I’ve decided to make a few changes to my setup in regards to controlling my HF transceiver. I’m using the FT-991, which is a great shack-in-the-box radio, I highly recommend it to anyone looking to shrink their shack, get on the air, and just for the fun of ham radio. I often operate my radio remotely by using VNC over SSH. This is really handy because I can operate my radio while sitting on the couch, keeping an eye on my kids, out in the yard, or abroad.
That said, in the past, I was allowing each program to control the radio directly. By that I mean I would launch JS8Call, which would have all of my FT-991 settings plugged in, allowing it to directly control the radio. Then I’d decide to do some HF Winlink, close JS8Call, use Rigcntrl to directly control my radio, and then I’d do some SSTV, and let QSSTV control the radio, etc., etc. This worked – most of the time. Occasionally, when switching between programs, you could get a little hiccup that would either not allow CAT control, or prevent me from connecting, etc. When operating remotely, this could require logging out and back in, or in some cases, either a computer reboot or a radio reboot. The latter of which would have to be done in person.
That’s why I’ve decided to make a change in how I control the radio. I’ve found that if I instead start FLRIG, which is set up to control the radio, and set all of my other programs to use FLRIG as the medium of radio control, things have been a lot smoother. Since switching to this setup, I have not had an issue when switching between programs, or actually, any issue that required me to log out, reboot the computer, or restart the radio. It has worked flawlessly.
There are some added benefits to using FLRIG as well, such as I now can watch the ALC meter when I transmit, or see if my voltage is dropping to much when keyed. Not to mention fine controls to set the transmit power and modes as well as view the s-meter for ambient noise. That’s pretty handy!
Linux – keep it simple.