I’ve been chasing the DX on the HF bands using FT8 for a while now and I have to say it’s been very successful however, it does get rather boring after a while just exchanging SNR reports and nothing else. I noticed that my time spent in the shack was getting less and less, not a good sign after all the work I’d put into building the new radio shack.
Since there’s not a lot of CW on the bands these days (everyone is on FT8) I thought I’d give JS8CALL a go.
Initially I started with trying to get JS8CALL working on my Kubuntu PC to my Icom IC-705 wirelessly. This turned out not to be as straight forward as I’d hoped but, I persevered.
I found that to communicate with the IC-705 via WFview wirelessly I needed to use FLRig as a go between. I installed FLRig from the Ubuntu repo’s only to find it’s an old version that doesn’t have support for the IC-705. Downloading the IC-705.xml file didn’t help either so I uninstalled it and headed to the source forge website to grab the source code for the latest version of FLRig.
Once I had the right development libraries installed compiling the code was easy enough and I soon had FLRig talking to the IC-705 via WFview wirelessly from my Kubuntu PC.
My first JS8 QSO was with Jonny, SM5COI in Sweden on the 20m band, using just 2.5w I had a very reliable link from my 20m band EFHW vertical antenna to his 20m band yagi antenna.
I also worked GM0DHD/P via OH8XAT using the relay capability built into JS8CALL, it works incredibly well and allows you to work the stations that you cannot hear directly, very useful!
Later in the morning Jonny, SM5COI emailed me asking for a sked on the 40m band later in the afternoon, of course I agreed and decided that I’d also get my MacBook Pro setup with JS8CALL so I could give my Yaesu FTDX10 a spin on JS8 mode.
Installing and configuring JS8CALL on my MacBook Pro was much easier and I had it fully operational in minutes.
The sked went well on 40m and it was good to get Jonny on another band.
With 3 JS8 QSOs in the log it’s great to be using a digital mode again that allows you to have a good chat with other radio HAMs around the world. I think this may become my preferred digital mode going forward.
Since getting my Icom IC-705 I’ve had problems with computer noise causing interference when connected via USB. I solved the problem mostly by winding both the USB and coax cables around 240-31 ferrite toroids. This resolved the problem nicely on all HF bands except 10m. With further investigation I realised that the 240-31 ferrite toroid doesn’t provide much choking resistance at 28mhz and so a 240-43 would be better for the higher bands. This would mean I’d need a longer USB cable and coax to the AH-705 so that there was enough cable to wind around two ferrite toroids to cover all the HF bands.
Whilst this will almost certainly provide a complete solution to the problem there is of course another way around this issue. The IC-705 is a rare beast in that it has wifi capability built in. The wifi on the IC-705 is capable of operating in one of two different modes, Access Point (AP) and Station, a host on an existing wifi network.
Since I connected my IC-705 to my in-shack wifi I am using the radio in station mode for connectivity via wifi. By connecting it this way my MacBook Pro will also have access to the internet at the same time as connecting to the radio giving me the best of both worlds.
You can of course put the radio into AP mode and connect your computer directly to it via wifi however, you won’t have any internet access from the computer as it will be connected directly to the radio. This is how it will be used when in the field for portable operations unless you have a portable 3/4/5g wifi router.
Getting the radio connected to my shack wifi was easy, just go into the IC-705 menus, switch the WLAN on, pick the SSID of my wifi router and enter the password, the radio connects immediately. You will also need to switch on the network control option and also set up a user and password that is used when connecting to the radio from your computer. Refer to the IC-705 manual on how to do this if you haven’t done it already.
To be able to use the radio wirelessly from any Apple Mac computer you will need 2 applications, WFview and Blackhole. Both of these applications are Opensource Software, I’m a huge fan of Opensource Software and have over the years been involved in a number of opensource projects.
I’m fully aware that there is an application called SDR Control available on the Apple App Store for around £90.00 that can be used instead to connect to the IC-705 wirelessly however, I prefer to use Opensource software where possible.
Before proceeding with the instructions below make sure you have an up to date backup of your system. This installation and configuration shouldn’t cause any issues at all, it worked fine on my MacBook Pro but, it’s always best to backup before you install more complex software like this.
First you need to download WFView from the Download page, make sure to download the MacOS Universal package which was v1.1 at the time writing this article. Do **not** install WFView yet, the sequence of installation is important!
WFView Download page showing the MacOS (Universal) Package v1.1
Next download the Blackhole Virtual Audio Cable application from the download page. You will need to enter an email address and your name to be able to download the application. It’s not clear how much email/spam will be sent to you but, you will need to get at least one email to obtain the download link with the authorisation code in it.
Once you’ve entered the information and submitted it you will get an email with a URL enclosed, click the URL and goto the download page. On the page there are 3 options available for download, select the “Blackhole 2 Ch” option only. At the time of writing this v0.2.10 was the current version available.
Blackhole Download page showing the 3 options available
Once downloaded you need to install the Blackhole application first as it will create the necessary virtual audio cable for WFView to use to provide sound to WSJT-X and other digital mode applications. Installation is simple and follows the normal MacOS installation process. Double click the installation package and follow the prompts accordingly.
Once installed reboot your Apple computer to make sure it starts up OK with the new kernel module installed. When your system comes back up, login and open the “Audio Midi Setup” application. (The Midi app is in Applications >> Utilities)
Once the application opens you should see that you have a new audio device called “Blackhole 2ch”. On both the Input and Output tabs set the format to 48,000Hz. This setting will get the best results when using applications like WSJT-X for FT4/8 digital modes.
Apple Audio Midi Setup showing 48,000Hz selected
Leave everything else as default setting in the Audio Midi App, nothing else needs changing. Leave the Master volume at the default max as levels are controlled from the other apps.
Once you’ve set the 48,000Hz on the two tabs quit the audio midi app as it’s no longer required.
Next you need to copy the WFView app that you downloaded into the Applications folder on your Mac. Once in the applications folder you can create a shortcut to it on the dock by dragging and dropping the app icon onto your dock bar.
Next goto your IC-705 and go into the WLAN settings and make a note of the IP Address assigned to the radio from your wifi router. You will need this IP Address later.
At this point you are half way to having wireless control of your IC-705.
Start the WFView application and goto the settings tab.
The following settings need to be made:
1: Set Data Mod Input to LAN
2: Click the Connect Over LAN radio button.
3:Enter the IP Address from your IC-705 into the Radio IP Address field.
4: Make sure Radio Control Port is set to 50001
5: Enter the Username you configured on your IC-705 into the Username field
6: Enter the Password you configured on your IC-705 into the Password Field
7: Set Sample Rate to 48000
8:Set Audio Output and Input fields to BlackHole 2ch
9: Select the first option available in the Virtual Serial Port field. This should be as shown below:
Leave all other settings as default and click Save Settings and then Exit Program.
You must exit the application in order to restart it with all the new settings.
WFView Settings tab showing all the necessary settings whilst connected to the radio
Start the WFView application again and goto the Settings tab. Click on the Connect Button.
Once it has connected to the radio you will see the RX Latency details etc on the bottom right of the window. Click on the View tab and you should now have an active waterfall.
At this point you have full control of your IC-705 wirelessly. Have a play with the application and get familiar with it.
Fully operational WFView connected to my IC-705 receiving FT8 on 10m
Once I had WFView operational I set about getting WSJT-X connected to the radio wirelessly. This is actually really simple to do and just needs a couple of changes to the settings to make it work.
Start up the WSJT-X application and goto the Radio Settings tab. On this page you need to set the radio to IC-705, serial port to that shown below (Also shown in point 9 in the WFView section above) and Baud Rate to 38400.
Next select the WSJT-X Audio Settings tab and set the soundcard Input/Output fields to Blackhole 2ch. Set both Input and Output to Mono as shown below.
WSJT-X Audio settings
Click OK and return to the WSJT-X main screen. You should now be fully operational for WSJT-X digital modes.
WSJT-X transmitting through WFView to the IC-705
Once I’d made a few contacts with WSJT-X in FT8 mode I went on to try and get FLDigi working with WFView as well.
Unfortunately at the moment I cannot get CAT control working in either FLDigi or FLRig, neither will accept the /dev/ttys000 as the serial device however, I was able to get the audio working into FLDigi and even decoded some morse with it. I need to do little more work to fathom out why the CAT control doesn’t work in these two applications. I’m sure there is a way to resolve this but, I just need to put in a little more time to find the solution.
FLDigi decoding Morse code via WFView
UPDATE: There was some concern in one of the IC-705 Facebook groups that Blackhole wouldn’t work after a MacOS update. I’ve just upgraded my Macbook Pro to MacOS 11.6.6 and BlackHole is still fully functional afterwards. The MacOS update has no effect on the BlackHole service whatsoever. So you can rest easy!
My IC-705 and AH-705 arrived today from ML&S, I wasted no time getting it hooked up to an antenna and started working my way through the manual getting to know the menu system.
After a few hours tinkering I piped up on 20m SSB and worked a couple of stations with ease using 10w. No problems getting through and to my surprise got a 5/9 report from both stations.
Later in the evening I decided to give it a go on 20m FT8 using just 5w O/P using the battery on the back of the radio that was now fully charged. It’s interesting to note that I didn’t need any drivers on my MacBook Pro to use the CAT and Audio via USB on the IC-705. It was simply plug and go. Much easier than it was with the FTDX10.
There was a fair amount of DX about on 20m including a few stations from Australia and Japan. I never managed to get a response back from either but, PSKReporter was showing that I was heard!
PSKReporter showing M0AWS being heard by BG7BDB
I also noticed that a station in China was hearing me too. BG7BDB in LinXiang City reported hearing me at -17dB. I quickly hunted around the waterfall and found him and gave a call.
To my amazement he came straight back to me and we exchanged SNR reports, 73 and he was in the log.
WSJT-X FT8 contact with BG7BDB
Looking at my WSJT-X log the distance to BG7BDB is 5467 Miles, at 5w O/P that equates to 0.91mW/Mile!
FT8 really is an impressive mode, it allows QRP stations to work the DX that just wouldn’t be possible on SSB. I have to say I’m really impressed with the Icom IC-705. The receiver and filtering isn’t as good as my Yaesu FTDX10 but, it’s an impressive little package. Portable operations with this radio is going to be a lot of fun!
searchwsjtxlog v0.4 showing search for partial callsign
Being a UNIX/Linux command line guy I’m not a fan of a lot of these GUI based logging programs that are full of functionality I’ll never use. I currently have RumLogNG for the MacBook Pro but, I really don’t like it. It does many things I don’t need and not the things I really need when on air.
So I decided to write a bunch of command line based programs that do exactly what I want with minimal fuss. The first of these programs was adi2html, a simple program that converts the WSJT-X ADI log file into HTML so I can easily put it on my website.
I’ve now written a new program using the same BASH shell technique to allow me to search the WSJT-X log file quickly and easily whilst on air.
searchwsjtxlog is a simple little shell script that searches for either a full or partial callsign and presents the results instantly. I use this script a lot when working FT4/8 as I can see if I’ve worked a station before and on what bands easily and quickly.
The script works on Linux and MacOS Big Sur (Not got Monterey to test but, should work fine). If you find a bug please let me know and I’ll fix it as soon as possible.
Note: Since MacOS uses such an old version of the BASH it cannot handle spaces in the path to the wsjtx_log.adi file. On MacOS you’ll need to create a softlink to the file and then put the path to the soft link into the script for it to work properly. CD into the directory where you have saved the searchwsjtxlog.sh file and then run the following command:
I’ve started using RUMLogng for logging on my MacBook Pro as it seems to be the most common logbook to use on the Apple Mac platform. I must admit that I’m not sure if I’ll carry on using it going forward as I’m not overly enamoured by it but, for the time being it’s all I have.
To get my logs on the blog I’ve written a small BASH shell script that reads the exported ADIF file from RUMLogng and creates a log in HTML format for each different mode.
You can see the output of the BASH script by selecting a log from the Logs menu at the top of this page.
If you want to be able to add your log to your own website then I’ve made the script available for download below.
Currently I’ve only tested the script with the few different modes that I have log entries for but, it should work for all modes. If you find any issues please contact me with all the details and I’ll look into resolving any problems.
As always, if you use my code to generate webpages on your website please consider leaving the footer in place so I get some credit, thanks!
One of the things I’ve had issues with ever since purchasing the Yaesu FTDX10 transceiver is control of the audio chain via the USB connection on the rear of the radio.
The output from the radio into my Macbook Pro is just too high, WSJT-X is constantly pushed beyond the green zone and often into the red zone when monitoring FT8 signals with the AGC off. The only way to cure this is to keep the AGC on Auto which sometimes results in not hearing the very weak DX stations due to the AGC not reacting fast enough. Putting the AGC on fast causes the red line to be hit far too often once more.
Sadly, the USB Audio Codec doesn’t provide any volume adjustment on audio coming from the radio into the MacBook Pro thus, it’s just full volume all the way. This is a flaw in the codec design and really does need to be resolved long term.
Looking at the audio going the other way, that is from the MacBook Pro into the radio via the USB port fortunately there are gain controls available both on the MacBook Pro and on the radio itself.
Ever since venturing into the world of WSJT-X & FT8/4 I’ve had an issue with only being able to move the PWR slider in the WSJT-X up to the first marker at the bottom of the screen, anymore and the ALC on the radio goes off the scale instantly!
So yesterday I decided to investigate the audio chain into the radio more thoroughly and see what could be done about the levels.
Looking at the radio manual I found that there is an RPORT GAIN setting in the menu system that can be used to alter the amount of gain applied to the incoming audio signal on the USB port in the radio.
FTDX10 Rport Gain entry in the manual
As detailed in the manual, the default setting for this is 50 in a range of 0 to 100. So that’s a 50% increase in gain applied to the incoming audio at the radio end, that’s quite a boost! (The gain is applied both in SSB and Data Modes)
I decided to experiment reducing this figure to see if it gave me greater control over the audio output from WSJT-X via the PWR control. This did indeed help however, there was still too much audio coming into the radio from the MacBook Pro and so I needed to look further along the audio chain.
Moving back onto the MacBook I opened the Midi App and took at look at the Output controls for the USB Audio Codec, sure enough this was set to max for both channels, not good.
Reducing the levels in the midi app started to make much more of a difference, I could now raise the audio level using the PWR control in WSJT-X without things immediately going wild and could now control the levels with a far greater level of granularity than ever before.
After much tinkering I eventually found the levels whereby I could drive the rig to the selected output power (20w) without the ALC going off the scale and the signal becoming horribly distorted, there was calm in my audio chain once more.
So what settings did I settle on?
On the radio itself I wound down the RPORT GAIN setting from 50 to 20, this reduced the amount of gain applied to the audio coming in on the USB port considerably and helped to tidy up the FT8 signal.
FTDX10 RPORT GAIN Setting reduced from 50 to 20
It’s great that there is the facility on the radio to reduce the gain on the inbound audio signal, if only Yaesu would do the same for the outbound audio level.
Next, on my MacBook Pro via the Midi app I reduced the output level on the USB Audio Codec from the default maximum down to 0.494 (-19). This stops the audio level from being too high going into the radio and removes all distortion from the resulting signal.
Midi App on Macbook Pro showing reduced audio output
Once these small changes have been made it becomes necessary to raise the PWR level in the WSJT-X app to roughly the centre position. At this point the radio gets a clean, distortion free audio input whilst driving the radio to the full 20w output with no movement on the ALC whatsoever.
I found I could move anywhere on the frequency spectrum on FT8 without any of the levels changing and with the ALC not moving whilst the radio delivered the full 20w output.
I also checked FT4 mode as it is an MFSK mode to see if these settings worked for it too and I’m glad to say it worked perfectly! (I also found I really liked FT4!)
WSJT-X with the PWR setting at roughly 50%
Altering the PWR level in WSJT-X doesn’t have the huge effect it had before and now it’s very easy to adjust the level without the ALC going off the scale in an instant.
It took me about an hour or so to get this just right but, it was well worth the time invested.
I hope this is of use to other Apple Mac computer users in the HAM community.
More soon …
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