Enable iambic paddle keying¶

Enable the radio's built-in iambic keyer so that a dual-lever paddle connected to the FLEX-8600 keys CW using the iambic mode. This lets you set keying speed and break-in behavior from within AetherSDR.

Before you start¶

AetherSDR must be connected to a FLEX-8600 radio.
The active slice must be in a CW mode. The Phone/CW applet automatically switches to the CW sub-panel when a CW slice is active.
A dual-lever paddle must be physically connected to the FLEX-8600's key jack.

Steps¶

Click the P/CW tray button in the right sidebar to open the Phone/CW applet. If the applet is already visible, skip this step.
Confirm the CW sub-panel is showing. If the active slice is in CW mode, the applet displays CW controls including Iambic, Speed (CW), Delay (CW), and Breakin.
Click Iambic to enable the iambic paddle keyer. The button highlights when active.

What each control does¶

Control	Description	Default
Iambic	Toggles the iambic paddle keyer on the radio.	—
Speed (CW)	Sets CW keying speed.	—
Delay (CW)	Sets CW break-in delay.	—
Breakin	Toggles full break-in (QSK).	—
Pitch < / >	Steps the CW sidetone and decode pitch by 10 Hz.	600 Hz

Tips¶

For low-latency sidetone feedback when using a paddle, enable Sidetone in the CW sub-panel. The single Sidetone button and Sidetone volume slider control both the radio's DAX-fed monitor and the client-side low-latency sidetone (approximately 10 ms latency) in lockstep. Pitch and pan follow the radio's cw_pitch and mon_pan_cw settings automatically. On Windows, the sidetone stream now starts immediately on connect (v0.9.3, fix #2105). See Listen to a TX sidetone monitor.
Adjust Speed (CW) before enabling Iambic to avoid sending at an unexpected rate. See Set CW keying speed in WPM.
If you want full QSK operation, also enable Breakin. In v0.9.7, Breakin is fully honored: with Breakin on, key edges trigger TX and break_in_delay holds the relay; with Breakin off, keys are queued and you engage PTT manually. The previous auto-PTT envelope that masked Breakin off and killed QSK hang time has been removed. To set a hang time instead, disable Breakin and set Delay (CW) to a non-zero value. See Set CW break-in delay.

Troubleshooting¶

The CW sub-panel is not visible, only Phone controls appear — The active slice is not in a CW mode. Switch the slice mode to CW or CW-USB/CW-LSB on the radio or in AetherSDR; the applet will switch automatically.
Iambic button is present but the paddle does not key — Verify the paddle is connected to the correct key jack on the FLEX-8600. The iambic keyer is a radio-side function; AetherSDR sends the enable command but physical keying depends on the hardware connection.
The Level gauge does not appear after connecting with mic source set to PC — In v0.9.3 the Level gauge appears immediately on connect when the mic source is PC (#2086). If the gauge is missing, confirm the mic source is set to PC in the Mic source selector and that you are running v0.9.3 or later. When the source is PC, the meter uses client-side metering and is not suppressed by the met_in_rx setting. The same client-side metering applies when RADE mode is active, and the Level gauge remains visible during RX in that case.
The Compression gauge shows a non-zero reading during receive — In v0.9.7, the Compression gauge is gated on the radio's interlock TRANSMITTING state. It reads 0 dB during RX. If you see a non-zero reading at rest, confirm you are running v0.9.7 or later.
Breakin OFF does not queue keys correctly; PTT drops unexpectedly — The auto-PTT envelope that previously overrode the Breakin setting was removed in v0.9.7. If you observe this behavior, confirm you are running v0.9.7 or later and that the radio's break_in setting matches the Breakin button state in the applet.