Set CW keying speed in WPM¶
Use the Speed slider in the Phone/CW applet to set how fast the radio keys CW, measured in words per minute. This controls the radio's internal keyer and affects paddle, straight-key, and CWX transmissions.
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 shows the CW sub-panel only when the active slice is in CW mode; otherwise the Phone panel is displayed.
- Open the Phone/CW applet by clicking the P/CW tray button in the right sidebar, or confirm it is already visible.
Steps¶
- Verify that the active slice is in a CW mode. The applet automatically switches to the CW sub-panel when CW mode is active.
- Locate the Speed (CW) slider in the CW sub-panel.
- Drag the Speed (CW) slider left to decrease WPM or right to increase WPM. The valid range is 5–100 WPM.
What each control does¶
| Control | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Speed (CW) | Sets CW keying speed sent to the radio's internal keyer. | — |
Tips¶
- The Speed (CW) slider operates the radio's keyer speed. Changes take effect immediately and apply to the paddle, straight key, and any CWX text transmissions.
- The Sidetone toggle and Sidetone volume slider control both the radio's DAX-fed monitor and the client-side low-latency sidetone in lockstep. Adjusting speed does not affect sidetone pitch; pitch always follows the radio's
cw_pitchsetting automatically. - The Level gauge appears immediately on connect when the mic source is set to PC, or when RADE mode is active. In both cases the gauge uses client-side metering and is not suppressed by the
met_in_rxsetting, even when not transmitting. When RADE mode is active, the gauge continues to show level during RX. - The Compression gauge reads 0 dB during RX. It only shows a non-zero value while the radio's interlock reports a TRANSMITTING state and the speech processor is enabled, preventing stale TX-chain readings from appearing during receive.
- The Mic gain slider behaves differently when RADE mode is active: it acts as client-side RADE gain and stores its value under
PcMicGainrather than sending a mic level command to the radio. This prevents silently overwriting the hardware mic setting. The samePcMicGainsetting is shared between PC source mode and RADE mode. - The Breakin toggle fully controls whether CW keyboard and MIDI key edges trigger TX. With Breakin on (QSK), key edges trigger TX and the break-in delay holds the relay. With Breakin off, keys are queued and you engage PTT manually. No automatic PTT envelope overrides this behavior.