A History of Remotehams.com

Here is what he told me:
“I am elated to see RemoteHams still going strong after 21 years now! 🙂 My intention was to make it easy and FREE for all to SHARE. I came up with the “Easy as 1,2,3”.

Back in 2005 I came up with my remote concept after the cruise that went wrong.

I worked in fire protection which kept me busy.

Brandon had just been laid off his job, so he had time.

{I} Knew it would take off eventually, which it has, thanks to Brandon KG6YPI the self taught whiz kid!

I took Brandon under my wing to create the software.

He was interested in computers and into hacking into back doors just for the challenge. I was thinking “security” when adopting our software for testing from hackers etc.Brandon was only 18 yrs old, but he was very special, super smart and self taught!!

He was much smarter than I was when it came to coding, besides I have dyslexia so not good working with 1 & 0’s.

We both had FT-857D’s at the time, so that was the development radio of choice. Brandon would come by my place after my work and we would brainstorm our ideas and putting them to the “test”.

I was the president of N6IJ/MBARA so I implemented the TS-480, a new radio to Brandon from his uncle’s estate.

So at this point, we created the “Club” mode with all the individual user profile settings, a game changer!

Eric WA6HHQ of Elecraft, was a previous president of N6IJ and knew of the remote work Brandon and I were doing. He was also a friend of mine when working on the K1 prototype with Wayne before Elecraft was born.

Trivia for you, the Elecraft logo; you should recognize as a pilot. This came from Eric’s Cessna 150.

So there is history in the Monterey bay area in HAM Radio development!

Later, I got my first K3 and loved it. I had to go by Elecraft to pick something up, don’t remember what it was, because it was a turning point for RemoteHams.

Eric said “Scott, I know you are into remotes and I have something to show you. Come by my office in about 15 mins”.

Later, I went to his office and he showed me his new remote using RemoteRig hardware and the K3. He {had} set up a demo with Bob, W6XX who was testing with Eric their remote hardware system. Eric had said to me that he is a “hardware” type of guy, whereas we were using homebrew software!

Well, the demo didn’t go that well and most of it had failed for my demo.

We used the software approach which was a different way of doing the same thing except our user and Club mode.

Later that day, Brandon came by after my work as usual. I TOLD him to get his resume together, that I had an idea and told him about Eric’s demo.

Our system had “bugs” too, but easier to fix vs hardware issues. I was thinking between Brandon and Elecraft it could benefit both of us.

Well, Brandon went to the job interview that I had scheduled for them. Brandon got hired on the spot as a software engineer!

Eric gave Brandon a K3 to use for development.

Now with my K3 development tests were now with K3’s.

That is also how we got the Elecraft sponsorship to continue with Elecraft/RemoteHams development.

Brandon is still working for Elecraft and has been a key role in the new K4. He has been working on that for about the past 4 years now and still going.

I had a stroke in 2024 and forced into early retirement and Brandon was building a house up in Shasta county, I moved to Tucson.

Remember the whiz kid I was talking about? Well he was also mining electronic currency, bitcoin, litecoin etc….

It has been quite a ride and Brandon aka “Brandini” is going stronger than ever!

Brandon has been one of the main developers in the K4.

{That’s} Just a little history for how it all happened.

You are welcome to share the history of RemoteHams that few know about, first hand.”

Scott Avery
WA6LIE

Here is a video that might fill any gaps in the story above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZT5eUI7Dds
Scott Hoffman AG6IS (SK) made this video.