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FM Squelch Control, Synced CW Speed, and Rig-Control Fixes

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@github-actions github-actions released this 23 Jul 22:07
v1.9.19
6e50819

This release adds an adjustable FM squelch control, makes the CW speed you set in ECHOCAT actually take effect, revives the ATU / NB / custom-CAT buttons in the VFO pop-out window, and closes two ways a CW key line could stick the radio in transmit.

FM squelch control

POTACAT can now set your radio's FM squelch — the threshold that mutes background hiss until an incoming signal is strong enough to break through. This is the radio's own hardware squelch (labeled SQL), separate from the digital-mode noise squelch used by FT8, PSK31, and FreeDV.

  • Works on every CAT-controlled radio: Yaesu, Kenwood, Icom, Hamlib-backed rigs, and FlexRadio. Each backend sends the correct command for its own protocol, so the level maps properly whether your radio speaks Kenwood/Yaesu SQ, Icom CI-V, a Hamlib squelch level, or Flex slice squelch.
  • On the desktop, a squelch slider appears in the rig-control popover. It shows only when you are in FM (on any band — 10m, 6m, 2m, 70cm) or while squelch is already engaged, so it stays out of the way the rest of the time.
  • The ECHOCAT web client gets the same FM-gated squelch slider, and your current squelch level is reflected in the status shown to connected devices.
  • The level persists across restarts.

Note: the squelch slider in the iOS ECHOCAT app is a mobile-side addition still to come; the desktop and the web client have it in this release.

CW speed set from ECHOCAT now takes effect

Changing the CW words-per-minute in ECHOCAT previously did nothing — the radio kept keying at the speed set on the desktop. The phone's change was applied to the keyer for a moment and then overwritten by the desktop's stored value the next time the keyer was configured, so the sending speed never actually moved. This was reported by N7BBQ.

CW speed is now a single shared value that any surface can change, and it stays consistent everywhere:

  • Set the WPM on the phone and it becomes the real sending speed — for macros, typed text, and the iambic paddle — and it is saved.
  • The desktop's CW-speed display updates to match, and so does the VFO pop-out.
  • Change the speed on the desktop instead, and the phone's CW bar updates in return. Whoever changes it last wins, and the surfaces stay in step without fighting each other.
  • A macro sent from the phone now carries its speed inline, so it keys at the intended WPM even on the very first send.

VFO pop-out: ATU, NB, and custom CAT buttons work again

In the VFO pop-out window, the ATU (antenna tuner), NB (noise blanker), and any custom CAT-command buttons did nothing when clicked. They were sending their commands to the main app on a channel it had stopped listening on, so every click was silently dropped. Those buttons now reach the radio correctly.

While fixing this, a few related rough edges were cleaned up:

  • The ATU button is now a momentary Tune that starts a tuner cycle on every press, matching the ATU button in the main rig-control popover. It previously behaved like an on/off toggle, which is not how an antenna tuner works.
  • The ATU button reads "ATU" in both the pop-out and the main popover, so the two match.
  • The noise-blanker button now actually engages — it had been sending its on/off state under the wrong field name, so the radio never saw it.

CW key line no longer sticks the radio in transmit

On rigs that key CW through a separate USB-serial adapter — for example an FT-891 with a dedicated key port — the radio could occasionally get latched into transmit with no output, clearing only when the cable was physically unplugged. This was reported by N7BBQ. Because that key adapter is a different device from the CAT and PTT connection, none of POTACAT's existing transmit-safety logic ever released it.

Two gaps are now closed:

  • When the radio's CAT link drops, POTACAT now also forces the CW key line low, instead of only releasing the CAT port and voice PTT. A send caught mid-keying by a serial glitch no longer leaves the line latched high.
  • A stuck-key watchdog now watches each keyed message. If the final key-up ever fails to reach the adapter, the watchdog forces the key line low shortly after the message should have finished, and logs it so the event is visible.

The transmit-abort case — the Stop button and cancels — was already covered in v1.9.18; this closes the remaining link-loss and failed-final-key-up cases it did not reach. One hardware limit remains: if the adapter itself is unplugged during a transmission, software can no longer reach it to release the line.

Windows, macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon), and Linux (x64 + arm64) installers are attached below; the app auto-updates from here.

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