Send a typed CW buffer live¶
Use the CWX panel to type a CW message and transmit it immediately. This is the fastest way to send free-text CW without pre-writing a macro.
Before you start¶
- Connect to a FLEX-8600 radio. The CWX panel requires an active radio connection.
- Set the active slice to CW, CWL, or CWU mode. The CWX panel appears in the main window when a CW mode slice is active.
Steps¶
- In the CWX panel, make sure Live is off. If Live is active (button checked), click it to toggle it off before typing a buffered message.
- Click inside the Send text area — the text field at the bottom of the send view. The placeholder text reads "Type CW message...".
- Type your message. Use standard ASCII characters. Refer to the prosign legend displayed in the panel for prosign shortcuts (=, +, (, &, $).
- Click Send or press Enter to transmit the buffer. The radio begins sending immediately.
- To abort transmission at any time, press Escape. This clears the buffer and stops the send.
After transmission, the sent text appears in the Send history scroll area above the text field as a timestamped bubble.
How Send behaves depending on Live mode¶
The Send button behaves differently depending on whether Live is currently on:
- Live is off — Clicking Send submits the contents of the text field as a buffer and transmits it.
- Live is on — Clicking Send first turns Live off and returns the panel to the send view. The buffer is not retransmitted; this prevents text that was already keyed character-by-character in live mode from being sent a second time. After clicking Send in this state, type your message and click Send again to transmit.
What each control does¶
| Control | What it does | Setting key |
|---|---|---|
| Send | Submits the typed buffer for transmission when Live is off. If Live is on, turns Live off and returns to the send view without retransmitting. | — |
| Live | Toggles live send mode on or off. While on, characters are keyed as you type them. Turning on Live also deselects Setup and shows the send view. | — |
| Setup | Switches to the macro editor and QSK setup view. Turning on Setup also turns Live off. | — |
| Speed: | Sets CW send speed in WPM. Range: 5–100 WPM. Default: 20 WPM. | CwxSpeedWpm |
| Send text area | Type your CW message here. Press Enter to send. | — |
| Send history scroll | Displays previous sent buffers with timestamps. Read-only. | — |
| Delay: | Sets inter-macro delay in milliseconds. Range: 0–2000 ms. Default: 5 ms. Available in Setup view. | CwxDelay |
| QSK | Enables QSK (full break-in). Available in Setup view. | CwxQsk |
| Prosigns legend | Shows character shortcuts for common CW prosigns. Read-only. | — |
Tips¶
- F1–F12 send pre-written macros while a CW mode slice is active. The keyboard shortcuts work application-wide in CW and CWL modes. See Trigger a CW macro with F1–F12.
- Pressing Escape clears the buffer unconditionally. On an idle CWX panel it is a harmless no-op, so pressing it is always safe.
- Adjust Speed: in the bottom bar without switching views. The spinbox is visible in both the send and setup views.
- When you reconnect to a radio, the Live button reflects the radio's current live state automatically.
Troubleshooting¶
- CWX panel does not appear — Confirm the active slice is set to CW, CWL, or CWU mode. The panel requires a CW mode slice and an active radio connection.
- Clicking Send does not transmit — If Live was on, the first click on Send only turns Live off. Click Send a second time (or press Enter) to transmit the buffer.
- Pressing Enter does nothing — Click inside the Send text area first to give it focus, then press Enter.
- Escape does not stop transmission — Escape fires an application-wide shortcut. If a dialog or text widget captures the key first, click away from it and press Escape again.