Kenwood transceiver remote control software

More information - https://ra0sms.com/kenwood-control-software/

A compact replacement for the standard Kenwood ARCP-590 software for the TS-590S / TS-590SG. It has limited functionality, but works noticeably faster than the original software. The power buttons make it easy to set the right drive level for a tube power amplifier.

Based on Python 3 and PyQt5. If you want, you can change the source code for your needs.

Features

• Frequency, VFO and mode display; tuning with buttons or the mouse wheel over the frequency (100 Hz step, Ctrl + wheel - 1 kHz)
• Drive power buttons (steps are configurable) and actual TX power display
• S-meter on receive, RF power and SWR meters on transmit
• AF gain, RF gain and microphone gain sliders, synchronized with the TRX knobs
• Mode buttons LSB / USB / CW / FM and DATA mode on/off (DATA works in LSB, USB, FM, AM)
• RX antenna, attenuator, antenna tuner, power on/off
• PTT: the TX button or hold SPACE. TX is released when the window loses focus, the port is closed or the program exits
• Link indicator in the status bar:
  • ● ONLINE (green, the dot blinks with every answer) - TRX answers
  • ● WAIT / ● SLOW (orange) - waiting for the first answer / answers are late
  • ● NO ANSWER (red) - TRX does not answer
  • ● CTS LOW (red) - TRX does not accept commands (RTS/CTS handshake), check the cable
• Remembers the last COM port and connects to it at startup
• "On top" mode to keep the window above a logger

Download

Windows builds are published on the Releases page. Download kenwood_control-<version>-windows.exe and run it, no installation is needed.

Settings

On the first start the program creates kenwood_control.ini next to the exe:

[power]
steps=5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 100

[serial]
port=COM6
baud=9600
flow_control=true

[window]
on_top=false

• power/steps - power buttons in watts (5...100), 7 buttons per row
• serial/baud - must match the COM port speed set in the TRX menu
• serial/flow_control - RTS/CTS hardware handshake. The TS-590 needs it; set false only for a cable without RTS/CTS lines

Running from source

pip install -r requirements.txt
python src/kenwood_control.py

Building

The exe is built with PyInstaller. It builds for the OS it runs on, so the Windows version must be built on Windows:

pip install -r requirements.txt pyinstaller
python build.py

The result is dist/kenwood_control-<version>-windows.exe.

Release on GitHub

Releases are built automatically by GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/release.yml):

1. Change VERSION in src/kenwood_control.py and commit.
2. Push a tag with the same version:

   git tag v1.1.0
   git push origin v1.1.0
   

3. GitHub builds the Windows exe and creates the release with it.

A test build without a release: Actions -> Release -> Run workflow, the exe is in the run's Artifacts.