Be aware that trx-control is under active development. Things may change in incompatible ways. We strive, however, to keep the documentation and this website up to date.

If you find any inconsistencies, errors or bugs, please file a PR on the Github page (see Source Code).

trx-control mainly consists of trxd(8), a daemon to control the transceivers and other hardware, and, trxctl(1), a command line utility to access trxd(8), and, bluecat(1), a tool to help with the configuration of bluetooth connections.

trx-control comes with protocol drivers for common transceiver brands, configurations for a variety of transceiver models, a bunch of extensions, and, complete documentation online as well as in the form on manual pages.

Software that wants to make use of trxd(8) should implement the trx-control client/server protocol and talk to trxd(8) over the network, either over raw IP sockets or WebSockets.

(trxd(8) listens on port 14285 by default for incoming connections over raw sockets and can optionally listen for WebSocket connections. It supports both IPv4 and IPv6.)

See The trx-control Integration Guide (PDF, EPUB) for all information regarding the client/server protocol, the extensions etc.

Transceivers are controlled using protocol drivers written in the Lua programming language. Properties of a specific transceiver are defined in YAML format. New transceivers can be added by adding a protocol driver (if needed) and a transceiver defintion.

See The trx-control Developer Guide (PDF, EPUB) for all information needed to write protocol drivers and the documentation of all Lua modules included with trx-control.

See https://lua.org for more information on Lua.

At the core of a trx-control installation is trxd(8), the daemon that handles clients (IPv4 and IPv6) and controls the devices and extensions by exchanging JSON-formatted data with the clients and talking to the transceivers and other devices over whatever interface they use. All communication between the clients and trxd(8) is either done using NDJSON packages over a plain TCP/IP socket or JSON packages over a WebSocket.

Multiple clients can simultaneously connect to trxd(8), controlling an unlimited number of transceivers, GPIO pins, and, extensions:

trxd(8) supports transceivers that can automatically send status updates (e.g. Yaesu FT-710 etc.) as well as transceivers that require polling (e.g. older Yaesu FT-897 etc.)

trx-control supports the following transceivers, more will be added over time:

A special simulator transceiver driver exists for development and testing purposes.

Any GPS/Glonass/BeiDou etc. receiver that emits fix data as NMEA sentences.

Follow HB9SSB on Bluesky: @hb9ssb.bsky.social

There is a Matrix chat room #trx-control:matrix.org to discuss trx-control: #trx-control:matrix.org

While trx-control requires a Linux system to run on, it can as well be used on Windows. Install the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and install the prebuilt binary packages for the Linux distribution you did choose and install in WSL.

Another option might be to use a desktop virtualizer like VirtualBox or VMWare Workstation (both are free) or running it in a container, e.g. using Docker Desktop.

Yes, just make sure to properly setup networking and access to USB devices. Also, if service advertising using mDNS is to be used to announce the Websocket service, then the network within in the container has to be correctly configured so that mDNS packages are passed (port 5353/udp).