The macOS build is now signed and notarized — no more Gatekeeper warning, and automatic updates finally work on the Mac. JS8 also got a lot easier to run: it opens straight into the operating screen, starts and stops with the window, and gains an options gear with opt-in heartbeat replies and SWR auto-tune.
🍎 macOS: signed, notarized, and auto-updating
- Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. The "POTACAT can't be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software" wall is gone — double-click and it opens.
- Automatic updates now work on macOS, the same as Windows and Linux. You'll be notified of new versions in-app instead of hunting down a DMG.
- One manual install for this version. Because your current Mac build is unsigned, it can't auto-update to the first signed one — install this 1.10.3 DMG by hand once. Every release after this updates automatically.
📻 JS8 is much easier to run
- No more setup screen. Opening the JS8 window drops you straight into the operating UI — conversations, band activity, compose — instead of a "Start JS8" page.
- Open = start, close = stop, exactly like the FT8 window. Just open it and it's decoding; close it and it frees the radio. (It won't stop a JS8 session you're running from your phone.)
- New ⚙ options gear in the bottom bar (next to Hide Waterfall), with two opt-in automatic behaviors:
- Reply to heartbeats (HB ACK) — when another station's heartbeat decodes, automatically send them their signal report. Built for attended operation: it's off at every launch, turns itself off after 30 minutes without you, won't transmit into a bad match or interrupt a QSO, and acknowledges each station only once.
- Auto-tune on high SWR — if a transmission trips the SWR guard, run the antenna tuner once to re-match instead of leaving it latched (Flex with an ATU).
- JS8 is no longer in the FT8/JTCAT mode dropdown — it has its own dedicated window (More → JS8), so it's out of the FT8 popout where it didn't belong.