Loop antennas for ham radios use heavy duty variable capacitors for tuning. Since such capacitors need to be physically turned for adjustment, radio enthusiast Jose B.O. made his own remote rig using an Arduino Uno and CNC shield.

The CNC setup allows stepper motors to rotate through a range of angles for frequency selection, and three antennas can be controlled via separate Pololu A4988 driver modules. An optical encoder is used for control, along with buttons for preset frequencies, and a 16×2 I2C LCD display provides visual feedback. Microswitches are implemented to set the upper and lower bounds for the stepper motors.

More info is available in the project’s write-up and the videos below show the system in action.