Configuration

Open Options > Configuration. The dialog has one tab per topic. Changes take effect when you click OK; Cancel discards them. If the tab strip is too narrow for all tabs, use the small arrows at its right end to scroll.

Operator

Your Firstname, Lastname, Callsign, QTH and Locator. The callsign is what the program sends for the waterfall ID, and it identifies you in hybrid-mode notifications.

Allow other users to see your online status via the notification server lets other stations see that you are on air. The “notification server” is the same hybrid FTP server that is set up on the Hybrid page; there is no separate server and no built-in default. The option is on by default but does nothing until a Host is entered on the Hybrid page.

Online Status Text is a short text that other stations see next to your callsign, for example locator_antenna_power; use only a-z, A-Z, 0-9 and underscore, with no spaces or special characters.

How it works: when the program starts in DRM mode with the option ticked and a Host configured, it uploads an empty file named callsign_statustext to the Online Status Directory on the server. Other stations read that directory with the Who is on? button on the Receive tab's DRM page (see Receiving). The file is removed when you exit the program normally with File > Exit. The status is published once, at start-up, and is not refreshed: it is only listed for one hour, and nothing is published if you start in an SSTV mode or switch to DRM later. Restart the program in DRM mode to publish again. Changing the callsign or text in the dialog does not republish until the next start.

Directories

Where the program stores things: RX SSTV Images, RX DRM Images, TX SSTV Images, TX DRM Images, TX Stock Images, Templates and Audio Records (recordings made when you choose a recording option on the Sound page). Use Browse ... to pick another folder. By default these are subfolders of the program's data folder, for example ~/.local/share/QSSTV-Experimental/rx_sstv/ on Linux.

Save TX images in TX SSTV or TX DRM directory

Keeps a copy of every picture you transmit.

Recursively scan directories for files

Also looks in subfolders when building the gallery.

Documentation URL

Leave blank to open this built-in guide from Help > Users Guide. Enter a web address to open that page instead.

Gui

Images: Background Color, Image Background color, Stretch

Colors used behind pictures in the viewers, and whether pictures are stretched to fill their area.

Gallery: Rows and Columns

How many thumbnails the gallery shows per page.

Check if slow CPU

Performance option for slow computers.

Check if Low Screen Resolution

Option for small screens; restart the program after changing it.

Ask for confirmation when deleting file / when closing

Turn the confirmation questions on or off.

The two options slow CPU and Low Screen Resolution take effect after you exit and restart the program.

Sound

Input Audio Device, Output Audio Device

Your sound devices (the program uses Qt Multimedia, so it sees the devices your operating system offers).

Input Clock Frequency, Output Clock Frequency

The sample rate of the sound card, nominally 48000. The calibration tools adjust these; see Calibration. Normally you do not edit them by hand.

Sound Input

From sound card; From file; or From sound card and record.

Sound Output

To sound card; or To sound card and record.

Swap left and right channel

Swaps the stereo channels of the transmit audio.

Send audio to both channels

Sends the transmit audio to both left and right channels. This is useful when the interface sums the two channels (for example CM108-based rig interfaces), which gives about 3 dB more output; you may need to lower the TX drive level. While it is ticked, Swap left and right channel and PTT tone on other audio channel are greyed out. It is ticked by default.

PTT tone on other audio channel

Puts a PTT tone on the channel that does not carry the picture audio, for interfaces that derive PTT from audio.

Maximum recording size (in MB)

Limit for recordings made with the record options.

If you change the audio devices, the program restarts its sound handling when you click OK. If the audio device disappears (for example after a USB unplug or Windows sleep and resume), the program recovers when it comes back.

CAT

Rig control and PTT. There are three independent parts.

Special Serial Port

Enable a plain serial port for PTT: tick Enable PTT serial Interface, set PTT Serial Port, and choose which lines key the transmitter with +RTS, +DTR, -RTS and -DTR (the sign sets the polarity).

Hamlib Control

Tick Enable Hamlib Cat Interface to control a rig through Hamlib. Pick your Radio Model, the Serial Port/Host, and the serial settings the rig needs: Baudrate, Parity, Databits, StopBits and Handshake. For Icom radios fill in the CIV Address. PTT Control via selects how Hamlib keys the radio: CAT (Voice port), CAT (Data port), RTS, DTR or None. Restart CAT Interface applies changes without leaving the dialog. With CAT working, the status bar shows the rig frequency.

XMLRPC Interface

Enable XMLRPC Interface lets another program (for example a logger or a digital-mode suite) control the radio through the XML-RPC port (default 7362). When it is enabled, the program does not send the extra Hamlib data command from the Frequencies page.

TX on Delay

The time in seconds between keying the transmitter and starting the audio, for radios that need a moment to switch.

CW

Words PerMinute, Text to send and Tone (audio frequency in Hz) for your CW identification. It is sent by the CW ID button in the status bar, and at the end of a transmission if the CW checkbox on the Transmit tab is ticked. This works for SSTV and DRM pictures.

Repeater

Settings for running the program as an unattended SSTV repeater. Tick Enable Repeater to turn it on. You choose the Repeater TX mode (Same as RX by default), the Tx Delay in seconds, and the DRM Image Size in kB. While idle, the repeater transmits one of up to four Idle Images or an Idle Template every Image Interval minutes in the Idle Image TX mode. The Repeater Template and Idle Template are the templates used for repeated and idle pictures.

FTP

Uploads received pictures to a web or FTP server. Tick Enable File Upload to FTP Server and fill in Host, FTP Port (21 by default), Login and Password, the remote Directory SSTV and Directory DRM, and the Default Image Format. Test connection checks the settings.

Under Image store choose how files are named on the server: as a rotating sequence image1 to image N (image1 is always the latest and the highest number the oldest), optionally with the image-format extension added, or under their own filename.

Use a dedicated FTP account that has access only to the upload directory.

Waterfall

Short texts that are transmitted as part of the audio so that they show up as readable text on a waterfall display: Start Picture, End Picture, FIX, BSR, Start Binary, End Binary, Start Repeater and End Repeater. The Font, Size and Bold settings control how the text is drawn; the Sample box previews it. The defaults are fine for normal use.

Hybrid

Hybrid mode combines a DRM transmission over the air with an internet server. The sender uploads the picture (Transmit tab, Hybrid and Upload Now) and the receiving station can fetch it. This page holds the server settings: Enable Reception in Hybrid Mode, the FTP Host, FTP Port, Login, Password and Directory, the Hybrid Files Directory, and, if you tick Send RX Notifications in Hybrid Mode, the Notifications Directory. The Online Status Directory is where the online status files are kept; it is used by the Operator page's online status option and the Who is on? button, whether or not RX notifications are ticked. The directories are relative to the server Directory and must already exist on the server. Test connection checks the server and these directories. Both stations must use the same server and the same directory names, otherwise they will not see each other.

DRM

Three saved sets of DRM transmit parameters, on the tabs Profile 1, Profile 2 and Profile 3. Each has a Profile Name, Mode (A, B or E), BW (2.2 or 2.5 kHz), QAM (4, 16 or 64), Interleave (Short or Long), Prot. (High or Low) and Rs (Reed-Solomon: None, RS1 to RS4). The profiles appear in the Profile list on the Transmit tab's DRM settings. See Digital SSTV (DRM) for what the parameters mean.

Show partial image while receiving (DRM), below the profile tabs, displays a DRM picture while it is still arriving: a JPEG2000 image appears blurry and sharpens as more data comes in, a JPEG fills in from the top. The finished picture then replaces the preview. On by default. Not available for Reed-Solomon coded transmissions, which can only be shown once decoding succeeds.

Frequencies

A list of frequencies for the selector in the main window's status bar. Click Add and fill in the row; Delete removes one; the arrow buttons reorder the list. The columns are:

• Frequency: in MHz.
• Mode: SSTV or DRM. This decides in which of the two lists the entry appears.
• Modulation: the rig mode to set, for example USB.
• Passband: for example Normal or Wide. It is not used when a PKTxxx mode is selected (at least not on Icom).

Examples from the dialog: 14.230 SSTV USB Wide and 7.058 DRM PKTUSB Normal.

Hamlib Data Command (with the Hex checkbox) is an optional raw command sent to the rig after the frequency and mode have been set. Frequency selection needs CAT control to be enabled.