Setting Up WRL for Digital Mode Logging

[W2DIY]

Finally placed my order to get a Wolf River Coils antenna and I CANNOT wait to get on the air with my new Xiegu G90. This will be my first time operating with my own HF station so I cannot contain my excitement!

I booted up the G90 today (I did not transmit without an antenna do not worry) to get everything setup to do digital modes, and the connection between FLRig and WSJT-X seem to work without any issues. My real issue comes when I try to include the WRL CAT Control into the mix.

Ultimately what I am looking to accomplish is to use World Radio League as my logging software when I am operating on digital modes. I assumed (but could be wrong since I am still learning) that I would need the WRL CAT Control to accomplish this.

To give a full picture of my setup, I have my Xiegu G90 plugged into a Digirig, which then runs into my Mac. As I mentioned earlier, when setting up FLRig and WSJT-X, there seemed to be no issues with the two programs communicating. It’s just figuring out the WRL side of things I need to figure out.

I had refered to this community post to try to resolve the issue, but I assume there is something I am missing being that I am using FLRig:

Wsjtx & ft991a [ANSWERED]

@KQ4OTE Good morning. I’ve wrote up some instructions with screenshots that will help. Most people use gridtracker in conjunction with WSJTX (or JTDX) and cat control to give a visual view of where other FT8 users are. I’ve included this in the instructions as well as logging a qso to qrz. The QRZ integration is done from the gridtracker settings. Its all about having the correct port numbers set for each application. WRL Cat Control / WSJTX / GridTracker / QRZ Integration Steps: Go to the…

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I hope to get on the air very soon! (USPS tracking says my antenna should be arriving this Thursday!)

73!
Daniel W2DIY

[HB9EVT]

@W2DIY

I did not transmit without an antenna do not worry

Uiii, you should worry. Caution, If the “wrong” button at the transceiver or in the connected WSJT-X software is pressed, your transceiver could begin transmitting unintentionally. Please use a dummy load to protect your transceiver from damage.
I wish you good start with your new rig.
73 Pepe HB9EVT

[W2DIY]

@HB9EVT

Please use a dummy load to protect your transceiver from damage.

This is my next purchase! I just got wayyyy too excited, and set my transmit power to 1 W as my safety. I am very aware I could have done a lot of damage, but once again I let the excitement get to me

Appreciate you looking out and I should (and will) be more careful!

73!
Daniel W2DIY

[K4AZE]

@W2DIY Hey Daniel,

So the first thing you’ll want to do is download the WRL Cat control app from the ‘Integrations’ page and install it. Then just follow the steps in my instructions from the link below, skipping the first step as there isn’t a mac compatible hamlib installer on their website however you could always install it via macports but since its built into our cat control app it shouldn’t be needed. After the cat control app is downloaded and installed ensure you can open it and get it connected to your radio properly. Goto the settings icon and select your radio from the dropdown, then select your serial port where your radio is connected and then select the baud rate that you have your radio setup with (this will be whatever it is for the radio/digi-rig), then just click ‘Start Radio Connection’ and wait for a few seconds. If all is successful you can exit out of the settings and see the VFOA / VFOB data being pulled from the radio. Ensure its all working as expected by going to the WRL web app and going into your logbook, then the ‘spots’ tab and double clicking on a few spots, it should change the frequency on your radio. Once that’s all working continue following the steps in my instructions and you should be good to go. Please keep in mind the cat control app is still beta and is not a final release so there will be some things that either aren’t supported yet or may not be working as expected.

Let us know if you have any issues.

Wsjtx & ft991a [ANSWERED]

Hello all…I’m sure I’m overlooking something. I’ve downloaded the new CAT control integrations app. I want to do WSJT while integrating this radio (FT8 and CAT control). Am I wrong that it’s on the same port, so they can’t be at the same time? I’ve tried to have the app listen to the UDP port, without CAT control also and it’s not logging my QSO. Again, it’s probably operator error, just looking for another perspective to drive me in the right direction.

Thanks & 73
Brad K4AZE

[KQ4SFG]

I was able to set up WSJT-X to talk to my G90 without using FLRig. See the setup instructions in the post link below: New cat program - #10 by KQ4SFG

I am assuming that the DIGIRig is agnostic about what CAT control program it works with, but I could be wrong. If I am I then you should be able to work around it by adding Gridtracker to your setup and using it’s pass-through capability to forward the UDP feed from WSJT-X to WRL CAT. See below: Gridtracker/WRL Cat passthrough [HOW TO]

Let us know how it goes!

KQ4SFG, 73

[W2DIY]

@K4AZE & @KQ4SFG, with a mix of both of your responses, I believe everything is up and working!

Eliminating FLRig, and setting the G90 up under “Hamlb” in WSJT-X seemed to get everything to communicate properly, and I was able to put in a manual test QSO from WSJT-X, and it synced to my WRL Logbook instantly!

The real test will be this Thursday once my antenna and coax arrives and I can actually get on the air to see how everything functions!

Until then, thanks to the both of you for your help!

73!
Daniel W2DIY