so ive been messing around with remote station control for about 6 months now and im at that point where i need to decide whether to keep cobbling stuff together or just commit to something like RemoteHams. currently running a raspberry pi with a couple python scripts i half-wrote half-stole from github to control my IC-7300 over the network, and it works maybe 70% of the time which honestly isnt good enough when im trying to work a rare DX from the office.

the SDR remote stuff on RemoteHams looks interesting too, like the idea of being able to share a kiwisdr or similar with other hams but i dont totally understand how the audio routing works when youre also trying to transmit. is it just separate systems that happen to live on the same platform or is there actual integration there? i saw some guys running full remote shacks through it and the latency seemed manageable on their youtube videos but i know those are always best-case scenarios.

the internet linking side also confuses me a bit — is that more for the echolink/allstar crowd or does it tie into the HF remote stuff too. ive been down the allstar rabbit hole before and its great but a completely different beast. anyway anyone whos actually used RemoteHams long term, is the subscription worth it or should i just keep fighting with my DIY setup

been on RemoteHams for probably 3 years at this point. the short answer is it depends what you want. if you're running a single rig and you mostly want reliable access to it when you travel, the DIY route with something like flrig and a decent VPN is probably fine once you get it dialed in. but if you want other hams to be able to access your station, or you want to hop on someone elses rig without setting up your own infra, then RemoteHams starts making a lot more sense.

the SDR remote piece is kind of separate from the transceiver remote in practice. like yes its the same platform and same account but the way they handle audio for an SDR-only node vs a full TX capable node is pretty different under the hood. the receive-only SDR stuff is way simpler to set up, no RF authorization needed obviously. the latency on HF remote through their system is usually fine for SSB, CW takes some getting used to if you're not running low latency audio codecs. i use opus and its pretty solid most of the time.

the internet linking stuff is basically the VOIP side — connecting repeaters and stuff, yes more allstar/echolink territory. they all kind of live under the same umbrella but HF remote ops doesnt really depend on that piece at all so dont let it confuse you.

yeah the DIY thing is fun until it isnt. i spent way too long tweaking my setup and then my router firmware updated and broke half of it. RemoteHams isnt perfect either — had some dropout issues last winter but i think that was my ISP more than their servers. one thing nobody mentions is that the client software on windows is kind of dated looking but it works, and there is a web client now which is way better for just jumping on quick.