Skip to content

README.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
101 lines (65 loc) · 4.29 KB

README.md

File metadata and controls

101 lines (65 loc) · 4.29 KB

rigsync

Rigsync is a utility that keeps the freuency and mode of multiple radios in sync. Supported radios are all those supported by whatever version of Hamlib to which rigsync is linked.

Forked from: https://github.com/daveriesz/rigsync

Modifications made by me (GNU/Fox):

  • Option to convert special modes e.g. "PKTUSB" to normal "USB" to operate correctly with rigs that don't support "PKTUSB"

Why

I have an SDR dongle connected to the external receiver antenna output of a Kenwood TS-870S and use SDR++ on Linux to view the SDR output. Tuning SDR++ and the Kenwood separately got to be a drag, so I wrote rigsync to do it for me. Rigsync handily updates the SDR dongle via the rigctl server in SDR++ whenver the frequency or mode of the Kenwood radio is changed. I can also click a spot on the spectrum output in SDR++ to tune to a signal and the Kenwood will be updated automatically to match it.

This has also been tested with a Yaesu FT-857D that has an SDR dongle attached to an RF tap point inside the rig.

Further Development

I'd like to write an SDR++ module to handle this capability. It would be a cleaner solution than this standalone utility.

For the time being, there are undoubtedly lots of bugs I will need to address.

Additionally, there is an 8.83 MHz IF output on the Kenwood TS-870S (as well as other Kenwood radios) that works better than the external receiver antenna output for the purpose of using an SDR dongle as a panadpater. There are some problems with this:

  1. The IF output is reversed. The radio and dongle have mirror images of the spectrum.
  2. This reversal also means that LSB/USB are reversed.
  3. Changing modes between LSB and USB on the radio causes the radio's IF frequency to shift by about +/- 1.25KHz off center.

It would be nice to make a provision to handle this scenario.

Building

There are no autoconf scripts or cmakefiles. Just a plain GNU-style Makefile. You may edit it to suit your needs. Hamlib and and GCC are expected. If you use a different compiler you might need to change the -O2 optimization argument.

Running

Command-line usage can be obtained at any time with: rigsync -h. You will see the output:

Usage: ./rigsync <RIG_DEF> <RIG_DEF> [<RIG_DEF>] [OPTIONS]

Keeps defined rigs in sync according to options

OPTIONS:
  -h                 display this help
  -n <rig number>    number of the rig the others are synced to on startup (default: 1)
  -d <level>         debug output verbosity

Rig Definition:

RIG_DEF = -m <model_number> [-r <port/conn.>] [-s <baud rate>] [--ignore-digital]

RIG_DEF options:
  -m <model number>    Set the model number according to hamlib ( rigctl -l )
  -r <port/conn.>      Connection to the rig e.g. /dev/ttyUSB0 or IP:PORT (HamlibNet)
  -s <baud rate>       baud rate using serial connection
  --ignore-digital     to convert PKTLSB/PKTUSB to normal LSB/USB.
                       Helps when syncing e.g. Icom IC-7300 and QrpLabs QDX
                       (QDX is not capable of PKTUSB/PKTLSB)

Example 1:

  $ ./rigsync \
      -m 2 -r localhost:4532 \
      -m 210 -r /dev/ttyS0 -s 57600

The first -m argument defines a networked rig control server at localhost port 4532.
The second -m argument defines a Kenwood TS-870S connected to the serial port /dev/ttyS0 at 57600 baud.
On startup, rigsync will set the TS-870S's frequency and mode to match the rig control server (this is the default since there is no -n argument and the server is defined firsrt). Thereafter, it will keep both in sync.

Example 2:

  $ ./rigsync \
    -m 2 -r localhost:4532 \
    -m 210 -r /dev/ttyF1 -s 57600 \
    -m 122 -r /dev/ttyF0 -s 38400 \
    -n 2

This defines a rig control server, a Kenwood TS-870S, and a Yaesu FT-857D.
The -n 2 argument will, on startup, sync all radios to the TS-870S.

Issues

Issue? Bug? Feature request? Please submit an issue.

Contributing

Feel free to submit a pull request if you want to contribute. I'm not very good at reading other people's code, so please include a verbose description and/or explanation.

Licensing

This project and its code are all licensed under the GNU LGPL license v2.1. You all know what this means. If you don't, read the license file.