Repository navigation
SatMe PC Montage
← SatMe-PC guide · October 2026
The drawing of the station as it is wired — antennas, heads, converters, rigs, SDR boards, PC — lit up live by what SatMe does; several plans of the same station; what each SatMe function holds; the receive profiles.
Where: Station workspace (key 6) › Montage.
The Montage tab draws the station: the antenna on the left, the computer on the right, reception on top, transmission below. It lights up with what SatMe does: cyan what receives, red what transmits, the flow animated along the cables, the frequencies on them (sky, IF, uplink). It is a drawing: nothing there starts a transmission, opens a port or touches the LNB supply.
The top bar: Plan (the plan shown) with ＋ Nouveau, Dupliquer, Renommer, Supprimer (new, duplicate, rename, delete), and Afficher le plan de ce qui tourne (show the plan of what is running); then Complet | Simplifié (full | simplified), the Fonction list (Toute la station, the whole station, or one function's chain), the profiles (chips, and Profils), Montage tout fait… (ready-made montage), Proposer d'après SatMe (propose from SatMe), ✎ Modifier (edit; key E; on this tab, E does only that and does not start a sound recording), ↶ / ↷, Disposition auto (auto layout). Below the drawing: −, the zoom, +, Ajuster (fit), ⤓ Exporter (Dessin SVG, Image PNG, Imprimer…), and the Légende (legend; foldable).
The Plan selector keeps several drawings of the same station (« SatMe-Node déporté », « IC-9700 satellites », « DATV par le node »…): ＋ Nouveau, Dupliquer (with the photos), Renommer, Supprimer; each one has its photos and its Undo / Redo. The old montage becomes the first plan, with nothing lost (montage.json keeps it first, so an earlier version of SatMe-PC reads it as before).
Afficher le plan de ce qui tourne (ticked by default): the plan shown is the one that best draws what is receiving or transmitting (DATV through the node → the node's plan; SSTV through the IC-9700's codec → a plan with the IC-9700). A better plan takes over only after ten seconds or so, and the plan stays half a minute after the activity ends: no flicking back and forth. A plan chosen by hand stays shown until the activity ends or until the box is ticked again. If no plan draws what is running, the detected chain is shown (for example 70 cm Yagi → IC-9700 → USB (sound) → SatMe-PC → SSTV), with Garder comme plan (keep as a plan).
- ＋ Nouveau (an empty plan, its name asked for), Dupliquer (with its photos), Renommer, Supprimer (the plan and its photos, after confirmation; the last plan stays). 20 plans at most. Choosing a plan in the list keeps it shown (« Plan montré : … », plan shown). During ✎ Modifier, the plan cannot be changed; while the detected chain is shown, it must first be kept as a plan.
- The event report of the SSTV sheet and the ARISS pack take their hardware from a plan.
- Composing: a montage tout fait, Proposer d'après SatMe, or ✎ Modifier. A click on a device opens its card: its model, its state, its ports and what is connected to them, its photo. Complet or Simplifié (what receives or transmits now). Zoom (+ − 0, Ctrl + wheel), pan with the mouse, minimap; Exporter as SVG, as PNG or as a page to print; a foldable legend of cables and states.
- The decoders fed by the rig's sound: SSTV, APRS, FT8, CW or voice fed by the rig's sound card (the IC-9700's USB codec, or its network sound) light up the rig, its antenna and the PC, even without CAT; the frequency is the CAT's, otherwise that of the followed satellite's transmitter (ISS SSTV 437.550 MHz), and it picks the band's antenna. Another sound card lights up that sound card.
- What is live: CAT and rotator, the SDR and DATV receivers, the IC-9700 over the network (its network cable lit, the delay, a lost link), the USB knob, the listeners, space weather, the QO-100 channels, recording and generator, ADS-B and AIS holding a dongle. Non-satellite functions that are unticked disappear from the drawing.
- The IC-9700 over the network in the function views: the rig's network sound is its own sound (no more advice to take the USB codec, offered only when another card is running); the rig → PC link drawn as it goes, dashed blue with its delay and « CAT + son »; with no network cable drawn, it is shown détecté (detected), fainter, with Ajouter ce câble (add this cable). « Aucune antenne » (no antenna) offers Ajouter une antenne 2 m / 70 cm (add a 2 m / 70 cm antenna: a dual-band Yagi on the rig's free sockets); the band of the rig's frequency picks the antenna socket, and a socket already in use (70 cm to the QO-100 converter) is reported. SatMe-PC stays in the simplified drawing, in its place, never over a piece.
- What is missing: each function checked from the antenna to the screen; a danger is said loudly — for example the LNB supply that would reach an SDR board through a splitter (a DC block is then proposed).
Montage tout fait…: QO-100 avec Pluto, QO-100 avec IC-9700 + convertisseurs, DATV MiniTiouner + bladeRF en émission, Satellites FM : IC-9700 + Yagi, Station QO-100 complète (GPSDO, convertisseurs), SatMe-Node déporté (remote SatMe-Node) (replaces the plan shown, after confirmation).
✎ Modifier opens the catalogue's palette, by group: antennas (dishes, Yagis, X-quad, collinear, indoor antenna, GPS antenna), heads and converters (PLL LNB, Twin LNBs including the Octagon with an external 25 MHz reference, DX Patrol MK3 / MK4 up- and down-converters with their 10 MHz input), amplifiers (DX Patrol 2.4 GHz 20 / 15 W), filters, bias-T, DC + reference injector, DC block, splitter, references (DX Patrol 10 MHz GPSDO, Leo Bodnar programmable GPSDO), 13.8 V supply, sequencer, rigs, SDR boards, MiniTiouner, SatMe-Node, sound card, USB knob, rotator, PC, phone.
- Drag a piece onto the drawing; draw a cable from one port to another (its type comes from the ports: coax, network, USB, Wi-Fi, audio, CAT, rotor, IQ, reference, power, GPS, internet); the cable's card (type, label, delete). Each piece has its options (IF output, reference, frequencies).
- Free placement or Disposition auto (several layouts tried, the one with the fewest crossings kept); Undo / Redo (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y), kept by SatMe-PC; everything can also be done from the keyboard.
- Proposer d'après SatMe: a chain drawn from SatMe's state (rig, rotator, SDR boards, DATV receiver and transmitter, converters, the QO-100 chain's oscillators) and from the system's lists (USB, sound cards) read without opening anything; each piece détectée (detected) or supposée (assumed), merged piece by piece: Ajouter les pièces cochées (add the ticked pieces), or Tout remplacer (replace all) — the confirmation warns that the current montage's pieces and cables are erased, and with them the photos added to those pieces.
- The services' boxes: Wavelog, QRZ.com, PSK Reporter, wide band chat, rigctld clients, satellite link, paired phone, SatMe-Node, « Écouter ici », with their state.
- A device's card, while editing: its name, its options, Remplacer par (replace with), Relier… (connect) a free port, 📷 Ajouter une photo (add a photo: JPEG, PNG, WebP or GIF, 8 MB at most), Retirer la photo (remove the photo), Retirer du montage (remove from the montage). A click on a cable: its Type, its Étiquette (label: « 5 m de LMR-400 »), Appliquer (apply), Retirer le câble (remove the cable). From the keyboard: arrows (Shift: large steps), Del, Esc (drops a cable being drawn).
- Photos: a device's photo is cut out (Détourer la photo, cut out the photo; background removed, Tolérance from 4 to 120, Refaire le détourage (redo the cut-out), the original kept beside it); Photo à la place du dessin (photo instead of the drawing) shows it in the diagram, the RX / TX glow following its shape — and in the chain drawing of an SSTV event report.
- The functions of SatMe (SDR receiver, DATV, SSTV, FT8, CW, APRS, voice to text, METEOR, sondes, transmissions) to the right of the computer, with the sound hardware: who holds which device (« ADALM-PLUTO → DATV réception »), who receives, who transmits, who makes or takes sound. A conflict (a function that would want a device or a sound input already taken) shows in red with its reason and the gesture that frees it.
- Fonction: the chain of a single function, from the antenna to its screen, each link running, ready, missing or busy, and what is missing. The buttons only do reception (start or stop a receiver, choose a sound source).
- Profils (Profils button): a name (SSTV par IC-9700) then Garder l'état actuel (keep the current state) keeps the receive settings of the moment under that name (« SSTV par IC-9700 ») — SDR receiver (board, mode, frequency, tracking, sound), the decoders' sound input, SSTV, FT8 / FT4, CW, APRS, voice to text, DATV receiver; never anything of transmission nor the LNB supply. Aperçu (preview) lists what will change; Appliquer does it in a safe order (stops, settings, receivers, sound card, decoders). Refused during a transmission. DATV reception is not started from here: the step is recalled.
- Schéma (diagram; a button in the QO-100 and DATV tabs): the simplified drawing of the chain at work, over the tab.