The goals of the wfview project are quite ambitious, and thus have been broken down into the following planned releases:
Release 1:
Basic functionality needed for common QSO tasks. Rigs are supported over OEM network connections and USB connections. This release targets stability and basic functionality.
Core supported radios for R1:
- IC-705
- IC-7300
- IC-7610
- IC-7850/7851
- IC-9700
- IC-R8600
Completed May 24, 2021.
Release 2:
Planned Date: Early January 2022. Beta releases on our downloads page contain many of these features.
Add user interface elements for more advanced tasks:
- Enhanced satellite-mode setup and operation (IC-9700)
- Support for CW
- Custom filter definitions (done)
- Advanced metering options (done)
- Memory management (of the rig’s memories, similar to CHIRP)
- Dual waveform support for rigs that support this (such as the IC-7850 and IC-7610)
- Dual VFO (Main/Sub) support, dual receive audio where available
- Additional rig controls: NB, NR/DSP/Notch, Pass-Band tuning
- Scope overlays: DX spots, satellite passband, memory locations, etc
- Enhanced remote audio options for rigs without OEM network (done)
- Better multi-rig support (done, –settings command line option)
- More options for sharing radio control with other applications, including integrated rigctld (done)
We’ll also be adding or enhancing support for the following modern-era network-control rigs:
- IC-7700 with remote audio — minor additions will bring this rig up to the level of support we have for the other core support rigs (done)
- IC-R8600:
- Add additional span options to the scope, process scope data better (done)
- Scanning options
And due to popular demand, we will enhance support for these “legacy” radios, many of which are already pretty close to working but may have some bugs due to their use of the older half-duplex CI-V control (to be clear, wfview has code for these radios already, but there are underlying issues that we need to work out with their control and timing):
- IC-706 (all variants) (done)
- IC-718 (done)
- IC-736/738 (done)
- IC-756 (all variants) (done)
- IC-910H (done)
- IC-9100 (done)
- IC-7100 (done)
- IC-7200 (done)
- IC-7400 (done)
- IC-7410 (done)
Behind the scenes, in the code, we are working on the following:
- Totally revamped startup sequence, allowing rig changes on the fly and better rig discovery (done)
- Spectrum and waterfall to a separate class, allowing multiple scope displays and also “scopeless” mode for rigs without this feature
- Support for three audio backends (qt audio, rtaudio, and portaudio) for better performance on all platforms (done)
- Support for legacy half-duplex CI-V radios (many radios, despite having integrated USB, are still running half-duplex with forced bus echo internally, eg, IC-7100, IC-7200, IC-7400, but not the IC-7410). (done)
Release 3:
Big changes here:
- Fancier UI with custom widgets, skeuomorphic display options (old radio dials, modern radio screens, VFDs, etc)
- Hardware control options (tuning knob, PTT, other functions) for folks that like buttons
- Fourier Transform display of audio to and from the rig
- Audio processing options, with plugins (compressor, gate, eq, etc)
- I&Q stream options from rigs with available streaming
- Advanced preferences pop-up with full support for all adjustable options (UI colors, internal timing controls, debug options, etc)
- Support for some non-Icom radios which have modern network control and either I&Q or spectral data available.
- Hardware add-on board to add network control, streaming audio, PTT, Tune, s-meter, etc, to legacy radios (possibly a Raspberry Pi with some additional hardware such as a CM108B and an ADC).
How you can help:
- We need better access to an IC-R8600 over network (got this now! Thank you all!)
- Bug reports from you! Including log files with debugging enabled. The more the better.
- Testing!
- Send radios :-). If you send us a radio, we will work quite hard to get it supported and of course send it back.
- Participate in our online discussion forum at https://forum.wfview.org/