CAT Control

CAT Control

OpsLog has eight CAT backends (Settings → CAT). Each auto-reconnects and connects non-blocking, so a powered-off radio never freezes the app. Backends are named by how the radio is reached:

Backend	Use it for
OmniRig	Any OmniRig-supported rig (Rig 1 / Rig 2, hot-swap).
FlexRadio (API)	FlexRadio 6000/8000 over the TCP API. → FlexRadio
Yaesu (USB)	FTDX10 / FTDX101 family, direct serial — no OmniRig. → Yaesu
Kenwood (USB, network)	TS-590 / TS-890 / TS-990 / TS-2000 (Elecraft K3/K4 speak the same dialect), serial or a host:port serial bridge. → Kenwood and Xiegu
Xiegu (USB)	G90 / X6100 / X6200 / X5105 — CI-V with their reduced command set. → Kenwood and Xiegu
Icom (CI-V USB)	Any Icom over USB. → Icom
Icom (CI-V network)	An Icom's built-in LAN/internet server, replacing RS-BA1. → Remote Icom over the Internet
TCI	SunSDR / ExpertSDR2 and any TCI (WebSocket) server.

Once connected, frequency / band / mode follow the radio, clicking a cluster spot tunes the rig, and (for Flex) cluster spots can be pushed to the panadapter.

More than one radio

Settings → CAT holds a separate configuration per radio, and everything in the panel below the selector belongs to the radio selected there. Switch between them from the CAT button in the status bar: the logbook, the callsign and the rest of the station stay exactly as they are — only the radio changes.

Each radio can carry its own MY_RIG, written onto every QSO made with it. That is a different question from the per-band station in Operating conditions: that one says what you planned to use, this one says which radio is keying. Leaving it empty keeps the old behaviour.

If the master CAT enabled box is unticked, nothing below it connects — the radio, the address and a detector that found the rig by name can all be right and it still will not come up. OpsLog says so at the top of the panel.

Sharing the rig with WSJT-X / JTDX / MSHV (rigctld)

A native backend holds the radio's serial port exclusively — so OpsLog can serve its rig connection to other programs instead: Settings → CAT → Share CAT. In WSJT-X / JTDX / MSHV / Log4OM pick rig model Hamlib NET rigctl at 127.0.0.1:4532. Works with every backend and both Hamlib command dialects.

OpsLog can also serve TCI on 127.0.0.1:40001 for programs that speak it. One warning: if your own CAT backend is TCI, ExpertSDR is probably already listening on 40001 on that PC — give the server another port, or share over Hamlib instead. OpsLog flags the clash.

Never point two programs at the same COM port. If another logger or WSJT-X opens the rig's port directly while OpsLog holds it, you get "port busy" errors, garbled CI-V frames and erratic rig behaviour. One master — OpsLog — and everyone else through the shared rigctl port.

Transmitting from the keyboard

A PTT key can be assigned: while OpsLog has the focus, that key keys the transmitter — held down by default (release to stop), or latched if you choose toggle mode. It uses the Audio → PTT method (CAT / RTS / DTR) and falls back to CAT keying.

Pick a key you never type while logging — Pause, ScrollLock, or a footswitch mapped to one. OpsLog swallows the key, so it never lands in a field.

The band plan, and the mode following the frequency

Settings → Band plan holds the table that decides which mode a frequency belongs to: the shading on the band maps, the mode shown for a cluster spot, and the mode the radio is switched to when you click one. Correct it for your country or your licence class.

A band is a list of boundaries: each row carries a mode and the frequency it starts at, and runs until the next row starts. So the "to" column is normally the next row's "from", shown because that is how a band plan is read — move one edge and you move exactly one edge, and a row cannot shadow another.

The last row is the exception: its end is the band's upper edge, a real number with no next row to come from, so it is a field you can type in — here or in the Band edges box, which writes the same value.

Mode follows the frequency

This is off unless you switch it on. With it on, tuning into a segment switches the mode — in OpsLog and on the radio. A segment that names a mode is followed (arriving on an SSTV segment switches to SSTV, even from another data mode); the family labels DATA and SSB leave your own choice alone, so RTTY in a DATA segment and AM in a phone segment are untouched.

The same switch also covers the digital calling frequencies — 14.074 FT8, 14.080 FT4 and the rest.

A mode you choose by hand wins. Pick FT8 in an SSB segment and the plan stops having an opinion until the VFO reaches a stretch that says something else — so the mode stays, and the per-band TX power follows the mode you are actually in rather than the segment you are sitting in.

Why it is off by default. The plan has a view on the WHOLE band, not only on the calling frequencies, so switching it on changes what the dial does: a segment the plan calls DATA puts the radio into DATA, and below 7.100 that is the whole segment. It is also the wrong thing during a contest, which spreads well outside its segments. The switch is the first thing in the Band plan panel.

Digital modes as USB

Some rigs' CAT layer resolves "digital" to RTTY/FSK, which is not where FT8 lives. Send digital modes as USB puts the transceiver in USB instead of asking for the mode by name. The QSO is still logged as FT8 (or FT4, PSK…) — only the radio is told USB.

OmniRig

Pick Rig 1 or Rig 2 (the two OmniRig slots). Configure the actual COM port / baud in OmniRig's own settings.

• VFO to read — some OmniRig rig files declare the wrong active VFO (an IC-7610 file declared VFO B). If the frequency looks frozen or follows the wrong VFO, force A or B here.
• CW is CW-R — OmniRig has two CW modes, and nothing says which one a rig file calls plain CW: some Icom files map PM_CW_U to CW, others to CW-R. Tick this and OpsLog asks for the other one. It applies at once; the radio does not have to reconnect.
• CAT delay — raise it above 0 if your rig drops commands sent back-to-back (some older Kenwood and Yaesu do).
• Default digital mode — OmniRig only ever reports a generic DIG. This is the specific mode OpsLog will show, and log, when it sees one.
• OpsLog and OmniRig must run at the same privilege level — one elevated ("as administrator") and not the other cannot see each other; OpsLog detects and names this case.

Icom CI-V (USB)

• Rig model — pick your model from the dropdown; it sets the correct CI-V address automatically (or choose Other and type the hex address).
• COM port + baud must match the radio (set CI-V USB Echo Back OFF on the rig).
• The model choice also tailors the console (e.g. attenuator steps: 20 dB on an IC-7300, 6/12/18 dB on an IC-7610/7800).

Full console details: Icom.

TCI

Enter the TCI host + port (default 40001). Gives freq / mode / PTT / split and, optionally, panorama spots.

The SunSDR console tab (and Main-view pane) carries the transmit and receive chain:

• Drive, tune drive, mic gain, and MONITOR with its level in the radio's own dB (-60 is silence, 0 is full).
• Volume, squelch in dBm, AGC with its threshold in dB, and the filter edges.
• NB with its threshold and pulse duration, NR, ANF, NF (the notch module), ANC (adaptive noise cancellation, which lifts a voice out of the noise), BIN (pseudo-stereo), and in CW APF and DSE — the last places each signal between your ears by pitch, so several stations inside one filter can be told apart.
• RX MUTE silences this receiver alone; MUTE silences the whole output.
• In a digital mode, the DIGL/DIGU carrier offsets (0-4000 Hz). These decide where the passband sits, which is why a station can be tuned to the right frequency and decode nothing.

Everything here is state the radio pushes unasked, so unlike a serial console it costs nothing to leave open.

Serial lines (DTR / RTS)

Windows raises the DTR and RTS lines when a serial port opens, and some interfaces read one of them as PTT — the radio goes into transmit the moment OpsLog connects. Others need the lines high to work at all. So:

• Xiegu always lowers both on connect (a G90 behind a DE-19 keyed on open), and has a setting for which line keys the rig.
• Yaesu and Kenwood have an option (off by default) to lower both lines on connect — turn it on only if your interface transmits as soon as OpsLog opens the port.
• Icom CI-V has always dropped them.

Protocol trace

Settings → CAT can log the raw protocol (every CI-V frame, or every Kenwood command, as hex/text) to the diagnostic log — invaluable when reporting a radio that answers oddly. The checkbox shows whether the trace is really running.

Notes

• The digital sub-mode (FT4 vs FT8) is inferred from the frequency.
• A radio reporting LSB or USB selects SSB in the entry form.
• Per-band Flex RX/TX antennas can be configured and are applied automatically on band change (Settings → CAT → FlexRadio).
• Split, RIT/XIT and other rig-specific features are exposed on each backend's control tab where supported.