PWRRXTX

Homebrew

My dashboard

A web page that lets me run my radio from any screen in the house.

Screenshot of the M7IFP dashboard showing the frequency, S-meter, live spectrum, waterfall and the row of tabs
The dashboard on 14.320 MHz, with the schedule tab open.

What it is

The Xiegu X6100 is a great little radio, but I wanted to use it without standing at the front panel. So I built a dashboard. The radio is connected to a small server at home, the server runs the dashboard, and I open it in a web browser.

I build it a tab at a time, and each tab does one job. The big display at the top is always there: frequency, S-meter, live spectrum and waterfall.

1. The radioXiegu X6100 on my mag coil antenna
2. A home serverRuns the dashboard and listens to the radio
3. A browserAny screen in the house

The tabs

Logbook
Every contact I make, with callsign lookups.
Voice & speech
An AI voice helper that can talk and listen, so the station can answer simple requests.
FT8, PSK31 and RTTY
Decodes these digital modes in the browser and lets me reply.
CW
A keyboard panel for sending Morse.
SSTV
Slow-scan television: pictures sent over the radio.
DX spots
Who other stations are hearing right now, and on which band.
Weather
Space weather and local conditions in one place.
Beacons
Sweeps five bands for the worldwide beacon network to show which bands are open.
WEFAX
Receives weather charts that met offices broadcast for ships and draws them line by line.
Bands
One rating per band, open, fair or closed, from solar data, day and night, and live spots.
Schedule
Tunes the radio and starts a decoder by itself at set times, and can record the audio.
Record
Saves what the radio hears as a WAV file that opens in any player.

Staying safe

Listen first. Transmitting is locked until I choose to unlock it. The weather fax, beacon, band, schedule and record tools only ever receive.

Some parts are still being tuned. The weather fax decoder works on test signals and is being adjusted for real broadcasts, and I haven't yet tested sending on SSTV and CW.

Why "AI Station"

I build it step by step, one tab at a time. It's called the AI Station because it has an AI voice helper that can talk and listen. Every feature starts as a question: wouldn't it be good if the station could do this by itself?

Back to homeM7IFP on QRZ.com