CW and PSK for Mac

Ian C

Hi Im using Smart SDR for Mac and like it, I wont to use a CW decode and PSK programme with my flex and Macbook has anyone got any suggestions please

George KF2T

fldigi is probably the most common choice.

Mark_WS7M

From what I can see:

SmartSDR Mac has its own DAX output but it seems to be limited to one DAX channel at a time. Also it requires some audio output device to be present. So you can select your speakers or a monitor or whatever.

To get around this I purchased and use Loopback. This program allows you to create virtual audio devices on the Mac and you can route them however you please. So in Loopback I create a "FlexSliceA" device. I then in SmartSDR Mac DAX select that as the output device.

Then in audio consuming programs like FLDigi I select FlexSliceA device as the audio input and you have audio being sent from your Flex to FLDIgi.

As I said above SmartSDR mac seem to limit its DAX output to a single channel at a time.

Enter xDax and xCat. These two programs offer DAX and CAT abilities to the Mac. I think there is a thread in this forum on them. xDax in particular allows you to setup audio output for as many slices / DAX channels as your Flex Radio has. I have a 6600 so I can have 4 slices / DAX output channels going.

In Loopback I create FlexSliceA, FlexSliceB, FlexSliceC, and FlexSliceD. I route the DAX output from xDax for each channel into these loopback devices. Now in programs that can consume audio, like FLDigi you have your choice of where the audio comes from.

Mac doesn't make it easy at times to run multiple copies of an app. If you wanted to decode CW on 20m and say 15m then you might want two instances of FLDigi running. The FLDigi docs tell you have to do this for windows and there is a configuration switch to point the configuration at a different location. I've yet to get that config switch to work with the Mac version. But I can run multiple copies by using this command at the terminal:

open -n /Applications/fldigi-4.1.15.app

Each one you open makes you configure it through the wizard. FLDigi on the mac creates a hidden folder: .fldigi and some data is stored in there. But when you run multiple copies I've yet to figure where the configuration is stored for each copy.

Out of interest, using Crossover 2 which allows some Windows programs to run on a Mac I have been successful at installing and running the windows program CW get.

Anyway, once you have xDax and perhaps Loopback there is a lot you can do. You can run multiple copies of WSJT-X for example and decode FT8 on multiple bands.

So for me Loopback was worth the money to purchase.

mark WS7M

Thom K7FZO

[{"insert":"Mark thank you for your post. I’m working with a deaf ham that really wants to explore CW. Your path of using Loopback, xDAX and FLDigi may be the cleanest solution. Thanks again for taking the time to write this up. \n73 de Thom ~ K7FZO\n"}]