Working digital modes
Web Radio Control uses Hamlib rigctld
server to control radios. Since Hamlib radio control is used by many other amateur
radio applications, such as WSJT-X
(e.g. for FT8 and WSPR digital modes) and fldigi (for a number of other digital modes),
Web Radio Control provides a way to connect directly to the underlying Hamlib rigctld
server from your local client computer.
This connection allows you to run these applications locally on your client computer and still control your radios
remotely while running Web Radio Control.
The connection to Hamlib rigctld
server is established by installing and using a helper application called wrc-proxy
,
which opens a TCP server on your local computer and connects to a URL address that points to the remote Web Radio Control server.
You can create a new Hamlib proxy URL address for wrc-proxy to connect to in Web Radio Control settings.
Note that it is still necessary to use a web browser to handle audio input and output, simply by starting audio streaming normally in the browser, because the Hamlib protocol is only responsible for transferring the radio control commands. The audio needs to be routed from the web browser to the application by creating local loopback sound card, sometimes called a virtual audio cable.
Getting started with Web Radio Control and digital modes
In order to connect digital mode applications to Web Radio Control, you will need to install
a helper application called wrc-proxy
and virtual audio cable driver software.
It is necessary to perform these preparations only once.
If you are about to use digital mode applications with Web Radio Control for the first time, please follow the instructions below for your operating system:
If you have already completed the initial setup, meaning that you have installed the wrc-proxy
helper application
and the virtual audio cable is ready for use, you can continue with the instructions below to connect
a digital mode application to Web Radio Control:
Installing wrc-proxy
Installation of wrc-proxy
is has to be done only once per computer. After installation you can always
follow the steps above in Connecting a digital mode application to Web Radio Control.
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Download wrc-proxy installation package for your operating system.
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The
wrc-proxy
application is available for the following operating systems and hardware architectures:-
Windows (64-bit): https://wrc-dist.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wrc-proxy/wrc-proxy-windows-x86_64-0.1.7-3.zip
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Windows (32-bit): https://wrc-dist.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wrc-proxy/wrc-proxy-windows-x86-0.1.7-3.zip
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MacOS (64-bit): https://wrc-dist.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wrc-proxy/wrc-proxy-macos-x86_64-0.1.7-3.zip
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MacOS (32-bit): https://wrc-dist.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wrc-proxy/wrc-proxy-macos-x86-0.1.7-3.zip
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Linux (Intel x86 64-bit): https://wrc-dist.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wrc-proxy/wrc-proxy-linux-x86_64-0.1.7-3.zip
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Linux (Intel x86 32-bit): https://wrc-dist.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wrc-proxy/wrc-proxy-linux-x86-0.1.7-3.zip
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Linux (ARM32v6 32-bit): https://wrc-dist.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wrc-proxy/wrc-proxy-linux-arm32v6-0.1.7-3.zip
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Linux (ARM32v7 32-bit, such as Raspberry Pi): https://wrc-dist.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wrc-proxy/wrc-proxy-linux-arm32v7-0.1.7-3.zip
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Linux (ARM64v8 64-bit): https://wrc-dist.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wrc-proxy/wrc-proxy-linux-arm64v8-0.1.7-3.zip
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Extract the downloaded ZIP file to some directory. The zip file contains a single executable application file
wrc-proxy
/wrc-proxy.exe
and an installation script. -
Run the installation script
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On Windows, run
install-wrc-proxy.bat
and accept the registry changes the script makes. Thewrc-proxy.exe
application will be installed in the user profile directory. -
On Linux, run
install-wrc-proxy.sh
. Thewrc-proxy
binary will be installed tobin/wrc-proxy
in your home directory. -
On Mac OS, an installation script does not exist yet, so you need to start
wrc-proxy
from the command line (Terminal). See below for instructions.
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