Version 0.2.2: your own transceiver, transmitting and FT8 contacts

Connect your own transceiver or receiver over USB: frequency and mode travel both ways, the audio comes from the radio, you can transmit from the program and run FT8 and FT4 contacts with an automatic sequence and a logbook entry. Tested on emulations of 29 Icom, Kenwood, Elecraft and Yaesu models.

Until now ShackDeck listened to the air through public receivers only. From version 0.2.2 your own radio stands next to them. The Radio tab gains a switch, Online SDR | My device: the same waterfall, bookmarks, station catalogue and decoders, only the signal comes from your desk.

Connecting. Settings → My device. A modern USB transceiver (Icom IC-7300, IC-705, Yaesu FT-991A, FTDX10, Kenwood TS-590 and the like) needs one cable, which carries both the control (CAT) and the audio. Pick the port and the "USB Audio CODEC" sound input, press Find my radio: the protocol, the speed and the address are worked out by the program. An older rig comes through a CAT adapter and a sound box, the same three fields. Icom CI-V, Kenwood and Elecraft, the newer and the older Yaesu protocols are spoken, as well as Hamlib rigctld and CAT over the network.

Both ways. Turn the knob or switch the mode on the radio and the program follows. Press a band or a mode in the program and the radio switches. For the digital modes the program turns the data mode on by itself.

Transmitting. PTT by a CAT command, by the RTS/DTR line or through VOX, the audio into the radio through its codec, a level in Settings, a watchdog that unkeys after five minutes. The program tells a receiver from a transceiver and never offers to transmit from a receiver.

FT8 and FT4 contacts. An exchange panel beside the decode list: the station, the six standard messages, CQ, the period, the tone. A double-click on a line calls the station, and the program runs the exchange by itself: grid, report, R-report, RR73, 73, and writes the contact into the logbook with both reports.

Honest about the testing. All of this ran on emulations of 29 radios, including two whole FT8 contacts "with a partner", but the developer has no real transceiver at hand yet. If something goes wrong with your radio, write: the developer's page on QRZ.com. Transmit only with a licence and your own callsign.