anyone running their CAT over TCP/IP?

I'm trying to get my 705 configured to do js8call on a win11 laptop.   I don't want to use usb cables for several reasons we can discuss later but i shouldn't have to as most programs seem to support TCP/IP CAT.

VarAC for example, has a TCP option but zero documentation on it and all the youtube clowns use usb.  no answers in their forums.  I played with it for a few frustrating hours today and always get the same error message, which says TCP operation is not allowed on unconnected sockets.    To me (a CCIE) it seems like someone with EAASL or just not very familiar with TCP/IP is trying to make a very specific message indicating I should use TCP instead of UDP but the 705 only supports UDP and afaik all the cat stuff is UDP not TCP.   But I could be wrong...   It's also possible that the TCP option is just vaporware.

On js8call, it's not an option, but they do have a hamlib connector which seems to work.  I have complete control of the radio through wfview and wfview has a hamlib server, which js8call easily connects to.

The challenge there seems to be  the audio configuration.  It appears to be sending correctly.  When I send a heartbeat or CQ or test tone i see it on the 705 waterfall.  However, my receive in js8call seems to be coming from the windows microphone and there's no option to point the audio at whatever is coming from wfview.   I can't figure out why there's no other audio in option.   The 705 appears to have a UDP port for this 50003.    (Control is 50001, serial comms is 50002).  There doesn't seem to be any way to access it from js8call though or varAC

vbaudio cable This is how I use it wireless. Along with WFview and VSPE (Virtual serial port emulator) Unless I dont understand what you are trying to do?

As TimeIsMoney has written, normally you would use either wfview or Icom's RS-BA1 remote software client to create local audio and CAT virtual devices, then work from there.

However, it seems you've found a way to go direct to some UDP ports for CAT, which is very cool. Perhaps the same could be done for audio, but you'd need something to move that data and then create the appearance of the necessary audio device. Perhaps someone on an Icom-specific radio forum has cracked this nut.

The easy (but not lightweight) answer is to simply use wfview.

that vbaudio cable and serial port emulator may be what i need.  I'm pondering how that would work

in the icom 705, if you go into set wifi, remote settings, network control has 3 ports...  Control Port UDP 50001, Serial Port UDP 50002, Audio Port UDP 50003.   Pointing WFVIEW at 50001 makes CAT work great. Also works from Iphone apps.    HOWEVER, I've never pointed an app at the Audio Port, but I'm getting audio (out not in) so maybe the CAT is pointing the app at the audio and just doesn't know the right port?   prob some whack ini file somewhere.   OR, i don't understand the difference between using the laptop soundcard and 705 soundcard.




let me try to explain again...   i'll just focus on js8call.

705 and laptop are connected via wifi.  can ping each other.

what I'm trying to do conceptually is

705 to WFView  to  js8call   (via TCP/IP UDP port 50001, and hamlib NET rigctrl respectively)


In WFView, under External Control, i enable rigctl port 4533.    Then in js8call, i select the radio type hamlib NET rigctl instead of icom7300, and point it at localhost 127.0.0.1:4533.

at that point, CAT works.  The test button in js8call turns green and the PTT works (and the 705 confirms it)

So, js8call and wfview are talking via TCP/IP and wfview and 705 are talking via TCP/IP. w00t.

unfortunately, if i select the rig as icom7300 in js8call, there's no tcp/ip option, only USB.  otherwise, I could skip wfview and go straight to the 705.

(the big advantage of TCP/IP of course being remote control from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.   i can leave my 705 and antenna at the cabin on the mountain, connected to starlink wifi, and take my laptop to the chic fil a, or my gf house in town, etc and check into the net)


now, the audio.   at this point, what appears to be happening is i can transmit.  js8call is sending to wfview and wfview is sending to 705 and 705 transmits.
what's not working is i can't hear anything on js8call.
wfview waterfall matches my 705 waterfall.
wfview pipes audio (mostly static on 7.078) from 705 to my speakers (i can select my laptop speakers or some bluetooth external speakers and both work fine.)

but js8call waterfall shows noise from the laptop microphone.   if i'm jabbering on a conference call or clapping my hands or whatever, i see it on js8call waterfall.  

what SHOULD happen is wfview should send audio to js8call.   but i have no idea why that's not working.   in js8call, under audio, the only option in the drop down for INPUT is the laptop mic.  But, then, the only option for OUTPUT is the laptop speakers or bluetooth speakers, and regardless of which i pick, i can still transmit.

in external control settings on wfview, there's an option for a virtual serial port.  only option was "none" but then i created a com port and now i have a com3, which i've tried, but js8call only sees it under CAT and not under audio.  

there's also an option for "enable USB controllers" which is off, but i've turned it on and it has a setup button but it doesn't find any USB stuff so it doesn't appear to do anything.

Good post. It explains what you are trying to accomplish and why it is not working for you.

CAT is CAT and audio is audio and they each need to be solved in a different way.

First the CAT part...

Any hamlib enabled software (WSJT-X, JS8Call, Flidigi, etc.) that is built with a later version of hamlib allows one to put in "ip:port" in lieu of a COM1, COM2, etc. However, AFAIK, this is an TCP port and not a UDP port. Nevertheless, you may wish to try this in order to skip over wfview and go direct to the 705.

If you wish to continue to use wfview, it's a good bet that selecting IC7300 as the rig type and point it at 127.0.0.1:4533 will work.

I realize it can be counterintuitive to type an ip:port where you normally see "COM1", but that's how hamlib works.

Note also that not all software uses hamlib.

Second the audio part...

You are just getting lucky that your transmit path is working. Pay no attention to that, it will merely confuse you. You must use "virtual audio cable" software to make the audio connection between wfview and digi mode software like JS8Call. The reason for this is because all of this software is looking ONLY for audio devices and is not capable of going direct to a UDP or IP port. I.e. you probably can't get rid of wfview.

What this virtual audio cable software does is to create the appearance of a virtual audio device, i.e. a "cable". Once a cable is defined then you can choose that as an audio device in wfview, JS8Call, etc. You need to paths, i.e. two cables, one for TX and one for RX.

The wfview documentation shows an example using Muzychenko's VAC software. I'd recommend using VB Cable instead as it is free, and it is a good intro to the amazing audio tools created by Vincent Burel, especially Voicemeeter.

in the suite of protocols known as "TCP/IP",  IP is layer 3 (network layer) and is among other things the address, e.g. 127.0.0.1 or in the case of my 705 192.168.1.30.    
Above IP (i.e. the next protocol in the stack, which is encapsulated in the IP packet) is the transport layer 4, which is almost always either TCP or UDP.  TCP being connection-oriented with 3way hand shake and flow control and ability to detect and resend lost packets, etc, and UDP being the much lighterweight and faster connectionless option.   TCP is usually things like websites (HTTP) etc and UDP is usually media (the voice in VOIP, video streaming, etc).

it wouldn't be completely shocking for CAT to be TCP and the audio to be UDP.   But in this case, the 705 only supports UDP for CAT.  You can change the port number to something other than 50001, but you can't change it from UDP to TCP.

I would love to skip wfview and go straight from js8call to the 705.   What's stopping me there is the security in the icom705.  For network control, you have to enter a username and password.   WFVIEW supports authentication and js8call hamlib does not.  (there's simply no place to enter it in the config)

wfview has the ability to act as a "radio server" which allows you to create a username and password to access wfview server.  
wfview also has the simple "external control" which doesn't support authentication.   this latter option is what i have to use to communicate with js8call.
(i suspect those are two entirely different protocols, and even if i could turn off authentication in the 705, mixing them wouldn't work)

i'm not sure what you mean by "it's a good bet that selecting IC7300 as the rig type and point it at 127.0.0.1:4533 will work" but once you select ic7300 in js8call, it disables the text box for inputting IP Address and port.  That option is only available when you select hamlib.  and that's what i'm doing.  i configure wfview to listen on 4533, and point hamlib in js8call to talk to the localhost on port 4533, and that's what's working.
 if you mean selecting 7300 in wfview, then no, you'd need to put the 705's real address 192.168.1.30 and the 50001 port it's listening on, instead of the laptop's loopback address 127.0.0.1.  maybe i'm not following you on that.


the wfview documentation is really helpful.  thanks for that link!

well, i downloaded the vb cable thing and installed the driver.  the virtual cable showed up and i pointed js8call and wfview at it.   after a brief reconfig, js8call started working.   my window filled up with traffic.  i made a quick QSO with some guy in NOVA.  exchanged signal reports and said 73.

thanks for the help!   i'm not 100% sure my config is correct, but it's working.  I'll explain that later, as i have to go do some "work" for a while...

My bad. I wrote "IP" when I meant "TCP". I have edited my post above to correct that.

Sorry. I don't use wfview, I just assumed it supported hamlib across the board, not as a separate setting.

If you didn't already, you need to create two cables. Use one cable for the RX audio between wfview and JS8Call and the other for TX audio.

yep, so at first, i pointed both in and out on both js8call and wfview to the virtual cable and that obviously didn't work.
so second, i just put IN on js8call and OUT on wfview, and then everything started working.
if i can figure out how to make a second cable, i'll do that.  but it appears to just be a driver that made one cable.  i didn't see an executable or a configuration spot to make multiple cables.  i see that in the documentation, but the docs don't say how to get to the interface lol


i am also curious about how hamlib is supported.  it seems to be an option in js8call where you can select it or a radio but not both.  not sure how that works.

If you use the paid version of vbcable you can create A + B vbcables. I think it's $5 or $10, you can choose your amount.

Linux has remote audio builtin to the pulse audio subsystem, that works over tcp/ip.  For CAT, Hamlib also has a tcp/ip layer built in and distributes some command line tools for setup and testing.  I setup wsjtx to run from the living room, but then I realized this mode would not allow me to hide in my office from my wife while playing radio.

In JS8Call (and WSJT-X, Fldigi, and many other app's) ALL radios are handled by hamlib. I.e. hamlib is a software library designed to make life easy for app developers. While hamlib support in wfview might be a special case, it is the ONLY case in (for example) JS8Call. Any radio type you select invokes the hamlib library that was built into JS8Call. The radio type "Hamlib NET rigctl" is effectively another radio type designed to work with software like wfview that invokes a rigctl interface, i.e. wfview IS the "radio" as far as JS8Call is concerned.

You can learn more about the (quite wonderful!) hamlib effort here: https://hamlib.github.io/

in JS8CALL, if i select rig hamlib NET rigctl, under CAT the ONLY option is network server for inputting an IP address and port.
if i select under rig any ICOM radio, and most other radios, the ONLY option is a serial port COM or USB

wfview's support for hamlib rigctl isn't rig based.  it acts as a hamlib rigctl server and you simply turn it on or off.


i'm just saying it would be nice if i could select the icom 7300 rig and do CAT over the network without pointing to wfview.
it's not clear to me if the js8call-to-wfview and wfview-to-705 are the same protocol or two different protocols.