Set CW break-in delay¶

The CW break-in delay controls how long the radio waits after the last keypress before returning to receive. Adjusting this prevents choppy QSK switching while still allowing a fast return to RX between words or characters.

Before you start¶

AetherSDR must be connected to the radio. The Phone/CW applet shows controls only when a radio connection is active.
The active slice must be in a CW mode. The CW sub-panel replaces the Phone sub-panel automatically when CW is selected on the active slice.

Steps¶

Locate the P/CW tray button in the right sidebar and confirm the applet is visible. If the applet is not visible, click the P/CW tray button to show it.
Confirm the CW sub-panel is displayed. If the Phone controls are showing instead, switch the active slice to a CW mode using the mode selector in the main VFO area.
Locate the Delay (CW) slider in the CW sub-panel.
Drag the Delay (CW) slider left to decrease the delay or right to increase it. The value is applied to the radio immediately.

What each control does¶

Control	Description	Valid range
Delay (CW)	Sets the CW break-in delay. The radio returns to receive this many milliseconds after the last keyed element.	0–2000 ms (step 10)
Breakin	Toggles full break-in (QSK). With Breakin ON, key edges trigger TX and the break-in delay holds the relay before returning to receive. With Breakin OFF, keyed characters are queued and the operator engages PTT manually.	On / Off

Tips¶

A delay of 0 ms with Breakin enabled gives full QSK operation. Increase the delay to reduce relay wear during fast sending.
The Delay (CW) slider steps in 10 ms increments. For fine adjustment, click the slider track and use the arrow keys (if keyboard shortcuts are enabled under View > Keyboard Shortcuts).

Notes for v0.9.7¶

Breakin behavior corrected: The Breakin toggle now fully controls whether the CW keyboard and MIDI keying paths trigger TX automatically. Previously, an internal auto-PTT envelope overrode the Breakin OFF state and suppressed QSK hang time. That envelope has been removed. With Breakin OFF, keys queue characters and PTT must be engaged manually; with Breakin ON, key edges trigger TX immediately and break_in_delay governs the relay hang time.
Compression gauge gated on transmit state: The Compression gauge in the Phone sub-panel now reads 0 dB during receive. It only shows a non-zero value when the radio's interlock reports TRANSMITTING and the speech processor is enabled. This prevents stale readings from the TX chain appearing while you are listening.
Mic gain slider in RADE mode: When RADE mode is active, the Mic gain slider acts as a client-side RADE gain control and uses the PcMicGain setting, the same key used for PC mic source. The slider value is no longer sent to the radio as mic_level while RADE is active, which would otherwise silently overwrite the hardware mic setting. When RADE mode is deactivated, the slider reverts to reflecting the radio's reported mic level.
Level gauge in RADE mode: When RADE mode is active the Level gauge remains live during receive (it does not require met_in_rx to be set), consistent with the existing PC mic source behavior. When RADE mode is deactivated the gauge resets to −150 dBFS.

Notes for v0.9.3¶

Level gauge (Phone panel): When the mic source is set to PC, the Level gauge now appears immediately on connect without waiting for the radio's met_in_rx flag to be set. This is because PC mic metering runs client-side and is independent of met_in_rx. For all other mic sources the previous suppression behavior is unchanged: the gauge reads −150 dBFS when met_in_rx is off and the radio is not transmitting.
VOX / Phone panel refresh: VOX setters now emit phoneStateChanged, so the Phone sub-panel updates instantly when VOX is toggled via a keyboard shortcut. No manual panel interaction is needed to see the current VOX state.
Sidetone on Windows: The CW sidetone stream (low-latency CwSidetoneGenerator) now starts immediately on connect on Windows. If you previously had to toggle Sidetone off and on after connecting to hear the local sidetone, this workaround is no longer needed.