ic705suite: the whole IC-705 station in one program

What it is

Until now I had one program for each thing: cwic705 for CW, swr-remote for the antenna, hamrlog for the logbook, hamrpkt for packet… And each of them wanted the radio to itself, because the IC-705 takes a single remote client.

ic705suite puts them together. One core talks to the radio and the applications share that connection, so the CW decoder can keep listening while I look at the band scope or run an SWR sweep. From the dashboard, each with its own key:

Rig view (F2): the whole front panel, some fifty controls, the meters and the band scope with its waterfall.
CW (F3): decoder, multi-signal skimmer and keyer.
D-STAR (F4): QDStar inside the suite. Not yet, but it is coming.
Antenna (F5): SWR and noise sweeps, which way to move the coil, and a page for the phone.
Logbook (F6) and Packet (F7): hamrlog and hamrpkt, as they are.

It runs on Linux and Windows, in English and Spanish, and the core can sit on a Raspberry Pi next to the radio while the screen is on another computer.

In the console

The suite was born for the console: everything from the keyboard, with function keys, Tab and commands such as /f 7.030. It even works on the plain Linux console with no desktop, with the few characters and 16 colours it has.

The ic705suite dashboard in the terminal, with the simulated radio: on the left the applications with their keys, F2 to F7, and the quick log below; on the right the radio on 7.030 MHz CW, a small band scope with its waterfall, the basic settings (frequency, band, mode, power, AF, RF, SQL, AGC, preamp, attenuator and filter) and the station details. — **Dashboard.** The applications, the radio, a small band scope, the basic settings and a quick log to note a contact without leaving it.

The rig view in the terminal: the frequency in large digits, the S, Po, SWR, Vd and Id meters, the band scope with its waterfall and, below, the front panel grouped as receive, DSP, transmit, CW, VFO and scope. — **Rig view** (`F2`). The whole front panel; the cursor keys go from one control to the next and change it at once.

The CW skimmer in the terminal: the waterfall with three signals marked, the list with their frequency, callsign, speed, signal-to-noise ratio and decoded text; EA4SIM calling CQ, in green, and OK1SIM in a contest, in magenta. Below, the chosen station's detail, put into plain language. — CW (`F3`). The skimmer decodes every signal at once. Stations calling CQ show in green, those in a contest in magenta.

The antenna application in the terminal: the list of bands with their target frequency, coil position, resonance and SWR; on the right, a 40 m SWR sweep drawn as bars, resonant at 7.095 MHz, minimum SWR 1.05, and the verdict: tuned, leave the coil there. — **Antenna** (`F5`). An SWR sweep and its verdict: whether to raise or lower the coil, and by how much.

In a window

ic705suite --gui opens the same suite in a Qt window: the same screens, the same menus and the same keys, because each page takes those of its console screen. On top of that, the mouse: double click to open, the wheel to turn a knob or tune on the band scope, buttons for the macros, and sweeps drawn as a chart. Dark theme, light, or the desktop's, from View → Theme.

The dashboard in the Qt window, dark theme: the applications F2 to F7, the quick log, the radio with its S-meter, the band scope with its waterfall, the basic settings and the station. — **Dashboard.** The same as in the console; double click an application to open it.

The rig view in the Qt window: the frequency in large seven-segment digits, the meters with their scale, the band scope with its waterfall and the front panel with knobs, switches and drop-downs. — **Rig view.** The front panel with knobs, switches and drop-downs; the wheel turns them and a click on the scope tunes there.

The CW skimmer in the Qt window: the waterfall with three signals marked, the list of stations with their decoded text and, below, the detail of DL9SIM answering EA4SIM and the macro buttons F2 to F9. — **CW.** The skimmer with a finer waterfall, and the macros as buttons too.

The antenna application in the Qt window, light theme: the bands, the 40 m history with sweeps and saved positions, and the SWR curve from 7.000 to 7.200 MHz over green, yellow and red zones, with the target frequency marked and the verdict: tuned. — **Antenna**, in the light theme. The sweep as a chart and, beside it, the band's history.

Try it

On Linux it installs with one line, no Python needed:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/manuel-alcocer/ic705suite/releases/latest/download/ic705suite-install.sh | bash

On Windows, from PowerShell, with ic705suite-install.ps1 (the README has the details). The installer asks the basics: language, callsign and how to reach the radio. And it can be tried without a radio too:

ic705suite --sim: with a simulated radio, the one in all these screenshots.
ic705suite --gui: the Qt window instead of the console.
ic705suite --tx: allow transmitting. Without it the suite only receives.

It is free for noncommercial use: it may be used, studied, changed and shared for radio, for learning or as a hobby.

ic705suite on GitHub Tuning the antenna from the rooftop