so ive been messing with this for probably 3 weeks now and im getting close but not quite there. the basic RemoteHams client connects fine to my home station, i can key up the rig and hear audio without too much latency, but the part thats killing me is trying to bridge that into some kind of internet linking setup so other guys can jump on the SDR side when im not actively using it.

my current setup is a flex 6400 at the home QTH running SmartSDR, and ive got the RemoteHams server software running on a dedicated windows box next to it. audio routing is done through virtual audio cable which honestly has been a nightmare to get stable but its mostly working now. the SDR waterfall over the remote client is usable, not great, but usable.

where im stuck is the linking piece. i was thinking about running something like AllStarLink on a separate pi just to handle the VoIP side when the station is in kind of a shared or unattended mode, but im not sure if that even makes sense architecturally or if im overcomplicating it. has anyone actually done a hybrid setup like this where the SDR remote handles the rig control and something else handles the linking or repeater tie-in? feels like it should work but ive been going in circles

yeah ive done something similar though not with a Flex specifically. the thing about trying to layer AllStar on top of RemoteHams is you end up with two separate audio paths and they dont really know about each other, so you get weird ducking issues and if someones transmitting through AllStar the RemoteHams client doesnt necessarily see PTT state correctly. i spent a good weekend on that exact problem.

what ended up working for me was just picking one or the other depending on the use case. for rig control and SDR access i stay in RemoteHams, and for the linking/repeater stuff i have a completely separate node thats not touching the flex at all. not elegant but it stopped the headaches. if your goal is genuinely shared remote SDR access for other hams, you might also look at what WebSDR or OpenWebRX can do — they sidestep the RemoteHams auth stuff entirely and are easier for casual listeners to just jump on without installing anything

the VAC instability thing you mentioned is real, i fought that for months. turned out my buffer settings were too aggressive and windows audio was doing weird things after sleep cycles. ended up writing a little batch script that restarts the VAC service every morning at 4am which sounds dumb but honestly just fixed it. not a real solution but you know how it goes.

havent done the AllStar hybrid thing myself so cant help much there but id be curious how it turns out if you get it working