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rigsync

Rigsync is a utility that keeps the freuency and mode of multiple radios in sync. Supported radios are all those supported by whatever version of Hamlib to which rigsync is linked.

Why

I have an SDR dongle connected to the external receiver antenna output of a Kenwood TS-870S and use SDR++ on Linux to view the SDR output. Tuning SDR++ and the Kenwood separately got to be a drag, so I wrote rigsync to do it for me. Rigsync handily updates the SDR dongle via the rigctl server in SDR++ whenver the frequency or mode of the Kenwood radio is changed. I can also click a spot on the spectrum output in SDR++ to tune to a signal and the Kenwood will be updated automatically to match it.

This has also been tested with a Yaesu FT-857D that has an SDR dongle attached to an RF tap point inside the rig.

Further Development

I'd like to write an SDR++ module to handle this capability. It would be a cleaner solution than this standalone utility.

For the time being, there are undoubtedly lots of bugs I will need to address.

Additionally, there is an 8.83 MHz IF output on the Kenwood TS-870S (as well as other Kenwood radios) that works better than the external receiver antenna output for the purpose of using an SDR dongle as a panadpater. There are some problems with this:

  1. The IF output is reversed. The radio and dongle have mirror images of the spectrum.
  2. This reversal also means that LSB/USB are reversed.
  3. Changing modes between LSB and USB on the radio causes the radio's IF frequency to shift by about +/- 1.25KHz off center.

It would be nice to make a provision to handle this scenario.

Building

There are no autoconf scripts or cmakefiles. Just a plain GNU-style Makefile. You may edit it to suit your needs. Hamlib and and GCC are expected. If you use a different compiler you might need to change the -O2 optimization argument.

Running

Command-line usage can be obtained at any time with: rigsync -h. You will see the output:

usage:

    ./rigsync <rig definition> <rig definition> ... [-n <rig number>]
        Keep defined rigs in sync.
        Each <rig definition> entry must start with:
             -m <model number>
        and be followed optionally by (depending on the rig):
             -r <port/connection>
             -s <baud rate>
        The "-n <rig number>" argument defines which rig in the list
        the others are synched to on startup.  The default is the first (1).

    ./rigsync -h
        Print this help message.

Example 1:

  $ ./rigsync \
      -m 2 -r localhost:4532 \
      -m 210 -r /dev/ttyS0 -s 57600

The first -m argument defines a networked rig control server at localhost port 4532. The second -m argument defines a Kenwood TS-870S connected to the serial port /dev/ttyS0 at 57600 baud. On startup, rigsync will set the TS-870S's frequency and mode to match the rig control server (this is the default since there is no -n argument and the server is defined firsrt). Thereafter, it will keep both in sync.

Example 2:

  $ ./rigsync \
    -m 2 -r localhost:4532 \
    -m 210 -r /dev/ttyF1 -s 57600 \
    -m 122 -r /dev/ttyF0 -s 38400 \
    -n 2

This defines a rig control server, a Kenwood TS-870S, and a Yaesu FT-857D. The -n 2 argument will, on startup, sync all radios to the TS-870S.

Issues

Issue? Bug? Feature request? Please submit an issue.

Contributing

Feel free to submit a pull request if you want to contribute. I'm not very good at reading other people's code, so please include a verbose description and/or explanation.

Licensing

This project and its code are all licensed under the GNU LGPL license v2.1. You all know what this means. If you don't, read the license file.