Add or remove publish buttons

Configure up to 12 publish buttons that send MQTT messages with a single click. Each button has a label, topic, and payload that you define in the Publish Buttons tab of the MQTT Settings dialog.

The Publish Buttons tab also lists internal topics that AetherSDR publishes automatically. In v26.6.3, you can enable or disable most of these internal publish topics individually.

Before you start

• MQTT must be compiled into your build of AetherSDR (the dialog is guarded by the HAVE_MQTT build gate).
• An MQTT broker connection must be configured. See Configure MQTT broker connection.

Steps

1. Open the MQTT Settings dialog: Settings > MQTT....
2. Click the Publish Buttons tab.
3. To add a button, click Add. A new row appears in the table with empty Label, Topic, and Payload cells.
4. Double-click each cell and type the values you want.
5. To remove one or more buttons, select their rows (click the row number on the left, or Ctrl-click multiple rows) and click Remove.
6. To enable or disable an internal publish topic, check or uncheck its checkbox in the Internal AetherSDR Topics group box.
7. Click Apply to save without closing, or Ok to save and close.

What each control does

Control	Behavior	Limit
Add	Inserts a new row in the button table. Disabled when 12 rows are present.	12 buttons maximum
Remove	Removes the selected rows from the button table.	—
Label (table cell)	Text displayed on the publish button in the MQTT applet.	Editable text
Topic (table cell)	MQTT topic string sent when the button is clicked.	Editable text
Payload (table cell)	MQTT payload string sent when the button is clicked.	Editable text

Internal AetherSDR Publish Topics

The Internal AetherSDR Topics group box at the bottom of the Publish Buttons tab lists topics that AetherSDR publishes automatically whenever MQTT is connected. Each topic has a checkbox; uncheck a topic to stop publishing it.

Topic	Description	Default	Enabled by default
aethersdr/cw/decode	CW decoded text	Yes	Yes
aethersdr/radio/state	Radio VFO / mode / TX state	Yes	No
aethersdr/ax25/rx	AX.25 received frames	Yes	No

The CW decoded text topic (aethersdr/cw/decode) is enabled by default; the other two publish topics are disabled by default and must be checked to activate them.

Settings storage

• All button definitions are saved to MqttSettings (nested JSON key buttons) when you click Apply or Ok.
• Internal topic enable/disable state is saved to AppSettings under keys like mqtt_internal_aethersdr_radio_state.

Tips

• Rows with empty Label, Topic, and Payload are omitted on save — you can leave unfinished rows.
• Button definitions are shared between the MQTT Settings dialog and the MQTT applet panel.

Related

• Configure MQTT broker connection (host, port, credentials, TLS)
• Configure MQTT subscriptions