and the switch won't put an output on a port unless that's allowed. The console greys out a port the switch would refuse, and Set up antennas warns about an output with No band off. If the switch refuses a move anyway, the radio stays where it was.

If no radio is chosen for any output, every console shows both ports with a button for every output instead.

Protection

RemoteMyShack never switches antennas while transmitting. It refuses while the switch says the port is transmitting, and while any radio that may be on that port is keyed through RemoteMyShack. On a radio selector it refuses while any radio at the station is transmitting, because moving one radio can take a port from another.

Plans

Controlling an amplifier or antenna switch remotely is part of the Shack plan (one of each) and the Super Station plan (all of them). Rig doesn't include it. At the shack, the console controls them on any plan. See Plans and billing.

Signal path

Each radio's console and the setup page draw the gear between the radio and the antenna, live. See Signal path.