rouggy
031fcbd543
The RT-21 speaks the Hy-Gain DCU-1 command set in its default protocol setting, and internal/rotator/dcu1 has driven that since it landed — AP1nnn/AM1 to point, AI1 to read back, over a COM port or over TCP. Nothing was missing except a way to find it: "Green Heron" sat in a parenthesis after "Hy-Gain DCU-1", which an operator scanning the list for RT-21 does not see. So the dropdown leads with the controller people actually own, and the hint says the two things that decide whether it works: the RT-21's protocol must be set to DCU-1 / Rotor-EZ (on GS-232 it belongs to the GS-232 entry instead), and with the Ethernet option TCP reaches it directly rather than through a serial-over-IP bridge, which is what the hint used to imply was necessary. The package doc now also records what is NOT here: the native Green Heron protocol is a third command set, with 0.1° readback and a real stop, and writing it from memory is exactly the mistake this repo warns about for wire protocols.
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Maps and Antennas
Main view
The Main view is two configurable panes (per profile, Settings → General → Main view), with a draggable divider between them (double-click it to even them out). Choose from: great-circle map, locator (street) map, the cluster grid, the worked-before grid, recent QSOs, the FlexRadio controls, the Icom or Yaesu console, or the Net control panel.
Great-circle map
- Short/long-path distance & azimuth to the worked station.
- Selectable, key-free basemaps: Light / Voyager / Street / Satellite.
- The antenna beam lobe(s) are drawn from the rotor azimuth.
- Day/night terminator and twilight band (button at the top right).
Locator (street) map
An OSM street map centred on the contacted grid square — handy for local / portable contacts. No API key.
Rotators
An azimuthal-equidistant click-to-turn compass; the current heading and target are shown. The needle follows a turning antenna smoothly — OpsLog polls faster while the position is changing and backs off once it is parked.
Two rotors can be configured (two towers, or a Rotator Genius driving two). A Rotor 1 / 2 selector appears on the compass; OpsLog turns and displays the one you pick.
Types (Settings → Rotator)
Every rotator interface is configured here, once — including the az/el ones a satellite pass needs. The satellite page does not configure a rotator; it picks one of these.
| Type | Axes | Connection | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| PstRotator | Az, or Az + El | UDP | Enable PstRotator's UDP listener (Setup → Communication → UDP). Tick This rotator has an elevation axis if the mast behind PstRotator has one — PstRotator itself will forward elevation to a rotor that cannot use it. |
| Rotator Genius (4O3A) | Az | TCP, port 9006 | Native. Rotator # picks which of the two the box drives; Two rotors adds the second as its own rotor. |
| GS-232 azimuth (microHAM ARCO, ERC) | Az | LAN or USB | Set the controller's CONTROL PROTOCOL to Yaesu GS-232A. An ERC must be in GS-232 emulation, not Hy-Gain DCU-1. |
| ERC-M by DF9GR | Az + El | USB COM or LAN | The az/el interface for a Yaesu G-5500 and its relatives. GS-232 emulation, 19200 baud out of the box. Pick this rather than the GS-232 azimuth entry: it is what tells OpsLog the mast has an elevation motor. |
| Green Heron RT-21 / Hy-Gain DCU-1 | Az | COM port, or TCP | Also Idiom Press Rotor-EZ and RotorCard DXA. Set the RT-21 to DCU-1 / Rotor-EZ — on GS-232 use the GS-232 row instead. With the Ethernet option, TCP reaches it directly; no serial-over-IP bridge. A DCU-1 is 4800 baud; others may differ — match the controller. |
| SPID / AlfaSpid | Az + El (Rot2Prog) | COM port | Native, so PstRotator is not needed in between. See below. |
| EasyComm II | Az + El | COM port or TCP | What SatPC32, Gpredict, Hamlib and K3NG firmware speak — the usual choice for a home-built az/el controller. |
Each interface carries an Az or Az + El badge beside its name, so you can see at a glance which of your rotors can follow a satellite.
Rotator range (360° / 450°) appears for the interfaces OpsLog drives itself. A 450° mast follows a pass straight through north instead of unwinding. It is deliberately absent for PstRotator: PstRotator knows which controller is on the other end and does its own overlap, and two programs each deciding to go the long way round is how an antenna unwinds mid-pass.
SPID / AlfaSpid
Pick the dialect to match the controller — they are not interchangeable:
- Rot2Prog — RAS, BIG-RAS/HR, MD-01, MD-02. Azimuth and elevation. 600 baud.
- Rot1Prog — the older azimuth-only controllers (RAK, RAU). 1200 baud.
The two use different frame lengths, so a wrong choice shows up at once: the Test button reports a reply of the wrong length rather than leaving you to find out when the antenna turns oddly.
Two towers means two controllers, each on its own COM port and each a separate rotor in OpsLog.
The Test button on a SPID, an ARCO or a DCU-1 only READS the heading — it confirms the port, the speed and the dialect without moving anything, and says so. (PstRotator and a Rotator Genius are instead sent a move to 0°.)
Motorized antennas (Ultrabeam / SteppIR)
Both follow the rig frequency (band change → retune) and retune immediately when you click a spot, with three modes — Normal, 180° reverse, Bidirectional:
- The radiating direction is shown in green and the mechanical boom in grey, on both the compass and the map.
- On a FlexRadio, transmit is inhibited while the elements move, and released as soon as the antenna is tuned.
- SteppIR — Tunable range (Settings → Hardware → Antenna, default 13–54 MHz): outside it OpsLog leaves the antenna and the TX interlock completely alone, so tuning to 30 m on a 20 m–6 m SteppIR does nothing.
Related hardware: Amplifiers and Switches (Antenna Genius switch, Tuner Genius, relays).