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Native Radio Console

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Kevin edited this page Oct 23, 2026 · 2 revisions

Native Radio Console

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In Native mode, the IC-9700 console is part of Home. It provides radio control, receive audio, microphone audio, spectrum, waterfall, and meters over the radio's LAN interface.

Connect and disconnect

The Radio icon in the top bar owns the native session. Its status shows Disconnected, Connecting, Connected, or a connection error. There is no separate Radio page or Radio item in the sidebar.

Select the top-bar Radio icon to start the native session. Pi-Sat remains disconnected after startup and configuration changes until an operator connects it. Select the same control again to disconnect.

The browser prepares receive and microphone audio as part of the Connect action. Audio continues while navigating between Pi-Sat pages. Disconnect closes the radio session and releases browser audio and microphone resources.

A lost state connection disables radio writes while keeping Disconnect available. Connection retries show the failed stage, attempt number, and retry delay. If radio state becomes stale, the console marks the affected readback as stale instead of presenting it as live data.

MAIN, SUB, and VFO control

The console shows MAIN/TX and SUB/RX separately. Click a frequency readout to enter Hz, use the adjacent step buttons, or select the page's current VFO, mode, and filter preset. AF gain, RF gain, squelch, Dualwatch, and SUB RIT use radio readback. A/B is independent on each physical side, and an unknown A/B state remains unknown until selected.

Listening selection is independent of the radio's operating selection:

  • MAIN plays the left PCM channel and follows MAIN with the scope.
  • SUB plays the right PCM channel and follows SUB with the scope.
  • Both preserves stereo audio and follows SUB with the scope.

The LISTEN controls sit above the RF spectrum. SUB and Both require stereo receive audio. Dualwatch controls whether the SUB receiver is active. The local monitor-volume slider changes browser playback only.

Frequency entry, tuning buttons, keyboard input, passband dragging, the mouse wheel, and double-clicking the spectrum use the selected tuning step. A double-click tunes the listening path straight to the clicked position, so a signal can be selected from the display instead of nudged into place. Lock blocks those tuning actions. Disconnect, stale scope data, pointer cancellation, or a listening-side change cancels a pending drag or wheel update.

M <-> S exchanges the MAIN and SUB bands. Reset Offset resets tracking offsets. Tuning Tone can transmit a steady 600 Hz tone when MAIN is in USB or LSB mode; select it again to stop.

Spectrum and waterfall

The spectrum starts with the radio session and follows the listening side. Displayed span can be set from 5 kHz to 1 MHz. Display fill, grid, max hold, Smooth, tuning step, lock state, and per-side display levels are browser or display controls and do not change radio gain or scope amplitude.

The waterfall scrolls once for each complete radio sweep. The amplitude scale is relative and is not calibrated in dBm.

The shaded passband uses the active frequency, mode, and available filter-width readback. FM and DV use fixed widths; SSB, CW, and AM use the radio's adjustable filter width. SUB RIT shifts the shading. The display does not model Twin PBT, CW pitch, or the complete DSP filter shape.

Advanced Settings also contains the receive audio transport choice. WebRTC uses a browser jitter buffer. PCM exposes the plain receive path used by an external decoder. The selection is stored by the browser. The Native Modules menu also provides integrated SSTV, APRS, FT4 / FT8, and External DATA Decode pages.

Meters

Select either meter to cycle through S, Power, SWR, and Compression. Transmit views are labelled MAIN TX and wait for PTT state. Values use approximate interpolation between Icom's documented meter points and should not be treated as laboratory measurements.

Microphone and PTT

Microphone capture requires HTTPS or localhost and browser permission. Choose a system/default or named browser input under Advanced Settings, then set browser gain as needed. Capture starts with the top-bar Radio connect action. The level indicator shows captured audio; it does not measure RF output.

Capture does not key PTT. Select PTT to transmit and RELEASE PTT to stop. The IC-9700's DATA OFF MOD, DATA MOD, and LAN modulation level determine which source reaches the transmitter. The MIC and LAN buttons select the corresponding radio input; input changes are unavailable while transmitting.

Receive and microphone audio use separate connections. If microphone audio is lost while Pi-Sat holds PTT, Pi-Sat commands a release. Disconnect, connection loss, and shutdown also attempt to release PTT. A tx_unconfirmed warning means the radio may still be transmitting and must be checked directly.

When tx_unconfirmed appears, check the radio itself. The console instructs the operator to disconnect and reconnect after the transmitter has been made safe.

Limitations

  • Split operation is disabled; alternate-VFO transmit frequency is not exposed.
  • SAT mode is not enabled by the native console. You don't need it, Pi-Sat handles this functionality for you.
  • Front-panel A/B changes are not discovered automatically. Manual MAIN/SUB changes are reconciled during radio readback.
  • CI-V cannot lock out simultaneous front-panel operation during a transaction.
  • full_duplex and scope_enabled configuration keys are accepted but are not independent console controls. Both audio requires stereo RX and Dualwatch; the scope follows listening.
  • Browser-controlled PTT is not intended for unattended transmission. There is no separate hardware watchdog.

Radio references

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