Version 0.3.0: the online band, transmitting RTTY, PSK31, SSTV and MSK144

ShackDeck users now hear each other over the internet: a third signal source, "Online band", with real modulation, noise and fading, where you can make an FT8, FT4, MSK144, RTTY or PSK31 contact or exchange SSTV pictures without a radio. From your own transceiver the program now also transmits RTTY, PSK31, SSTV and MSK144: a keyboard panel with ready macros and a picture panel.

The online band. In the Radio tab the signal-source switch has a third position: "Online SDR | My device | Online band". It is a band made of the internet: the program sends the site the same audio that would have gone into a transceiver, the site mixes everyone on one frequency and gives each program its band. A station 500 Hz up is heard 500 Hz up, as on the air; a distant station is weaker than a near one, signals fade, there is band noise over it all. The waterfall, the modes, the decoders and the exchange panels work as with a transceiver; the station strip shows who is on the band right now, a click tunes to them.

What it is for: a contact with a friend in another city when there is no antenna; practising FT8 or RTTY before going on the real air; trying the program before buying a transceiver. It is neither radio nor a communication service: ShackDeck users only, internet only, nothing encrypted, nobody puts the signal on the air. Listeners without a callsign only listen. Contacts made this way go into the log with ADIF PROP_MODE=INTERNET and a ⌁ mark in the list, apart from the on-air ones.

Transmitting from your own transceiver: new modes. FT8 and FT4 are joined by RTTY, PSK31, SSTV and MSK144. For RTTY and PSK31 a transmit panel sits beside the decoded text: the other station's callsign, RST, name and QTH, eight ready macros (CQ, answer, report, confirmation, 73, QRZ, RY, a short exchange) with the variables {MYCALL}, {CALL}, {RST}, {NAME}, {QTH}, {MYGRID} filled in at send time; your own text goes out on Enter. The macros can be edited. For SSTV a picture panel: a file or colour bars with the callsign, the callsign signed on top, Martin 1/2, Scottie 1/2 and Robot 36. MSK144 (meteor scatter on 2 m) runs through the same exchange panel as FT8, in 15-second periods.

Checked between two copies of the program: through an audio bridge with emulated transceivers and through the online band. FT8 and MSK144 contacts run from CQ to 73 and land in both logbooks, the RTTY and PSK31 macro exchange is received on both sides, the SSTV picture arrives whole. The developer still has no real transceiver at hand: if something goes wrong with yours, write to the developer's page on QRZ.com.