What CAT setup do you use with Slice Master?

Greg, N6GD

What CAT setup do you use with Slice Master?

K1DBO

Hi Greg,

If Slice Master is launching your third party applications, there's no need for CAT.  If you are using third party programs that Slice Master cannot launch, you'll have to read about how to configure CAT to support them.

--Don

Greg, N6GD

I figured out how to get Slice Master to work with my Flex-6500.  Now I have four receiver slices feeding four copies WSJT-X, feeding four copies of JT-Alert, and all of that feeding DXLabs Spot Collector and DXView!  Slice Master makes all those copies of WSJT-X play very nicely with their respective receiver slices.

I still don't understand the setup though. 

SliceMaster set up WSJT-X to use 127.0.0.1:7831, 7832, 7833, and 7834 for CAT Control on receivers 1 through 4, respectively.

My Flex radio's address is 169.254.2.85.
SDR Cat has the CAT port for the radio set to 8002.
I also have receiver slice A mapped to COM4,
slice B mapped to COM5,
slice C mapped to COM6, and
slice D mapped to COM7.


==> I get that 127.0.0.1 is the address of my own PC, and 169.254.2.85 is the address of my Flex-6500, but where is it defined that ports 7831, 7832, 7833, and 7834 on my PC are mapped to each of the receiver slices on my Flex radio?? And why aren't any of these port 8002? <==

Can anyone shed light on this?


In advance, thanks for your help!

Greg, N6GD

Also, Slice Master set the Rig to "Ham Radio Deluxe" in WSJT-X's Radio Setup pages.   I don't have Ham Radio Deluxe, yet this setting works anyway.  Why?   And why isn't "FlexRadio6xxx" the proper setting?

So many questions!

Thanks again for helping me understand this!


Greg
N6GD

Greg, N6GD

Thanks, Don.  That makes sense.  Can you please educate me on where these IP ports on the localhost come from?  Are they standard ports for SmartSDR?  Where are these ports documented?   It seems to me they are much easier to use than ports that are defined using SmartSDR CAT.

K1DBO

Greg, Slice Master provides those ports. They are created and configured on the fly as needed for the program being launched. —Don

K1DBO

The “Ham Radio Deluxe” setting is WSJT-X doesn’t need to connect to Ham Radio Deluxe. It just needs to connect to a program that speaks the Ham Radio Deluxe dialect of CAT. There are a few programs out there that do this. Slice Master is of of them. At the time I added support for WSJT-X to Slice Master, there were problems with the way WSJT-X worked with FlexRadio6xxx so I chose Ham Radio Deluxe as the dialect instead.

Greg, N6GD

Thanks!  That makes sense.