The microHAM Station Master is the successor to the popular Band-Decoder, and offers a lot of additonal functions. With the Station Master you integrate a lot of devices of your shack: automatic antenna switching with the freely programmable band decoder, computer controlled rotator direction,, CAT control of your radio, switching of bandpass filters, a sequencer for amplifiers and last but not least the integration of your SteppIR antenna. With the iLink connection you can further integrate your existing soundcard interface by microHAM: works with Micro-Keyer, Micro-Keyer2, Digi-keyer, Micro-Keyer2R(+) etc.
The most control functions are derived from frequency and PTT information. This offers you 20 frequency dependent output switches to control an antenna switch (for example). Some antennas can be declared as receive only antenna, the Station Master will block transmitting on these antennas. Additionally a freely programmable sequencer is availabkle, for example to control the delayed switching of pre amplifiers or amplifiers.
The intelligent rotor control allows the use of nearly any rotor manufacturer and type. The position information may be an analog voltage (e.g. Yaesu, Hy-Gain) or a digital pulse (e.g. SPID). Depending on band and your individual setup the antenna will turn automatically, for example after entering just the prefix of a call or a locator (depending on your log program).
Several fixed antennas can be grouped into a 'virtual rotr', selecting the right antenna depending of the destination. This can be used with antennas like 4-Squares or Beverages.
If you use a SteppIR or Ultrabeam antenna, this can also be controlled by the StationMaster. This has several benefits. A SteppIR antenna directly coupled to your transceiver would follow each and every frequency change, even when another antenna is in use. The Station Master transmits control information to the variable antenna only if it also the active antenna. Another benefit is that large split offsets can be compensated, the antenna will not retune between Tx and Rx.
With the clearly arranged controls of the Station Master, practically all functions can be controlled from the front panel. This makes the operation independant of a computer, provided the band limits and setup has been programmed once before.
The built-in CAT interface allows to connect nearly any radio to the computer and the log software. Already existing microHAM interfaces can be integrated with the iLink port.