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 rowserial/baud - must match the COM port speed set in the TRX menuserial/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):
- Change
VERSION in src/kenwood_control.py and commit.
- Push a tag with the same version:
git tag v1.1.0
git push origin v1.1.0
- 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.
