FLDigi Operating Tips & Tricks (Macros & Shortcuts)

Good day, thanks for stopping by. The 2nd Hobbyist Digi net was an in depth look at FLDigi settings, options and abilities and now it's time to put that exploration to good use! The goal of this write up and the 3rd Hobbyist Digi Net (6/6/2020/7Pm/CountyWide) is to help familiarize you with some of FLDigi's operating procedures.

The Macro Buttons are going to be the main focus here. With them you can save a lot of time and simplify the QSO process. As always I recommend reading the Documentation for FLDigi and learning about all of the macro commands but for now we'll go over a few important ones.

Any of the 12 visible macro buttons above the waterfall can be activated by pressing the correlating F key. The Macros are fully customizable and can be edited by right clicking on one. Let's start by right clicking the first Macro Button on the very left hand side (F1). The Macro editor window will pop up.

The box on the Left is the list of actions that will take place when the macro button is pressed. The list on the right is the list of possible commands that can be added to the list of actions. Let's line up our Macro Key functionality with the timeline of a QSO. The first step in a digital QSO is to call CQ. Lets make our first button be the CQ button like in the example above. If you've configured FLDigi with your Callsign and other information then commands like <MYCALL> will auto populate with your Callsign. Create your CQ macro in the window on the left, label it in the small Label box on the bottom and press Apply then close.

Now when you press the CQ button on the far left, the blue screen should populate with your CQ command.

On a side note, I like to attach my transmit/receive <TX><RX> commands to only one button. This way my macros can populate the edit text window so I can proofread, edit, or add them together as desired before transmitting. We will program that (Send Message) macro button later.

The Default layout of the macro buttons are already laid out in the order of a QSO they just need a little editing.

Now that we have a CQ button we'll need one that will help us out if someone answers the CQ. Right Click the 2nd button from the left and replace the text with something like this:

This is a Message precursor that will automatically add call signs to the beginning of the message. <CALL> will auto-populate with the other operators call sign. The key to make this work is at the top of the FLDigi screen in the Log Section.

First go to View->Rig/Log Controls and make sure it's set to Full or Partial

When someone answers your CQ with their call sign go ahead and put their call sign in the Call field (Top of FLDigi Screen) and press enter. Now the Macro Command <CALL> will populate with the other parties call sign. The other fields, such as name also have macro commands <NAME> that can be used.

Now we will program the Send Message button. I've placed mine on the F10 macro button

The <TX><RX> command set will put your radio into transmit mode, send whatever text you've put in the blue box of FLDigi then put the radio back into receive mode.

Now, with these 4 buttons programmed we can press F1 to populate the Blue screen with the CQ message then press F10 to send it. Once someone answers, fill out the call field at the top of FLDigi with their call sign and press enter. Now we can press F2 to direct our message to the caller, type the message and press F3 to add the BTU message footer. Once the message is complete press the F10-Send Message button to transmit the message.

When having a keyboard to keyboard QSO on HF it's commonplace to type the message while transmitting. This keeps the pauses between messages to a minimum especially with modes like BPSK31 that are slow enough to make it work well. For example. When I'm ready to reply to a message I'll press the F2 - MSG PreCall button to place the "To and from" call signs in the blue box then press the T/R Default Macro Button to begin transmitting. While the transmit occurs i'll type the message, Press the "F3 BTU" button to add the footer and finally press the default RX|| button near the right side to put the radio back into receive mode after all text has been transmitted. This can really streamline the conversation so you can operate quickly & comfortably.

Check out and edit the other default macros buttons by right clicking on them and customizing them to your liking.

See you on the net

73 de KM6WYE