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Station administrator guide

Web Radio Control supports user accounts with different roles and permissions. Certain features are available for administrator and power user roles only. The station administrator guide documents the features that are available for these special user roles and the permissions each user role has.

The settings guide documents the sections of the Settings dialog that are available for all user roles.

The setup user interface

The Web Radio Control setup user interface, available in address http://DOMAIN-NAME:8013/ (port 8013), provides tools for initial configuration of the software when setting up a new station. Additionally, you can use the setup user interface to view a list of connected devices, such as USB serial ports and sound cards.

Once the initial configuration of Web Radio Control is complete, it is possible to upload a new configuration file or a new TLS certificate also in the Settings > Backup/Restore tab, so that it is not necessary to navigate to the setup user interface to perform these tasks.

The setup user interface permits login for user accounts with the administrator role only.

The setup user interface is fully documented in the configuration section of the documentation.

Settings available for administrators

The following sections of the Settings dialog in the Web Radio Control user interface are available only for user accounts with the administrator role (all sections) or the power user role (only the Dynamic DNS section). These features are used to manage, maintain and troubleshoot the Web Radio Control software and its configuration.

Settings: System

The functionality in the System section lets you:

  • Restart the Web Radio Control server software

    • A restart is necessary when importing a new YAML configuration file or a new TLS certificate

    • A restart may sometimes resolve issues with device control

  • Reboot the Raspberry Pi Linux operating system

    • Rebooting the operating system is rarely needed. It may sometimes solve network or instability issues, however.

  • Shut down the Raspberry Pi Linux operating system

    • This function performs a safe system shutdown if you need to power off the Raspberry Pi.

    • Please note that it is necessary to power-cycle the Raspberry Pi after a shutdown, as the Raspberry Pi does not reboot itself automatically.

Settings: User accounts

The User accounts section lets you manage individual user accounts that permit access to remotely operate your station. Each user account has a username and a password, which you need to enter to the Web Radio Control login dialog to log in for remote control.

The user account list allows you to create, edit (the pen icon) and delete (the trashcan icon) user accounts. Additionally, as an administrator user, you can force a specific user or all logged-in users to log out.

Each user account has the following details:

  • User account enabled - A user account can be disabled temporarily by unselecting this checkbox.

  • Username (mandatory)

  • Password (mandatory) - You can use the Generate button to automatically generate a random password. The user interface will display the generated password next to the button, so that you can copy and save the password.

  • User permissions - See below for more details about user roles and permissions.

  • Call sign

  • Email address

  • First name

  • Last name

  • User reference (for admins only) - The user reference field can be used to store a reference number or a code for the user account to reference some other system, such as a member registry of a club or an organization.

  • Note (for admins only) - The note field can be used to store optional notes about the user account.

The built-in administrator user account

Web Radio Control has a built-in user account called admin, which is not restricted in any way: it has all permissions to configure the software and to control every device configured for remote operation in Web Radio Control.

When only a single operator uses the station where Web Radio Control is installed (e.g. your home station), meaning that the station is not a multi-operator station or a club station, the built-in admin user is often enough for all remote control needs and there is no need to create additional user accounts with more restricted permissions.

User accounts and the different Web Radio Control license types

Please note that BASIC, MULTI-MODE and COMPLETE licenses allow creation of 1 user account in addition to the built-in admin user. You can use this additional user account to create a more restricted user for yourself in case you do not wish to use the admin user account for remote control in normal daily use.

The CLUB license allows unlimited creation of user accounts for shared (multi-operator) and club stations.

User roles and related permissions

Web Radio Control supports the following user roles to control permissions on normal user accounts:

  • RESERVE (RES) - the RESERVE role allows a user to create, edit and delete reservations (for that particular user account)

  • TRANSMIT (TX) - the TRANSMIT user role allows transmitting on any radio

  • RECEIVE (RX) - the RECEIVE user role allows device control for all devices, but does not allow transmitting on any radio or accessing Hamlib proxies (as they allow transmitting by default) for digital mode usage

  • PASSIVE (PA) - the PASSIVE user role allows observing devices and listening to radios without the ability to change any settings

A user has to have the RESERVE role to be able to create, edit or delete reservations (excluding power users and administrators). If a specific user account should not have the permission to create reservations (for itself), you can simply leave out the RESERVE role for the user account. The settings guide documents the features that are covered by reservations.

Web Radio Control provides the following special user roles for maintenance and management tasks:

  • ADMIN_USER (ADM) - administrator user role with no restrictions

  • POWER_USER (POW) - power user role can override reservations and perform some additional maintenance tasks

The user roles for normal user accounts have the following permissions:

Feature PA RX TX RES

View any device

X

X

X

Listen to audio

X

X

X

Control any device

X

X

Transmit

X

Settings: Hamlib proxy (for digital modes)

X

Create reservations

X

The administrator and power user roles have the following permissions (in addition to features listed above):

Feature POW ADM

Create and edit reservations for other users

X

X

Control any device even when reserved

X

X

Settings: Dynamic DNS

X

X

Settings: System

X

Settings: User accounts

X

Settings: Station configuration

X

Settings: Backup/Restore

X

Settings: Dynamic DNS

The Dynamic DNS section displays information about the network IP address details:

  • detected by Web Radio Control under the External address title (meaning its actual public IP addresses)

  • assigned to the DNS domain name configured for Web Radio Control (in the publicHostname file of the configuration file) under the Public hostname title

In a correctly working network configuration, the external IP addresses and the public hostname IP addresses should be the same. You can click the Check now button to refresh the IP address details.

Additionally, the Dynamic DNS section displays the dynamic DNS client status if dynamic DNS updates are configured in the Web Radio Control configuration file (in the dynamicDns section of the file). You can use dynamic DNS services to obtain a DNS domain name that points to the IP address of your Internet connection, even if your public IP address is dynamic, meaning that it changes from time to time. Web Radio Control will take care of updating the dynamic DNS domain name whenever it changes. See the obtaining a domain name part of the documentation for configuring dynamic DNS for more details.

If dynamic DNS is configured in Web Radio Control, you can force the update of the public IP address for the dynamic DNS domain name you use by clicking the Force update button. You can use this functionality to test if dynamic DNS updates are working, as Web Radio Control will display the result of the update under the title Dynamic DNS client.

Settings: Station configuration

The Station configuration section contains various station-wide settings for the Web Radio Control software.

The settings are in the following categories:

  • Station contact details

    • The contact details will be displayed in the Settings > Station info section for all users so that they can contact station administrators in case there are issues.

  • Station time and location

    • Station time zone - The time zone will set the default time zone to use for the reservation calendar for all users. Each user can change their personal time zone.

  • Reservation limits set the boundaries to what kind of reservations station users can create. These limits do not apply to user accounts with the power user or administrator role.

    • Maximum reservation duration - The longest allowed reservation in minutes

    • Minimum reservation duration - The shortest allowed reservation in minutes

    • Maximum reservation time per week - The maximum time (in minutes) for the sum of all reservations per calendar week (Monday to Sunday) for a single user

    • Cancel an active reservation if the user is offline for longer than the specified time - This setting will cancel an active reservation if the user that has made the reservation is offline for longer than the specified time (in minutes) during the reservation. The reservation will be modified to end at the time this duration ends. Setting this duration to zero will disable the feature.

  • Indicators for local and remote use

    • Indicator for remote use: when a user is connected to Web Radio Control, e.g. GPIO output pin for LED - This setting will turn on a switch or a GPIO when at least one user is logged in remote on the Web Radio Control server. It can be used to light up a LED (via GPIO) or switch on a relay locally at the station so that potential operators at the station will know there is an operator accessing the station remotely.

    • Indicator for local use: when an operator is operating at the station, e.g. GPIO input pin for button - This setting is in development and not used yet. In a future release, a physical switch can be used to display a notification to remote users that the station is in use locally.

  • Radio control

    • Allow only power users and administrators to power off/on radios - Enabling this setting will remove the ability for regular users to power any radio on/off.

Settings: Backup/Restore

The Backup/Restore section provides functionality to back up and restore all configuration and settings in Web Radio Control. The "user data" includes all settings not present in the configuration file. In order to make a complete backup of the station data, you will need to download three files: the configuration file (a YAML file), the user data file (a JSON file) and the TLS certificate (ZIP file).

It is recommended to back up station data periodically to avoid losing valuable settings, user accounts and reservations, which could happen in case of an SD card or hard drive storage failure.

Backing up of all station data is also necessary when upgrading to a newer version of Web Radio Control. This allows you to preserve existing user accounts and all hardware settings in the new software version. For more details about the upgrade process, please see the page upgrade instructions.

Importing (restoring) station data from files

It is also possible to import (restore) any of the three pieces of data mentioned above. This allows you to, for example, quickly change a setting in the YAML configuration file by first downloading the configuration file, then editing it in a text editor application and finally importing (restoring) the edited file.

Please note that to actually make changes take effect in a newly imported configuration file or in a newly imported TLS certificate, you will need to restart the Web Radio Control server software (via Settings > System > Restart WRC server). Any newly imported user data will be available immediately, without restarting Web Radio Control server software.