FT8 on Linux/Ubuntu

[Daniel Wee]

There are a few settings that need to be done to successfully connect your radio to the Linux machine. These steps include:-

1. Identifying the correct serial port
2. granting permission to the user to that port
3. Identifying the correct audio devices
4. Configuring the FT8 client (JTDX, WSJT-X, FLRig etc.)

To identify the port, unplug (if you're already plugged in) the USB serial port device. In my case, this would be the USB connection to the radio. Once you have done this, issue:-

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dmesg

The correct port will show up at the bottom of the long list, usually as ttyACM0, ttyACM1, ttyUSB0, ttyUSB1. The client should list these if correctly installed. In the case of my ICOM radios, they show up in the list as:-

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/dev/ttyACM0
/dev/ttyACM1

The correct one to use for ICOM and most radios would be the first option.

Secondly, you will now need to grant permission to access these ports. To do so, issue:-

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sudo adduser daniel dialout

Instead of "daniel", you can use whatever your username is for which you will run the FT8 clients.

Lastly, you will need to tell the client which audio device to use. In my case, the device shows up as:-

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alsa_input.usb-Burr-Brown_from_TI_USB_Audio_CODEC-00.analog-stereo
alsa_output.usb-Burr-Brown_from_TI_USB_Audio_CODEC-00.analog-stereo