Phone/CW applet¶

The Phone/CW applet provides a mode-aware transmit control panel. When the active slice is in a voice mode (LSB, USB, AM, FM, etc.), it displays microphone, processor, and monitor controls. When the active slice switches to CW mode, the panel automatically switches to show CW controls including delay, speed, sidetone, iambic, and pitch settings.

In v0.9.8, the four CW value labels (Delay, Speed, Sidetone volume, Pitch) are now editable QLineEdit widgets with QIntValidator. Click any value field and type a number directly. When you press Enter or Tab, the value is validated and applied to both the slider and the radio. Sliding the control while the text field is not focused still updates the text immediately.

The single Sidetone toggle and Sidetone volume slider drive both the radio's DAX-fed monitor and the client-side low-latency sidetone generator (CwSidetoneGenerator, approximately 10 ms latency) in lockstep. Pitch and pan always follow the radio's cw_pitch and mon_pan_cw settings automatically.

In v0.9.7, the Compression gauge is now gated on the radio's interlock TRANSMITTING state (not meter flow), so it reads 0 during receive. Breakin now fully honors the radio's break_in setting — no auto-PTT envelope forces TX any more. The sidetone bus is shared with Quindar tones (mutually exclusive at the mode level).

In v26.5.1, both the Phone and CW sub-panels now feature an ALC gauge driven by the software ALC meter (post-software-ALC SSB peak in dBFS), replacing the previous HWALC (RCA voltage) path that produced meaningless readings. The two gauges are identical mirrors of each other, ensuring SSB operators watching mic gain during receive see the same indicator CW operators use to verify clean keying envelope shape (#2552).

In v26.5.3, the CW sidetone now routes to the user-selected audio output instead of the default output (#2899). The Compression gauge now correctly interprets the positive dB values from MeterModel::COMPPEAK and negates them for the reversed gauge display. The Level gauge now uses a dedicated receive-gate method (applyLevelMeterReceiveGate()) that applies equally to all mic sources including PC and RADE, suppressing the meter to -150 when met_in_rx is off and the radio is not transmitting.

In v26.6.1, all slider and button styles were updated to use the active theme system via ThemeManager::applyStyleSheet() and applyPrimarySliderStyle(), replacing hardcoded color values. The panel container now uses theme::setContainer() for proper theming support. Button hover and pressed states now use theme-defined colors ({{color.background.1}} and {{color.accent}}) instead of fixed hex values.

Before you start¶

Connect to a FLEX-8600 radio. The Phone/CW applet requires an active radio connection.
Set the active slice to a CW mode to see CW controls, or to a voice mode to see Phone controls. The applet switches automatically.
Open the Phone/CW applet by clicking the P/CW tray button in the right sidebar if it is not already visible.

Steps¶

Change the radio CW pitch¶

Locate Pitch < / > in the CW sub-panel. It displays the current pitch value with < and > buttons on either side.
To type a value directly, click the numeric field, enter a value between 100 and 6000, and press Enter or Tab.
To adjust in 10 Hz steps, click < to decrease the pitch or > to increase it.
The new pitch is sent to the radio immediately. Default: 600 Hz.

The client-side sidetone generator always follows this pitch value automatically. There is no separate local pitch control.

Adjust CW delay¶

Locate Delay in the CW sub-panel. It has a slider and an editable value field.
To type a value directly, click the numeric field, enter a value between 0 and 2000 (milliseconds), and press Enter or Tab. The slider moves to match.
Slide the control to adjust in 10 ms steps.
Default: 500 ms.

In v0.9.8, the setCwDelay method was fixed to cache the value immediately so the radio emission does not snap the slider back (#2428).

Adjust CW speed¶

Locate Speed in the CW sub-panel. It has a slider and an editable value field.
To type a value directly, click the numeric field, enter a value between 5 and 100 (WPM), and press Enter or Tab. The slider moves to match.
Slide the control to adjust in steps.
Default: 20 WPM.

Enable or disable the sidetone¶

Click Sidetone in the CW sub-panel to toggle it on or off.
Both the radio's DAX-fed monitor and the client-side low-latency sidetone generator are enabled or disabled together by this single button.

Adjust sidetone volume¶

Locate Sidetone volume in the CW sub-panel. It has a slider and an editable value field.
To type a value directly, click the numeric field, enter a value between 0 and 100, and press Enter or Tab. The slider moves to match.
Slide the control to adjust the volume.
Default: 50.
The slider sets both the radio monitor volume (mon_gain_cw) and the client-side sidetone generator volume simultaneously.

Adjust CW monitor pan¶

Locate L / R pan (CW) in the CW sub-panel. It is a slider from 0 (full left) to 100 (full right).
Slide to the desired stereo position.
Double-click the slider to recenter to 50 (centre).
Default: 50.

Toggle break-in (QSK)¶

Click Breakin in the CW sub-panel. When enabled (full break-in, QSK), key edges trigger TX immediately and the break-in delay holds the relay open between elements.
When break-in is off, keys are queued and the radio does not go to TX until you engage PTT manually. The previous auto-PTT envelope that masked Breakin OFF has been removed (v0.9.7).

Toggle iambic keyer¶

Click Iambic in the CW sub-panel to enable or disable the iambic paddle keyer.

Adjust microphone controls (Phone panel)¶

Select a mic profile from the Mic profile combo box to load the named mic processing profile.
Select the mic source from the Mic source combo box (MIC, BAL, LINE, ACC, PC, plus any from the radio's mic input list).
Adjust the Mic gain slider (0–100, default 50) to set the microphone input level. When the source is set to PC, the value is stored client-side in PcMicGain and the radio ignores it.
Click +ACC to enable the accessory microphone input mix.
Click PROC to toggle the speech processor on or off.
Use the NOR/DX/DX+ slider to select the processor level (0 = NOR, 1 = DX, 2 = DX+).
Click DAX to enable DAX as the TX audio source.
Click MON to enable the sideband monitor.
Adjust the Monitor volume slider (0–100) to set the sideband monitor volume.

Read the meters¶

Level gauge: Shows microphone input peak level in dBFS (-40 to +10 dBFS, red above 0 dBFS). Suppressed to -150 when met_in_rx is off and not transmitting. Applies to all mic sources including PC and RADE (v26.5.3).
Compression gauge: Shows speech compression amount in dB (0 dB = none, -25 dB = full compression). Gated on the radio's interlock TRANSMITTING state and speech processor enable. Reads 0 dB during receive (v0.9.7). In v26.5.3, properly converts the positive COMPPEAK meter values (0–25 dB) to the negative gauge range.
ALC (Phone panel) gauge: Shows automatic level control reading from the software ALC meter (post-software-ALC SSB peak in dBFS, range -20 to 0 dBFS, red above -3 dBFS). Fills from the right, with empty at -20 dBFS and full at 0 dBFS (#2552, v26.5.1). Initialized to -20 dBFS on startup (v26.5.3).
ALC (CW panel) gauge: Identical mirror of the Phone-panel ALC gauge, both driven by the same source (MeterModel::swAlcChanged). Range, scale, and fill direction match the Phone panel version exactly (#2552, v26.5.1). Initialized to -20 dBFS on startup (v26.5.3).

What each control does¶

Phone controls¶

Control	Default	Valid range
Mic profile	—	From radio list
Mic source	—	MIC, BAL, LINE, ACC, PC
Mic gain	50	0–100
+ACC	—	On / Off
PROC	—	On / Off
NOR/DX/DX+	0	0, 1, 2
DAX	—	On / Off
MON	—	On / Off
Monitor volume	—	0–100

CW controls¶

Control	Default	Valid range
Delay (CW)	500 ms	0–2000 ms (step 10)
Speed (CW)	20 WPM	5–100 WPM
Sidetone	—	On / Off
Sidetone volume	50	0–100
L / R pan (CW)	50	0–100
Breakin	—	On / Off
Iambic	—	On / Off
Pitch < / >	600 Hz	100–6000 Hz (step 10)

RADE mode and the mic level slider¶

When RADE mode is active, the Mic gain slider acts as a client-side RADE gain control rather than sending a mic level command to the radio. This mirrors the behavior of the PC mic source, where the radio does not use the mic level value. Both cases store their gain in PcMicGain.

While RADE is active:

The Mic gain slider reads from and saves to PcMicGain and does not send mic_level commands to the radio.
The Level gauge uses the standard receive-gate behavior (v26.5.3). It remains active during receive only if met_in_rx is enabled or the radio is transmitting. When RADE mode is active, the gauge state is refreshed via applyLevelMeterReceiveGate().
When RADE mode is turned off, the slider reverts to reflecting the radio's mic level, and the Level gauge continues to follow the receive-gate logic.

Tips¶

The Pitch < / > control affects both the audible sidetone on the radio and the frequency used by the CW decoder. Adjust it to match your personal pitch preference. The client-side sidetone always tracks it automatically.
Because pitch and pan follow the radio settings automatically, you only need to adjust Pitch < / > and L / R pan (CW) in one place — both the radio monitor and the local generator update together.
The client-side sidetone generator operates at approximately 10 ms latency and works with paddle, straight key, and CWX-generated transmissions. If you are not hearing a sidetone at all, verify that Sidetone is enabled.
In v26.5.3, the CW sidetone routes to your selected audio output device rather than the default system output. Verify your audio output selection if sidetone is not audible.
The Compression gauge reads 0 dB during receive. It only shows a value while the radio's interlock reports TRANSMITTING and the speech processor is enabled. This prevents stale readings from appearing between transmissions.
With Breakin off, keys are queued and the radio does not go to TX until you engage PTT manually. With Breakin on (QSK), key edges trigger TX immediately and the break-in delay holds the relay open between elements. There is no longer an automatic PTT envelope that overrides this setting (v0.9.7).
For CW value fields (Delay, Speed, Sidetone volume, Pitch), click the numeric field, type your value, and press Enter or Tab. The value is validated and applied to both