CW keying overhaul + reliability sweep

A focused follow-up to v0.9.6 with two themes: a substantial CW operator
upgrade — keyboard and MIDI-mapped straight key + iambic paddles, full
break-in / QSK respect on both paths, netCW timing fixes, and Apollo-era
Quindar tones on PTT engage/disengage — and a reliability sweep covering
SpotHub auto-reconnect, a TCI crash on quit, the long-standing waterfall
TX trail, hardware PTT regressions, and DAX RX latency.

Big thanks to @jensenpat (CW keyboard / MIDI controls, compression
meter gating, Windows MSVC runtime), @M7HNF-Ian (Spot Lines,
HiDPI gauge clipping, TCI crash on quit, SpotHub auto-reconnect),
@filemakers (connect-to-last-radio opt-out checkbox), @NF0T
(RADE TX policy naming + tests), @chibondking (live voltage gauge),
plus issue reporters @vu2cpl (TCI crash with full call stack),
@luigiverdicchio1-prog (SpotHub failed-reconnect repro), @LU5DX
and @rnash2 (spectrum amplitude scale issue — under investigation).

New features

CW keyboard + MIDI controls (#2361, #2391, jensenpat)

• Three new shared shortcut + MIDI actions: Trigger straight key,
  Trigger CW Left Paddle, Trigger CW Right Paddle. Same action IDs
  and display names for keyboard shortcuts and MIDI mappings (cwkey /
  cwdit / cwdah); MidiSettings migrates legacy dotted IDs
  (cw.key / cw.dit / cw.dah) on read.
• Straight key is a true momentary control: keyboard press + MIDI gate-on
  assert the netCW key path, release + gate-off release it. Paddles feed
  the local iambic keyer when running so sidetone and on-air timing stay
  aligned with WPM; falls back to a held-key path otherwise.
• Both paths now honor the radio's break_in setting fully — with
  break_in=1 (QSK), key edges trigger TX and break_in_delay holds
  the relay between elements; with break_in=0, keys are queued and the
  operator engages PTT manually (Space PTT, MOX, hardware PTT). The
  previous auto-PTT envelope masked break-in OFF and killed QSK hang
  time on release.
• New clickable red TX status badge in the status bar acts as an
  emergency transmit cancel — checks Multi-Flex ownership, clears all
  local CW state, forces sidetone key-up, and sends cw key 0 /
  cw ptt 0 / transmit tune 0 / xmit 0.
• Slider focus lease no longer blocks momentary CW shortcuts or Space
  PTT — clicking the CW delay slider previously froze J/K/L paddle
  keying and Space PTT for 2+ seconds while the lease's arrow-key
  capture timer expired.
• Pre-existing typo fix: J tile in the on-screen keyboard widget was
  bound to Qt::Key_I, so binding a shortcut to J in the editor
  selected I.

Quindar tones — Apollo-era K/BK on PTT (#2334, fixes #2262)

• Optional 2525 Hz "K" / 2475 Hz "BK" tones on PTT engage / disengage,
  modeled after Apollo CapCom audio. Lock-free DSP module wired between
  PC mic gain and the final TX limiter so tones are mixed into the
  outgoing audio. Local sidetone via a dedicated 48 kHz QAudioSink
  (mutually exclusive with CW mode at the mode level — Quindar and CW
  share the same sidetone bus).
• Added as the QUIN chip in the Final Output Stage panel of the
  Aetherial Audio Channel Strip with a frameless editor dialog
  (test-tone buttons + Done in the same row as the title bar).
• Disabled by default; opt-in via the chip toggle.

netCW keying fix + trace logging (#2336, fixes a long-tail of issues)

• Fixes netCW timing for both straight-key and iambic CW. Adds detailed
  aether.cw trace category logging across MIDI / keyboard input,
  netCW UDP scheduling, VITA stream/index details, and TCP fallback /
  backstop paths so future timing regressions are diagnosable from logs.

Spot Lines toggle in SpotHub (#2349, M7HNF-Ian)

• New "Spot Lines" toggle in the SpotHub Display settings draws vertical
  lines from the spectrum up to each spot label. Off during contests to
  reduce visual clutter; on for casual ops to keep label-to-frequency
  mapping legible at a glance.

Network Diagnostics live logs tab (#2333)

• New tab in the Network Diagnostics dialog with live tail of the same
  logs the diagnostics report references, scoped to the diagnostic
  categories (aether.connection, aether.dxcluster, aether.cw,
  etc.). Lets users diff what they're seeing against what was logged
  without leaving the dialog.

Connect-to-last-radio opt-out checkbox (#2390, filemakers)

• New "Connect to last radio on start up" checkbox on the connection
  dialog; defaults to ON so existing users keep current behavior. When
  unchecked, AetherSDR no longer auto-connects on startup, on
  broadcast-discovery, or on routed-radio probe — useful for operators
  who want to pick a radio manually each session. The dialog
  auto-launches at startup when opt-out is enabled so the user has a
  clear path to pick a radio.

Bug fixes

SpotHub auto-reconnect after failed connection attempt (#2394, M7HNF-Ian, fixes #2380)

• SpotHub (DX cluster / RBN) didn't automatically reconnect after a
  Wi-Fi drop or any failed connection attempt — Qt's QAbstractSocket
  only emits disconnected() on Connected → Unconnected transitions,
  so when the socket failed during ConnectingState (host blocked,
  refused, or timed out), the reconnect timer was never armed. Extracts
  a scheduleReconnect() helper called from all three failure paths
  (live drop, socket error, connect timeout) with guards against
  double-scheduling. A per-call epoch counter prevents stale timeouts
  from a previous attempt aborting a later successful one. Backoff
  sequence unchanged: 5 s → 10 s → 20 s → 40 s → 60 s.

TCI crash on quit when TciServer outlives RadioModel (#2386, M7HNF-Ian, fixes #2385)

• TciServer was constructed as a QObject child of MainWindow, so
  Qt deleted it during ~QWidget::deleteChildren() — which runs after
  MainWindow's value members (including m_radioModel) have already
  destructed. ~TciServer() → stop() → releaseDaxForTci() then
  dereferenced freed memory. EXC_BAD_ACCESS @ 0x38, 100% reproducible
  on quit when a radio was connected. Reported by VU2CPL with full call
  stack. Fixed by explicitly tearing down m_tciServer in
  ~MainWindow() after the audio thread is stopped but while
  m_radioModel is still alive, plus a belt-and-braces
  QPointer<RadioModel> so the existing null guards in
  releaseDaxForTci() catch any future regression automatically.

Waterfall unfreezes on radio interlock state, not MOX edge (#2368, fixes #1927)

• Waterfall freeze/unfreeze previously gated on the local MOX edge,
  which fired the instant the user released PTT — the radio kept
  streaming TX-contaminated tiles for the UNKEY_REQUESTED window, and
  those rows then took 10–23 s to scroll off the visible waterfall.
  Now driven by RadioModel::radioTransmittingChanged (interlock
  state=TRANSMITTING), so the freeze is held until the radio
  actually leaves TX. Multi-Flex bonus: any client TXing now triggers
  the freeze, not just our client.

Honor cw break_in for keyboard CW keying (#2391)

• RadioModel::sendCwKey and the iambic keyer's onPaddleEvent both
  unconditionally wrapped each key/squeeze in a cw ptt 1...cw ptt 0
  envelope. Made break-in OFF a no-op (auto-PTT forced TX anyway) and
  killed the radio's break_in_delay hang time with break-in ON
  (force-dropped PTT after every element). Stripped the auto-PTT in
  both paths so the radio's break-in setting decides TX behavior,
  matching SmartSDR semantics.

Spot list double-click switches mode (#2372, fixes #2298)

• Double-clicking a spot in the Spot List now switches the radio's
  mode along with the frequency. Previously only the frequency moved,
  leaving the user in the wrong mode for the spotted signal.

Spot trigger includes pan= for external CAT clients (#2369, fixes #2366)

• The spot click protocol now includes pan=<panId> so external CAT
  clients (N1MM Logger, etc.) consuming AetherSDR's spot triggers can
  route the click to the correct panadapter in multi-pan setups.

Compression meter gates on radio TX state (#2363, jensenpat)

• The TX compression meter now displays only while the radio reports
  state=TRANSMITTING. Previously it could read live during RX from
  stale interlock state, confusing operators about what compression
  was actually applied to their signal.

Voltage gauge label shows live radio voltage (#2362, chibondking)

• The voltage gauge label now reflects the live voltage value reported
  by the radio instead of the static "VOLTS" placeholder.

Minimal mode revert on macOS when entered while maximized (#2367, fixes #2365)

• Entering minimal mode while the window was already maximized on
  macOS would revert to a non-minimal layout immediately on toggle.
  Layout / state ordering corrected so the entry sticks regardless of
  the prior maximized state.

MidiControlManager: drop dead paramAction signal (#2370)

• Cleanup follow-up after #2336 introduced paramActionTrace —
  paramAction was still emitted but had zero connectors. Removed
  the orphan signal + matching declaration.

Infrastructure

DAX RX native pw_stream source on Linux (#2312, fixes #1008)

• DAX RX latency on Linux drops from ~400 ms → ~200 ms via a native
  PipeWire pw_stream source path, replacing the previous PulseAudio
  client. Brings DAX RX latency in line with macOS / Windows.

RADE TX policy naming + tests (#2353, NF0T, fixes #2343)

• Renames the RADE TX policy enum to align with the issue tracking
  language (HostedDaxBridge etc.) and adds unit tests covering each
  (reason, platform, mode) → (allowed, note) decision row.

HiDPI gauge clipping (#2346, M7HNF-Ian)

• HGauge tick labels and TxApplet value labels were clipping on HiDPI
  displays. Layout / paint regions updated to honor device-pixel ratio.

Windows portable ZIP includes MSVC runtime (#2364, jensenpat)

• Windows portable ZIP now bun...

Aetherial Audio Channel Strip + AetherSweep Phase 2

Headline additions: a unified Aetherial Audio Channel Strip that brings
every TX DSP stage (gate, EQ, compressor, de-esser, tube, AetherVoice,
reverb, and a brand-new Final Output Stage with brickwall limiter) into a
single editable window with a savable preset library — and AetherSweep
Phase 2, a polish pass on the in-panadapter SWR analyzer with log scale,
threshold-band shading, interpolated bandwidth at SWR ≤ 1.5 / 2.0, a
resonance caret, and band-change-aware auto-stop. Network Diagnostics
gained trend graphs and per-series gutter hints. RADE finally ships in
the official Windows installer.

Big thanks to @jensenpat (oscillator reference fix, AetherSweep
Phase 2, Connect-by-IP recents, minimal mode polish, Windows installer
packaging), @NF0T (RADE on Windows CI/installer, RADE mic meter
fix), @rfoust (Network Diagnostics trend graphs), and
@AetherClaude (stderr non-draining-pipe deadlock) for landing the
bulk of this release.

New features

Aetherial Audio Channel Strip (#2307, #2326)

• New unified TX DSP window covering every stage in the chain: gate, EQ,
  compressor, de-esser, tube, AetherVoice (the exciter formerly known as
  PooDoo), Freeverb, plus a brand-new Final Output Stage with brickwall
  limiter, output trim, DC block, and a 1 kHz test tone.
• Savable preset library at ~/.config/AetherSDR/ChannelStrip.settings
  (separate from AetherSDR.settings). Captures every TX DSP knob, the
  user's chain order, and final-limiter parameters. Save / Delete /
  Export Preset / Export Library buttons in the strip's preset row.
• Master/Aux BYPASS button stays in lock-step between the docked Chain
  applet and the strip via a shared engine-level snapshot — flipping it
  in either place updates both.
• Two new 4th-row panels: Aetherial Waveform — TX (1–20 s scope window
  with SCOPE/ENVELOPE/HISTORY modes) and Final Output Stage (peak-hold
  meter with GR overlay + draggable amber ceiling triangle, mouse-wheel
  ±0.1 dB).
• Logo / title rebrand: PooDoo™ exciter → AetherVoice™ "Aetherial
  Voice Processor" with Body / Clarity emphasis controls. Docked tile
  (PUDU) renamed to EVO on the chain widget; container button
  renamed VUDU.
• Double-click any TX chain tile launches the Channel Strip — replaces
  the legacy easter-egg launch nub on the Chain applet and the
  per-stage TX floating editors (ClientDeEssEditor,
  ClientReverbEditor, etc.).
• FreeVerb tile in the docked applet panel now shows the same
  decay-tail viz as the Channel Strip's reverb panel, signal-driven by
  a new AudioEngine::clientReverbStateChanged signal (no polling).

AetherSweep Phase 2 (#2320, jensenpat)

• Logarithmic SWR scale for cleaner low-ratio detail; threshold-band
  shading for SWR 1.0–1.5 (green), 1.5–2.0 (amber), and >2.0 (red).
• Resonance caret + dot at the best measured SWR point; visual
  start/end notches mark sweep endpoints.
• Interpolated bandwidth brackets at SWR ≤ 1.5 and ≤ 2.0, with a
  concise BW readout in the corner label.
• Resonant frequency display trimmed to kHz precision; corner readout
  switched from "latest sample" to best SWR + resonance frequency.
• Cleared sweep plots when the swept TX slice changes bands; if a band
  change happens while a sweep is running, the sweep stops and clears
  without restoring the old freq/pan range so cleanup doesn't fight
  the user's new band.

Network Diagnostics trend graphs (#2309, rfoust; #2316)

• Per-metric trend plots with Timeframe selector (1 min / 5 min /
  15 min / 1 h / 1 d / 1 w).
• Logarithmic Y-axis on the Rates tab — 0 / 1 / 10 / 100 / 1k kbps
  decades all visible at once instead of being squashed at the
  baseline.
• Per-series last-sample hints in the left gutter — small
  color-coded values that always show the latest reading for each
  visible stream, with a 6 px-tall solid centerline alpha gradient
  to keep the labels legible against the trace.
• Frameless chrome with draggable title bar + 8-axis resize matching
  the rest of AetherSDR's floating windows.

RADE in the official Windows installer (#2324, NF0T)

• ENABLE_RADE=ON for both the Windows CI job and the official
  installer workflow. Vendored RADE-prepared Opus + neural-net
  weights are statically linked, so no new DLLs ship — AetherSDR.exe
  grows ~8–12 MB to match the AppImage.
• New Build Opus (RADE dependency) CI step provides clean failure
  attribution and matches the AppImage workflow's pattern. Closes
  reports of "RADE absent from Windows installer".

Connect by IP recents dropdown (#2296, jensenpat)

• Connect-by-IP field is now a combo box pre-populated with the last
  five addresses (stored as RecentDirectIpAddresses). Successful
  connect promotes the address to the top of the list.

Black slider auto-offset (#2328)

• Spectrum Overlay menu's Black slider now drives a noise-floor target
  offset while AUTO is engaged: 50 = at the noise floor (today's
  behaviour); lower = darker (push threshold above the floor); higher
  = lighter. Manual mode keeps existing semantics. Both stored
  values persist independently so toggling AUTO swaps the slider
  position without losing either preference.

Minimal mode polish (#2290, jensenpat; #2299)

• Title bar drag now reaches the gutter and other previously-dead
  zones via sub-pixel hit testing. Exit paths from minimal mode
  consolidated; layout stops fighting on toggle.

Aetherial Noise Reduction docked applet (#2297)

• Client-side NR controls live in their own docked applet under
  PooDoo Audio (RX); the redundant DSP sub-panel was removed from
  the Spectrum Overlay menu for a cleaner DSP surface.

Bug fixes

Oscillator reference status no longer goes stale (#2329, jensenpat)

• New RadioModel::oscillatorChanged() signal drives the status-bar
  reference label and Radio Setup combo immediately from oscillator
  state, instead of relying on event ordering with GPS status.
  Eliminates the case where the status bar got stuck on the previous
  reference if a GPS update never arrived after the oscillator
  transition.
• Radio Setup dropdown preserves currently-selected/actual options
  during presence transitions, so transient flag blips no longer
  drop the active option from the combo. Renamed External →
  External 10 MHz to match the FlexLib API description.
• Status-bar tooltips now show desired setting, actual source, lock
  state, and GPS/external details.

RADE mic level meter + gain slider (#2292, NF0T)

• The RADE TX mic level meter now updates while the modem is active,
  and the gain slider is enabled instead of stuck at zero. Fixes
  "no apparent way to set RADE mic level" reports.

Stderr non-draining pipe deadlock (#2300, AetherClaude)

• When stdout/stderr was redirected to a pipe with no reader, the
  audio worker thread could deadlock writing log lines. Replaced
  blocking writes with a non-blocking path that drops on the floor
  rather than stalling the thread.

Windows installer runtime packaging (#2303, jensenpat)

• Tightened Windows runtime-DLL bundling for a smaller installer and
  fewer "missing DLL" reports on first launch.

Infrastructure

v0.9.5.1 release-notes expansion (#2288, #2289)

• The CHANGELOG entry for v0.9.5.1 was expanded post-release to
  cover all post-v0.9.5 fixes (#2113 reachability sweep, the four
  rfoust polish PRs, NR2 audio-thread + Qt-log hotfixes) with full
  contributor shoutouts.

Stability & polish hotfix sweep

A focused follow-up release that lands the TCI TX policy hotfix plus six
post-v0.9.5 fixes already in main: SmartLink WAN reconnect after radio
drops, sequenced WAN disconnect teardown, RX slice-tab reset between
radios with different slice counts, macOS panadapter pop-out live
updates and dock-splitter layout, NR2 wisdom-generation safety on the
audio thread, and a Qt log-handler serialization fix that resolves a
macOS tune-time crash.

Big thanks to @rfoust (four SmartLink / disconnect / macOS polish
fixes) and @jensenpat (NR2 audio-thread safety + Qt log
serialization) for landing the bulk of this release.

Bug fixes

TCI TX silent on Windows / Linux non-PipeWire (#2276)

• evaluateDaxTxPolicy() now always allows DaxTxRequestReason::TciTxAudio
  regardless of platform / hosted-DAX availability. TCI receives audio
  over WebSocket and feeds it into a dedicated dax_tx stream that's
  independent of SmartSDR DAX2 (which owns the Windows DAX audio
  devices, not the radio's dax_tx stream slot — multiple GUI clients
  can each register their own).
• Test assertions in tests/radio_status_ownership_test.cpp flipped to
  match the corrected policy and a new Linux-non-PipeWire test case
  added.

SmartLink reconnect after WAN drop (#2282, rfoust)

• MainWindow now owns a WAN reconnect timer that re-requests a
  SmartLink radio connection using the last selected WAN radio when
  RadioModel reports an unexpected WAN disconnect, instead of
  leaving the app stuck on the "Radio disconnected — waiting for
  reconnect" popup.
• SmartLinkClient::reconnect() refreshes Auth0 credentials via the
  saved refresh token before reconnecting, avoiding reuse of an
  expired id_token. Auth-refresh failure stops the retry loop and
  shows a sign-in-required status instead of retrying forever.
• RadioModel::forceDisconnect() now handles WAN connections so
  missed pings transition the app to disconnected/reconnecting
  promptly. Ping watchdog logs and forces disconnect once per outage
  rather than every second.
• PanadapterStack::prepareShutdown() releases QRhi GPU resources
  before main-window teardown to avoid the macOS Metal teardown crash
  that could fire after a stale-state Disconnect.

SmartLink disconnect teardown (#2278, rfoust)

• WAN disconnect previously closed the WAN socket after disconnecting
  RadioModel's signals and nulled m_wanConn directly, skipping
  RadioModel::onDisconnected() cleanup entirely. Panadapters,
  slices, meters, and streams stayed alive in the model after the user
  clicked Disconnect.
• Now runs the normal model teardown path on intentional WAN
  disconnect, so WAN sessions emit connectionStateChanged(false) and
  clear model state the same way LAN disconnects do.

Reset RX slice tabs on disconnect between radios with different slice counts (#2254, rfoust)

• RxApplet::clearSliceButtons() tears down generated slice tab buttons
  and restores the static slice badge on disconnect. Stale A–H buttons
  no longer linger after switching from a high-slice radio to a
  smaller one.
• MainWindow's infoChanged initializer is now per-connection rather
  than one-shot, so each radio rebuilds its slice row from its own
  maxSlices. Slice button click connections are guarded against
  duplicate signal handlers across reconnects.

Qt log handler serialization fixes macOS tune-time crash (#2284, jensenpat)

• The global qInstallMessageHandler callback wrote through a single
  QFile* without synchronization, and concurrent qCInfo/qDebug
  output from main + worker threads corrupted Qt's internal file
  write-buffer state. The tune-policy diagnostic line happened to be
  the log call that exposed the corruption — the failing object was
  the logging sink, not the Flex tune command path.
• Now serializes the handler with an intentionally leaked mutex
  (mirroring the existing shutdown-safe treatment of the redaction
  regexes) and replaces per-message QTextStream wrapping with a
  direct UTF-8 QFile::write()/flush() path. No change to radio
  command ordering or panadapter policy.

macOS panadapter pop-out refresh + multi-pan dock layout (#2280, rfoust)

• Detached panadapter windows on macOS no longer show a static/stale
  spectrum image. Cross-window reparenting now resets the native
  QRhi/Metal surface and re-requests pan dimensions from the radio
  after every float/dock cycle.
• Saved floating-window state is no longer restored after later
  user-added pans, so adding a second panadapter does not spawn an
  unwanted blank floating window.
• rebuildDockedSplitter() keeps the main-window splitter compact
  when multiple pans float/dock — no more empty placeholder slots.

NR2 wisdom generation no longer freezes the audio thread (#2275, jensenpat)

• AudioEngine::needsWisdomGeneration() previously only checked
  whether aethersdr_fftw_wisdom existed. If the file was stale or
  incompatible (e.g. fftw-3.3.10 header on a build that uses FFTW
  3.3.11), setNr2Enabled() ran full FFTW wisdom generation on the
  audio worker thread, blocking RX audio and the WAVE scope for
  several minutes.
• Adds SpectralNR::loadWisdom() for import-only validation, makes
  needsWisdomGeneration() return true when the file exists but
  cannot be imported, and routes generation through the existing
  background progress dialog instead of the audio thread. If wisdom
  import fails at enable time, NR2 falls back to runtime
  FFTW_MEASURE plans rather than hanging audio.

[v0.9.5] — 2026-05-02

Reliability sweep + DAX2 coexistence overhaul

A focused stability release. Headline is DAX2 coexistence policy
(jensenpat) — a centralized decision table that makes AetherSDR's
behaviour next to SmartSDR DAX, hosted DAX (macOS / PipeWire), and
external Flex tooling explicit, testable, and consistently logged.
Plus substantial improvements to disconnect teardown (sequenced
stream remove with response wait — fixes the Flex-6300 unreachable-
after-reconnect bug), worker-thread shutdown (no more killTimer
warnings on app exit), panadapter zoom (no spectrum flash), and
multi-flex spot/ATU handling (DXCluster spot trigger_action removal,
ATU per-frequency toggle).

A two-PR issue triage cleanup closed 12 long-standing issues across
small UI bugs, contrast, indicator routing, click-to-tune behaviour,
and visible regressions from recent feature work.

Features

Aetherial Parametric EQ Smoothing combo (#2236)

• New Smoothing combo on the EQ analyzer with 1/24, 1/12, 1/6, 1/3,
  1/1 octave fractional smoothing options (linear-power averaging).
  Persists via EqAnalyzerSmoothing; defaults to 1/12 octave.
• Audio-domain band-plan strip on the EQ canvas + dashed yellow filter
  cutoff guides for both TX and RX. Cutoff guides are draggable to
  retune filter edges with mode-aware USB/LSB/AM/FM offset conversion.
• Phone applet Low/High Cut buttons snap to nearest 50 Hz.
• ~30 % faster smoothing inner loop after replacing
  std::pow(10, x/10) with std::exp(x * ln(10)/10) (#2239).

Custom filter edges with persistence (#2272)

• Right-click a filter button → Set Custom Edges... opens a
  2-spinbox dialog. Asymmetric lo:hi pairs persist in
  FilterPresets_<mode> via a new mixed width / lo:hi storage
  format (backward compat preserved for existing width-only entries).
• Reset to Default is now per-slot.
• FilterPassbandWidget shows signed lo/hi/center values so LSB/CW
  filters reveal sideband.
• Filter-edge grab zone in the spectrum bumped from 5px to 8px so
  edges sitting near the VFO line are easier to grab.

Spot click client-side mode mapping (#2272)

• All client-ingested spots (DXCluster, RBN, POTA, SpotCollector,
  FreeDV, WSJT-X, manual) now ship with trigger_action=none. The
  radio no longer auto-acts on stored mode strings (which mishandled
  "SSB" and similar non-Flex tokens, falling back to CW).
• AetherSDR's auto-mode mapping handles tune+mode client-side.
  Default flipped to enabled.
• FreeDV-source spots activate the RADE engine via activateRADE()
  (sets DIGU/DIGL plus the OFDM modem) instead of just landing on a
  plain digital mode.

ATU per-frequency toggle (#2272)

• ATU button now mirrors SmartSDR's behaviour: first click on a
  frequency tunes; second click at the same frequency bypasses; freq
  change resets the toggle so the next click tunes again.

Bug fixes

DAX2 coexistence policy (#2271, jensenpat)

• New DaxTxPolicy.h decision table: (reason, platform, mode) → (allowed, note). Centralizes platform-aware DAX TX decisions with
  explicit reasons (HostedDaxBridge, TciTxAudio, ExternalDaxRouteOnly,
  GenericAudioRecreate) and consistent log notes at every branch.
• Lazy dax_tx stream creation via RadioModel::ensureDaxTxStream()
  — eager creation at GUI attach is removed so SmartSDR DAX can own
  the Windows route.
• daxTxStatusCanUpdateLocalState() anti-stomp: foreign DAX TX
  status can no longer accidentally adopt our tracked stream slot.
• LAN VITA UDP rebind path: on Flex's 0x500000A9 "Port/IP pair
  already in use" error, AetherSDR rebinds to an OS-assigned ephemeral
  port and retries client udpport. WAN/SmartLink already used
  ephemeral ports and is correctly excluded from the rebind path.
• Dead-orphan DAX RX detection: client_handle=0 ip=0.0.0.0 entries
  are ignored as not-our-stream rather than treated as legacy-compat.
• External DAX TX/RX visibility: separate seen-once log lines so the
  radio's external streams are visible in diagnostic logs without
  polluting our local state.
• 24 + test assertions across testStreamStatusOwnershipCompatibility,
  testDaxTxStatusOwnership, testDaxTxPolicy, and
  testUdpRegistrationPolicy.
• Linux non-PipeWire builds correctly skip both setDax(1) and DAX
  stream creation, so digital TX falls back to the physical mic input
  rather than going silent (#2273).

Sequenced radio disconnect teardown (#2247, jensenpat)

• Fixes Flex-6300 / 6400 unreachability after reconnect (#2113, #2218).
• Disconnect now sends stream remove 0x<id> and waits up to 2 s for
  the radio's response before closing TCP. Without this, fire-and-
  forget teardown left stale Flex sessions that refused subsequent
  connects until reboot.
• Drops the rejected client disconnect <self_handle> send — verified
  against FlexLib's own self-disconnect path, which uses the 0x04
  "dying gasp" byte before TCP close. AetherSDR now does the same.
• Defensive auto-reconnect arms on refused-connect paths that don't
  emit a disconnected signal.

Worker object shutdown thread affinity (#2248, rfoust)

• Eliminates QObject::killTimer: Timers cannot be stopped from another thread, QObject::moveToThread: Current thread is not the object thread, and ~QObject warnings on app exit.
• Worker-thread QObjects (audio engine, spot clients, ext controllers,
  radio connection, panadapter stream) are now destroyed via
  deleteLater() on their owning threads before each thread quits.

Panadapter zoom keeps spectrum visible (#2246, rfoust)

• New reprojectSpectrum() mirrors the existing waterfall reprojection.
  Zoom changes that overlap with the previous range now interpolate
  existing FFT bins forward instead of clearing them, eliminating the
  spectrum flash/blank during pinch / wheel / drag zoom.

TGXL detected via direct TCP only (#2250, chrisb1964)

• TUN applet now appears for TGXLs that don't report through the
  amplifier API (Flex-8600 fw 4.2.18). New m_directPresence fallback
  in TunerModel; isPresent() returns true via either path.
• Handles bare amplifier <handle> removed form correctly via a new
  ampRemovedRe regex (matches FlexLib's s.Contains("removed")
  semantics for both bare-flag and kvs-form removals).

RX slice tab capacity initialization (#2243, chibondking)

• RX slice tab capacity is now seeded from the radio model on connect
  rather than left at the default — fixes empty tabs when reconnecting
  to a different radio model.

Radio model label refresh (#2244, jensenpat)

• Radio model label refreshes on info command response, so
  reconnecting to a different model immediately reflects the new
  identity in the UI.

FreeDV Reporter OS string (#2269, tmiw)

• OS field lowercased to match the official FreeDV client convention.
  Previously AetherSDR users showed as "other" in monthly platform
  reports. Thanks Mooneer.

FreeDV Reporter checkbox visibility (#2268, NF0T)

• Three checkboxes in the FreeDV Reporter tab were rendering with no
  visible borders against the dark background. Applied the standard
  ConnectionPanel checkbox style.

AppletPanel scrollbar (#2257, Chaosuk97)

• AppletPanel scrollbar widened from 6 px to 12 px with a dim handle
  at rest that brightens to #4a6880 on hover or drag. 500 ms
  delay before dimming back so quick scroll gestures don't flicker.
  Always-visible track to match the rest of the app.

Sweep 1 — 7 small UI / contrast fixes (#2270)

• AetherSDR vX.Y.Z shown again in the in-app title bar — restored
  after the frameless-window mode regression (#2027).
• FlexControl knob press tokens are bare S / C / L, not
  X4S / X4C / X4L. Captured against LB2EG's hardware (#2263).
• Å Morse sequence corrected to 01101 (·−−·−) per ITU-R M.1677-1
  (#2264, LB2EG).
• Single-click-to-tune suppressed across the entire K / SFI / WNB /
  RF Gain / WIDE indicator strip in the top-right of the spectrum,
  not just the propagation text (#1564).
• Slice record (⏺) and play (▶) indicator alpha values doubled for
  legibility against the dark spectrum background (#1576).
• Status indicators (TNF / CWX / DVK / FDX) unified to cyan
  (#00b4d8) for active and dark grey (#404858) for off; TNF init
  colour bug fixed (was semi-transparent white) (#1581).
• Status bar time stack: removed grid-square label; date + UTC time
  use the same 2-row layout as every other telemetry stack (#1583).

Sweep 2 — 5 small bug fixes (#2272)

• Double-clicking an off-screen slice indicator (<A / A>) recenters
  cleanly without retuning to a wrong frequency (#2237). Qt's
  press → release → double-click → release sequence was leaving
  m_spotClickConsumed=false on the trailing release, so the
  single-click-to-tune path fired against the new center.
• HAVE_RADE without HAVE_WEBSOCKETS compile error (#2204) —
  startFreeDvReporting / stopFreeDvReporting now wrap their
  bodies with #ifndef HAVE_WEBSOCKETS no-op fallback.
• (See "Features" above for #1846 spot mode, #1993 ATU toggle, #2259
  custom filter edges.)

[v0.9.4] — 2026-05-01

AetherSweep, ShackSwitch, and multi-client startup hardening

A heavy community-contribution release. Headline feature is AetherSweep
(jensenpat) — an in-panadapter SWR sweep analyzer that walks the current TX
band, plots SWR live on the spectrum surface, and handles TGXL bypass +
PGXL checks. ShackSwitch support (nigelfenton) lands as a
new Peripherals tab + dedicated applet, integrating any builder's open-source
Arduino antenna switch over the Antenna Genius protocol.

A trio of substantial reliability fixes from jensenpat addresses long-standing
multi-client startup issues — when SmartSDR or DAX is already connected,
AetherSDR's panadapter creation, slice ownership, and PC audio stream
acquisition now all hold up under the racey status interleavings the
ShackSwitch and DAX users were hitting. Plus a focused mix of platform
fixes: macOS DMG dark-theme on pop-out windows (Chaosuk97), Windows
without-Qt6::SerialPort build (NF0T), NRL gating correctness on 6000-series
radios.

Features

AetherSweep — in-panadapter SWR analyzer (#2202, #2220, #2230, jensenpat)

• New Start/Clear Sweep buttons under the ANT slice menu, plus a 1-10 W
  sweep-power slider with cross-panel sync. Persisted as
  SwrSweepPowerWatts and defaults to 1 W.
• Walks the current TX band stepping a tune carrier in 20 kHz increments
  with edge guards, sampling fresh SWR + forward-power meter data per step,
  and overlays the curve on the panadapter directly under the slice flag.
• Per-band-edge guard, max-260-points cap, and 60 m channelized-band
  refusal. Refuses to start when split is active, when transmitting,
  when the band is wider than the radio's max pan width, or when a PGXL
  amplifier is in OPERATE mode (forces user to STANDBY first).
• ⚠️ Third-party amplifiers are not auto-detected. AetherSweep
  only checks for Power Genius XL status — it has no way
  to talk to ACOM, SPE, Elecraft KPA, OM Power, or other linear amps.
  If you have a non-PGXL amplifier, manually place it in BYPASS or
  STANDBY before starting an SWR sweep. The sweep will run a tune
  carrier through whatever path the radio sees, and a non-bypassed
  external linear will amplify that carrier into your antenna.
• Full TGXL handling: snapshots OPERATE/BYPASS state, places TGXL into
  BYPASS to read raw antenna SWR, restores original state on completion
  or abort. Reads radio-side SWR while TGXL is bypassed (TGXL stops
  emitting RL meter packets in bypass — #2229).
• 5-phase state machine with explicit timeouts: WaitingForTgxlBypass,
  TgxlBypassSettle, Sweeping, StoppingTune, RestoringTgxl.
• Esc to abort. Inputs locked during sweep so the user can't accidentally
  retune mid-pass. Disconnect mid-sweep cleanly stops the carrier and
  releases TGXL.
• Optimistic setTunePower() update so the sweep's chosen power lands
  immediately rather than racing the radio's status echo.
• Sweep result label shows source — RADIO for direct measurement,
  TGXL BYPASS for tuner-bypassed measurement.

ShackSwitch antenna switch integration (#2214, #2227, nigelfenton)

• New Peripherals tab in Radio Setup with auto-discovery and manual-IP
  connect for ShackSwitch devices via the Antenna Genius (AG) UDP/TCP
  protocol on port 9007.
• New ShackSwitchApplet — compact panel with up to 8 labelled
  antenna-port buttons, click-to-switch, active-port highlight. SO2R
  dual-radio mode shows Input A / Input B side-by-side with conflict
  detection. Single-radio mode (4-port R4 hardware) hides Input B
  automatically.
• Dummy-load / deselect (clicking the active port deselects it) and
  per-port labels driven by the device's own configuration.
• Integration is invisible to users without ShackSwitch hardware —
  detected by the name="ShackSwitch" field in the AG broadcast beacon.
• Web UI launcher button opens the device's local web interface.
• Reference hardware: ShackSwitch v2.0 (Arduino Uno Q, SO2R, 8-port) and
  ShackSwitch R4 (Arduino Uno R4 WiFi, single-radio, 4-port).

Bug fixes

Multi-client startup panadapter creation (#2222, jensenpat)

• AetherSDR's startup pan creation now holds up cleanly when SmartSDR,
  DAX, or another GUI/audio client is already connected. The radio
  replays status for all current pans/slices/streams on connect; without
  this fix, AetherSDR could correctly reject other clients' objects but
  then fail to instantiate its own PanadapterModel if ownership status
  arrived out of order.
• Adds display panafall create x=100 y=100 (FlexLib v4.2.18 syntax)
  with capability-based fallback to legacy panadapter create.
• New ensureOwnedPanadapter() factory; deferred-status replay queue
  for display pan frames that arrive without client_handle; waterfall
  ordering recovery via panadapter=... parent ID lookup.
• Routes failure cases through the existing panadapterLimitReached /
  sliceCreateFailed status-bar signals so radio resource exhaustion
  is visible instead of looking like a startup hang.

PC audio remote stream ownership (#2226, jensenpat)

• Fixes PC Audio failure when SmartSDR / DAX is already running — the
  shared remote_audio_rx pipe was being silently removed because
  AetherSDR was parsing the stream create response body as decimal
  instead of hex. "4000009" (no 0x prefix) was becoming
  0x003D0F09 instead of 0x04000009, so the create-response stream
  didn't match the status-reported stream and AetherSDR removed the
  real one.
• Extracts a new RadioStatusOwnership helper (header-only, fully
  unit-tested) that handles ownership decisions for both panadapters
  and remote audio streams — defer when no client_handle, claim
  when ours, ignore when another client's.
• Stream-acquisition state machine now tracks create-pending,
  remove-requested, and adopted-from-status separately so toggling
  PC Audio doesn't race the create response.
• Adds radio_status_ownership_test with 25 assertions covering all
  the ownership decisions and the headline parse bug.
• Fixes #2037, #1418, #1473.

TGXL meter goes silent during bypass (#2229, #2230)

• AetherSweep aborted with "no fresh TGXL SWR meter data" whenever the
  TGXL was in OPERATE before sweep start. The TGXL stops emitting RL
  (return-loss) meter packets while in BYPASS — bypass relays are
  passive wire-through, no measurement engine.
• Switches the meter source to RADIO while the TGXL is bypassed; the
  radio's own SWR coupler measures the same physical signal through
  the bypassed relays. UI label still shows TGXL BYPASS since
  that's what describes the configuration.

Pop-out applet panel white background on macOS (#2190, Chaosuk97)

• macOS DMG builds rendered floating windows with a white background
  even though the dark-theme stylesheet was applied — the CI-built
  libqcocoa.dylib enforced Qt::WA_StyledBackground more strictly
  than Homebrew's Qt 6.11.0 build.
• Adds setAttribute(Qt::WA_StyledBackground, true) on all three
  floating-window classes (FloatingContainerWindow, PanFloatingWindow,
  MainWindow::floatAppletPanel). Cross-platform safe: the attribute
  is harmless on Linux/Windows where it was a no-op, and now the
  pop-out applet panel correctly themed on every platform (was
  defaulting to system theme on Linux/Windows too — latent bug fixed
  as a side effect).

Windows build without Qt6::SerialPort (#2195, NF0T)

• Compile error introduced by #2147: the <QElapsedTimer> include was
  guarded by #ifdef HAVE_SERIALPORT while m_debounceTimer is declared
  under #if defined(HAVE_SERIALPORT) || defined(Q_OS_WIN). Mismatch
  broke the Windows-without-SerialPort build configuration. Widens the
  include guard to match.

NRL DSP filter visible on 6000-series radios (#2219)

• Fixes regression from #2184 where NRL was incorrectly grouped with
  the 8000-series-only firmware DSP filters (NRS, RNN, NRF). NRL is
  available on 6000-series too — only NRS/RNN/NRF require BigBend /
  DragonFire hardware. Fixes #2198.

Acknowledgements

Massive contributor batch this cycle:

• jensenpat — AetherSweep (3 PRs: feature + power-control polish + TGXL
  meter fix), multi-client panadapter startup, PC audio ownership. This
  release wouldn't be the leap it is without his work.
• nigelfenton — ShackSwitch integration (3 PRs across the cycle:
  protocol fix, full integration, callsign-detection cleanup).
• NF0T — Windows build fix.
• Chaosuk97 — macOS DMG dark-theme fix.

[v0.9.3] — 2026-04-30

External APD, FreeDV Reporter, Slice Colors, and v4.2 firmware updater

A broad release. Headline feature is External APD support for
SmartSDR firmware 4.2.18, which lets the radio sample its outgoing
RF from a coupled feedback path on one of the RX/XVTR inputs so the
predistortion engine trains against the actual transmitted signal —
required when a FLEX-8x00 drives an external linear amplifier.
FreeDV Reporter station reporting (NF0T) lands the long-requested
RADE-integrated reporting flow. chibondking ships customizable
slice colors plus two serial / pop-out fixes. AetherSDR's firmware
updater is rewritten to extract .ssdr files natively from
FlexRadio's v4.2+ MSI installer (no bundled tools needed), and the
NAVTEX data-layer plumbing lands ahead of the upcoming applet.

A long tail of UI polish and Windows-platform fixes also lands —
TX→RX waterfall continuity, scroll-wheel debounce, 48 kHz audio
sink on Windows, applet pop-out persistence, and floating-window
dark theming.

Features

External APD (#2187)

• New "APD" tab in Radio Setup with per-TX-antenna external sampler
  selection (ANT1 / ANT2 / XVTA / XVTB → INTERNAL / RX_A / RX_B /
  XVTA / XVTB). Tab is hidden unless the radio reports apd configurable=1, so it stays invisible on 6000-series radios and
  pre-4.2.18 firmware.
• Equalizer Reset button issues apd reset to clear all per-antenna
  training data.
• Protocol additions: apd sampler sub-object parsing (with
  fallback-to-INTERNAL for invalid selected_sampler), bare
  equalizer_reset flag handling, and the matching setApdSamplerPort
  command path on TransmitModel.
• Cross-checked against Flex.Smoothlake.FlexLib v4.2.18 source.

FreeDV Reporter station reporting with RADE integration (#2173, NF0T)

• Adds FreeDV Reporter (https://qso.freedv.org) station-reporting
  support driven by the RADE modem's sync / SNR / freq-offset events.
• New connection toggle in the DX Cluster dialog plus per-slice
  reporting toggle that mirrors RADE engine state to the Reporter
  WebSocket session.
• Builds opportunistically — without Qt6::WebSockets or librade,
  the toggles silently become no-ops.

Customizable slice colors (#2155, chibondking)

• Per-slice color selection through a new SliceColorManager
  singleton. Color assignments persist across sessions and are
  visible in VFO widgets, panadapter overlays, and meter strips.

Native MSI firmware installer support (#2169)

• The firmware updater can now extract .ssdr files directly from
  FlexRadio's v4.2.18+ MSI installer (which switched from PE/COFF
  self-extracting .exe to WiX 6 MSI). Vendored libmspack
  (LGPL-2.1) handles LZX-compressed CABs; a small OLE Compound File
  reader pulls the embedded CAB from the MSI envelope.
• "Browse .ssdr" → "Select Installer..." now accepts .msi, .exe,
  and .ssdr. No external tools required (no 7z, no MSI runtime).
• Format auto-detection on the first 8 bytes (OLE magic vs. PE/COFF MZ).

NAVTEX data-layer plumbing (#2186)

• New NavtexModel covers the SmartSDR navtex waveform protocol —
  per-message Pending → Queued → Sent / Error state, status parsing
  for navtex and navtex sent, and a navtex send command path
  with proper quote/backslash escaping for msg_text.
• Foundation for the upcoming NAVTEX applet UI; data layer ships
  first so other clients (TCI, scripting) can already publish NAVTEX
  traffic.
• 21-assertion unit test covers escaping, idempotency, error paths.

CWX active tracking (#2181)

• RadioModel tracks CWX send state so the audio gate stays open
  during long character sends.

Floating-window dark theme (#2096, AetherClaude)

• Pop-out panadapter and floating-container windows now inherit the
  full dark theme via a new Theme.h shared stylesheet, eliminating
  flash-of-light-theme on window construction.

Center active VFO when zooming in from keyboard (#2183, jensenpat)

• The keyboard zoom-in shortcut now centers the active VFO in the
  viewport (matches the mouse-wheel zoom behavior).

Bug fixes

TX→RX waterfall continuity (#2171, #2182)

• Force FFT-fallback rendering on TX→RX transition to prevent a
  visible gap in the waterfall (#2171).
• Blank waterfall rows for 400 ms after TX ends so any residual
  hardware tail doesn't paint over the noise floor (#2182).

Hide 8000-series DSP filters on 6000-series radios (#2184)

• NRL, NRS, RNN, NRF filters are FLEX-8x00-only. 6000-series
  radios no longer show greyed-out controls for filters they can't
  use.

Stream-status helper consolidation (#2145)

• Deduplicates the per-stream-type status helpers. Annotates
  m_daxTxClientHandle and documents the TCI receiver-index policy
  for future contributors.

TCP close handshake before socket destroy (#2113)

• Wait for disconnected() before tearing down the QTcpSocket on
  user-initiated disconnect. Fixes occasional "connection reset"
  reports on the radio side.

rigctld short-form split direction (#2111)

• S (set split) and s (get split) were transposed in the rigctld
  mapping table, so external loggers couldn't read or set split.

CW sidetone on Windows (#2105)

• startSidetoneStream() was never called on Windows because the
  audio backend init order put it after the first key event. CW
  sidetone now starts immediately on connect.

48 kHz RX audio sink on Windows (#2123)

• Prefer 48 kHz over 24 kHz on Windows where WASAPI's resampler
  introduces audible high-frequency artifacts at 24 kHz.

Scrollbar styling on applet panels (#2088)

• The applet-panel scroll area was inheriting Qt's default thin grey
  scrollbar; restyles to the dark-theme bar.

USB mic level gauge on connect (#2086)

• The USB mic-level gauge wasn't drawn when connecting with mic source = PC; gauge now appears immediately.

VOX phoneStateChanged on keyboard shortcut (#2084)

• VOX setters didn't emit phoneStateChanged(), so the UI didn't
  refresh when VOX was toggled via keyboard shortcut.

Scroll-wheel debounce (#2151)

• Debounces high-frequency pixelDelta scroll events from
  precision-scroll mice in VfoWidget and SpectrumWidget.

Marker-width settings cleanup (#2156, mvanhorn)

• Slice<N>_MarkerThin setting key is now removed after migration
  to Slice<N>_MarkerWidth instead of being left in place.

Serial PTT — Win32 WaitCommEvent path (#2147, chibondking)

• FTDI VCP drivers only refresh DSR/CTS in the completion of a
  WaitCommEvent call; AetherSDR's polling-based detection missed
  edges on Windows. Adds a Win32 native event-wait path on top of
  Qt's serial port for DSR detection.

Applet pop-out persistence race (#2154, chibondking)

• Floating applet windows were sometimes restored at the wrong
  position because the geometry-save signal raced the close event.
  Systemic fix wires save before destruction.

Windows build guard for FreeDV Reporter (#2186)

• The FreeDV Reporter freedvReportingToggled connect-lambda used
  RADE-guarded symbols inside an #ifdef HAVE_WEBSOCKETS block.
  Windows has WebSockets but no RADE → undefined-identifier compile
  errors. Added the missing HAVE_RADE inner guard.

Docs

• Data-modes help refresh (#1939) — replaces lingering "DIGI
  applet" references with the current independent-tile UI vocabulary.
• DIGI applet scrub (#2179) — sweeps the remaining stale
  references in tooltips and dialog text.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to NF0T for the FreeDV Reporter station-reporting
integration; chibondking for slice colors, the serial PTT
WaitCommEvent fix, and the applet pop-out race; jensenpat for
the keyboard zoom-center shortcut; mvanhorn for the marker-key
cleanup; and AetherClaude for the bulk of the long-tail bug
fixes.

[v0.9.2.1] — 2026-04-29

TGXL direct autotune for firmware 4.2 compatibility

Hotfix release. After upgrading to SmartSDR firmware 4.2, multiple
users on both AetherSDR and SmartSDR report the TUNE button no longer
works on the 4O3A Tuner Genius XL. The radio's tgxl autotune command
path was reworked in 4.2 firmware and broke for many configurations.

This release routes the TUNE button through the TGXL's native
port-9010 channel when a direct TGXL connection is configured,
bypassing the affected firmware path. Users without a direct TGXL
connection are unaffected by this change and should still configure
direct connection in Radio Setup → Tuner to recover TUNE.

Bug Fixes

TGXL TUNE works again on firmware 4.2 (#2163)

• When a direct TGXL connection (port 9010) is configured, the TUNE
  button now sends the native autotune command directly to the TGXL
  instead of routing tgxl autotune handle=<H> through the radio's
  command channel. Falls back to the radio path when no direct
  connection is available.
• The TGXL drives radio PTT via its hardware interlock cable when it
  receives the native autotune command, so client-side keying is
  not required. Existing tuning state and SWR readout in the Tuner
  applet are unchanged.

Log redaction no longer mangles 4-component version strings

• The PII redactor's IPv4 regex matched anything that looked like
  four dot-separated 1-3-digit numbers, so the application's own
  version string 0.9.2.1 was being redacted to *.*.*. 1 in
  logs and support bundles. Negative lookbehind/lookahead now skip
  quoted ("0.9.2.1") and v-prefixed (v0.9.2.1) version forms
  while still redacting bare IPs in log output.

[v0.9.2] — 2026-04-28

WAVE Phase 2, v4.2.18 firmware support, and community polish

A focused community-driven release. Major work from jensenpat lands
the WAVE Phase 2 applet (four visualizations, settings drawer), proper
TCXO frequency-offset calibration, and the DAX/TCI multi-stream routing
needed for FlexRadio firmware 4.2.18. chibondking and NF0T
ship a serial PTT fix and an r8b heap-corruption crash fix. The VFO
DSP panel gets a UX pass (collapsed Marker + Filter Edge buttons), and
the v4.2.18 discovery beacon is parsed.

Features

WAVE Phase 2 — applet visualization controls (#2124, jensenpat)

• Double-click the WAVE waveform to open a settings drawer (replaces
  the prior clear-on-double-click behavior). Drawer is open by default
  on first launch for discoverability.
• New compact View dropdown with four visualizations:
  Scope (the original waveform trace), Envelope (filled RMS with peak
  outline), History (side-scrolling activity bars), Bands (vertical
  EQ-style frequency bands).
• Persisted Zoom and FPS controls in the drawer. Zoom is amplitude
  gain across all views, not a time-window preference.
• Drawer participates in the applet size hint when expanded so the
  applet stays compact when collapsed.

DAX-aware TCI multi-stream routing (#2140, jensenpat)

• Adapts the DAX/TCI audio path for FlexRadio firmware 4.2.18's
  explicit stream-ownership reporting. Filters DAX RX/IQ stream
  status by client_handle so we don't accidentally register another
  client's stream, while accepting ownership-less status from older
  firmware.
• Advertises TCI receivers as contiguous owned-slice indexes
  (0..N-1) rather than raw Flex slice IDs. Fixes WSJT-X TCI1/TCI2
  multi-slice operation when this client owns slice 1 but another
  client owns slice 0.
• Honors per-client audio_start:<receiver> so multi-slice WSJT-X
  receives only the intended audio.
• Stream-removal handling: unregisters DAX/IQ streams and clears TCI
  DAX placeholders on removed status.
• Adds focused diagnostics for first DAX VITA packets, TCI receiver
  maps, DAX RX delivery, and DAX TX route selection — gated behind
  lcDax / lcCat categories so default users see no extra noise.

TCXO frequency-offset calibration (#2119, jensenpat)

• Replaces the unsupported radio calibrate command (firmware
  v4.1.5 returns 0x50000016 "unknown command") with the documented
  SmartSDR / FlexLib sequence: radio set cal_freq=, radio set freq_error_ppb=0, radio pll_start.
• Watches pll_done status for completion with run-specific guards
  against stale events from a prior calibration firing during a new
  run.
• Cross-checked against FlexLib v2.10.1 source. Fixes #1237, #2095.

VFO marker controls — tri-state Marker, single Filter Edge (#2141)

• The four-button row (Thin / Thick / Edges / Hide) collapses to two:
  • Marker cycles Off → 1 px → 3 px on click. Off skips both
    the center line and the top triangle, leaving only the passband
    bracket.
  • Filter Edge is a checkable on/off — checked = edges shown.
• New Slice<N>_MarkerWidth int settings key with one-shot migration
  from the old Slice<N>_MarkerThin bool (True → 1, False → 3).

v4.2.18 discovery beacon parsing (#2138, AetherClaude)

• Parses two new fields from the FlexLib v4.2.18 discovery packet:
  is_system_model (flags bench / system-build radios) and
  turf_region (turf region indicator distinct from the existing
  region field). turf_region is shown in the connect dialog
  detail line.

Other

• ATU start added to the keyboard shortcut actions list.
• Clear action added to the CW decode window context menu (#2116).

Bug fixes

Resampler heap corruption (#2114, NF0T)

• r8b::CDSPResampler24::process() doesn't bounds-check its l
  parameter; passing a block larger than the constructor's
  aMaxInLen silently overflows internal filter buffers. Bug
  manifested as a crash when the Qt event loop stalled long enough
  for QAudioSource::readAll() to return more than 4096 frames in
  one call (typical during DX-cluster spot bursts or heavy UI
  redraws). Fix: chunk-and-recurse on each process*() path so each
  call stays within the configured limit.

Serial PTT input non-functional (#2125, chibondking)

• Three layered bugs blocked the serial-PTT path:
  1. No way to open the port without restarting AetherSDR — the
     Serial tab had no Open / Close buttons and the auto-open label
     implied a restart was required.
  2. loadSettings() defaulted CTS / DSR polarity to ActiveLow
     while the dialog combo defaulted to "Active High". Users who
     left polarity at the displayed default got silently inverted
     logic — footswitch press read as inactive, PTT never fired.
  3. updatePolling() was missed when the port was opened, so the
     polling loop didn't pick up the configured input function.
• Adds Open / Close buttons to the Serial tab, fixes the polarity
  default mismatch, and tracks the explicit Open state separately
  from auto-open via a new SerialPortOpen setting.

Slice audio loss after band changes (#2128, jensenpat)

• After display pan set band=, the radio sometimes stops mixing
  slice audio without echoing audio_mute=1, leaving the model in a
  "unmuted but silent" state. Fix: 300 ms after the band-change
  command, reassert slice set <N> audio_mute=0 for any unmuted
  slice on that pan.

CWX Live toggle and Send action (#2122, jensenpat)

• Live button is now a true toggle so operators can turn live
  keying back off (was force-on only).
• Send button now submits the current input when Live is off
  (matching Enter-key behavior).
• Setup exits Live cleanly without duplicate-sending text already
  keyed character-by-character.
• Adds cwx_panel_test covering Live toggling, Send-click
  submission, Enter submission, and Live exit safety.

Connect-radio dialog grouping polish (#2121, jensenpat)

• Scopes the QFrame callout stylesheet so child labels and
  checkboxes don't inherit the panel border / background, fixing
  nested-bordered-box rendering on macOS, Windows, and Linux.
• Tightens the SmartLink Remote radio list height and moves the
  Connect Remote button outside the Remote group.

Internal

• bool m_markerThin → int m_markerWidth (0 / 1 / 3) propagated
  through VfoWidget, SpectrumWidget::SliceOverlay, and the
  markerStyleChanged signal. Render path skips both the center
  line and the top triangle when markerWidth == 0.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to jensenpat for the WAVE Phase 2, DAX/TCI, calibration,
band-change, CWX, and dialog polish work; chibondking for the
serial PTT triple-fix; and NF0T for catching the r8b heap-
corruption bug.

[v0.9.1] — 2026-04-27

Local iambic CW keyer, unified sidetone controls, and CW transmit reliability

A focused follow-up to v0.9.0. The headline feature is a software
iambic keyer that turns any MIDI / serial paddle into a sub-5 ms
sidetone source via the new PortAudio backend (issue #2079) — the
radio still produces the on-air signal, but the local sidetone
gate fires the moment the paddle moves instead of waiting for the
radio's keyed-back signal. Three latent bugs in the netcw protocol
path that prevented CW from ever transmitting on FLEX-8600 v4.1.5
firmware are also fixed. Plus the CW panel collapses three sidetone
widget groups into one set of controls and finally wires up the L/R
pan slider that's been a placeholder since the panel was first added.

Features

Local iambic keyer for sub-5 ms paddle sidetone (#2079)

• Software iambic state machine that runs alongside the radio's RF
  iambic engine. Both engines see the same paddle inputs at the same
  WPM and produce identical Morse timing — but the local keyer drives
  the sidetone gate directly, avoiding the 50–200 ms round-trip
  through the radio's keyed-back signal.
• Modes A and B implemented (Ultimatic / Bug / Straight follow in a
  later phase). Hooked into both MIDI Gate params (cw.dit,
  cw.dah) and serial paddle paths (DTR/CTS via SerialPortController).
• Driven by the existing radio Iambic toggle — no new UI clutter.
  The keyer mirrors the radio's iambic state, mode, and WPM via the
  TransmitModel phoneStateChanged signal.
• Dedicated worker thread with std::chrono::steady_clock timing
  and a lock-free atomic key gate on the audio side. 9 unit tests
  covering single dit/dah timing, squeeze alternation, inter-element
  gap, mode A release behaviour, WPM scaling, paddle swap, idempotent
  start, and idle behaviour.

Sidetone controls unified (#2079)

• The CW panel previously had three separate sidetone widget groups:
  the radio's "Sidetone" toggle/volume, a "Local STn" toggle/volume
  for the local PortAudio sidetone, and a "Follow" pitch row with a
  manual override slider. All three are now collapsed into the
  single existing Sidetone button, which drives both engines in
  lockstep. The volume slider drives mon_gain_cw on the radio and
  the local sidetone identically. Pitch always follows the radio's
  cw_pitch.

CW pan slider wired up (#2079)

• The L/R pan slider in the CW panel was a dead UI element with a
  TODO comment. Now drives both the radio's mon_pan_cw (radio-side
  sidetone pan within the RX audio stream) and the local sidetone
  with constant-power pan law (cosine/sine for equal-loudness sweep,
  no center dip). Double-click on the slider recenters to 50.

Slice capacity notification (#48)

• Status-bar warning when adding another panadapter would exceed the
  radio's slice limit. Three guard points cover the pre-flight check
  in the layout dialog, the runtime check in applyPanLayout, and
  the async fallback when the radio rejects a panafall create.
  Includes the radio model name and slice count in the message.

PortAudio sidetone via JACK on Linux (#2075 follow-up)

• The PortAudio sidetone backend (introduced in v0.9.0) now prefers
  the JACK host API on Linux when available, with paFramesPerBuffer = 128 + suggestedLatency = 0 for sub-5 ms quantum. PipeWire's
  ALSA shim silently breaks callback-mode streams on some setups
  (Pa_StartStream returns success but the audio thread never
  schedules the callback); pipewire-jack delivers reliable callbacks
  at the device's native sample rate. 48 kHz is now the universal
  preference, with Pa_IsFormatSupported guarding fallback.

Bug fixes

CW transmit: invalid paddle command form

• RadioModel::sendCwPaddle was emitting cw key 1 0 (a 2-arg paddle
  form) which the radio's protocol does not accept — FlexLib only
  ever sends single-state cw key 1 or cw key 0 and expects the
  client to do iambic timing locally. The 2-arg form was silently
  dropped, so paddle keying produced no RF. Now collapses to a
  straight-key form when the local iambic keyer isn't running, or
  routes through the new sendCwKeyEdge + sendCwPtt primitives
  when it is.

CW transmit: lowercase hex in netcw payload

• FlexLib formats time=0x... and client_handle=0x... with C#
  ToString("X") (uppercase), and the radio's status messages do
  too (e.g. S23A59BDF|...). Firmware v4.1.5's netcw parser is
  case-sensitive on these fields and silently dropped lowercase
  packets. Now formatted explicitly uppercase.

CW transmit: dead TCP fallback

• The post-UDP TCP fallback was sending the netcw-decorated form
  (cw key 1 time=0x... index=... client_handle=0x...) which the
  radio rejects with 0x50001000 ("command syntax error") on TCP.
  Removed when the netcw stream is up; the no-netcw fallback (for
  firmware that doesn't support netcw stream creation) is preserved
  separately.

Optimistic updates for CW model setters

• setCwIambic, setCwIambicMode, setCwSpeed, and setCwPitch
  on TransmitModel previously sent the command to the radio
  without updating local state, on the assumption that the radio
  would echo the new value back. Firmware v1.4.0.0 doesn't reliably
  echo iambic flags, WPM, or pitch in transmit status messages, so
  any code reading these properties after a UI toggle saw stale
  values until the next periodic transmit status arrived (or never).
  Now follow the same optimistic-update pattern as setCwBreakIn.

Block on graceful disconnect (#1996, openstreem)

• RadioModel::disconnectFromRadio now uses Qt::BlockingQueued Connection for both the gracefulDisconnect lambda and the
  fallback disconnectFromRadio call, matching the destructor's
  pattern. Without this, the queued work could be cancelled before
  it ran during app teardown — leaving the radio with a stale
  session that required a power cycle.

Memory recall: restore repeater offset and tone (#1871, #1965, jensenpat)

• Recalled FM repeater memories properly restore repeater_offset_dir,
  fm_repeater_offset_freq, derived tx_offset_freq, and CTCSS tone
  state. Previously, switching from a repeater memory to simplex
  could leave stale TX offset state on the slice.

m_activeTxSlice initializer mismatch (#2076)

• Default-init was 0 but clear() sets to -1. Now both default
  to -1 so a fresh MeterModel and a cleared one have identical
  activeTxSlice() state.

Per-slice compression meter resolution (#2073)

• TX-chain COMPPEAK, AFTEREQ, and SC_MIC meters are now
  resolved per active slice instead of last-match-wins, fixing
  Multi-Flex setups where the wrong slice's compression value was
  surfaced in the UI.

ContainerWidget restoreState displaces children

• restoreState re-inserted children at indices 0..N–1 even when
  they were already in the layout, displacing non-saved children
  like the CHAIN widget. insertChildWidget is now a no-op when
  the child is already present.

Build and CI

• M_PI_2 replaced with a local kPiOver2 constexpr in
  CwSidetoneGenerator.cpp so the Windows MSVC build doesn't
  fail (<cmath> doesn't define M_PI_2 without _USE_MATH_DEFINES).

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the operators who tested CW workflows on real hardware
and surfaced the netcw protocol issues that had been silent since
the netcw backend landed, and to jensenpat and openstreem
for the community fixes bundled in.

Aetherial Audio RX, frameless UI, and local CW sidetone

A milestone release. The Aetherial Audio suite — Parametric EQ, AGC-T
gate, AGC-C compressor, Tube saturator, and PUDU exciter — now runs
on both RX and TX with fully independent settings, drag-to-reorder
on each path, and matching frameless editor windows. The whole UI
goes frameless: the main window plus every applet pop-out and editor
gets a Discord-style minimise / maximise / close trio with title-bar
drag. CW operators get a dedicated low-latency local sidetone sink
that survives CWX too. Plus community fixes for the FLEX-6000
compression meter, RTTY mark-default reset, RADE decoded audio, and
the usual stack of UX polish.

New to the Aetherial Audio chain? See the Aetherial Audio wiki page for the full guide, including the new RX-chain section.

Features

Aetherial Audio RX chain (#1998)

• Reuses the existing TX DSP modules (Parametric EQ, gate/expander,
  compressor, tube saturator, PUDU exciter) on the RX path with
  fully independent state from TX. Each stage is a tile in the
  CHAIN widget on the RX side: single-click toggles bypass,
  double-click opens the floating editor. RX chain order is
  drag-to-reorder. RADIO and SPEAK status tiles bookend the chain;
  the DSP tile shows whichever client-side noise reducer is active
  (NR2 / NR4 / BNR).
• All applet titles rebrand to Aetherial: Parametric EQ,
  AGC-T (gate), AGC-C (compressor), Tube, PUDU.

Frameless main window with custom title bar (#1926)

• Main window now uses Qt::FramelessWindowHint with a custom
  20 px title bar carrying drag-to-move via startSystemMove,
  double-click maximise, and a Discord-style minimise / maximise /
  close trio. Resize via standard window-edge grip.

Frameless pop-out windows for applets and panadapters (#1922)

• Every floating applet and panadapter pop-out gains the same
  frameless title bar with the trio. Single-click trio actions,
  drag the bar to move, double-click to maximise.

Frameless editor windows for the entire Aetherial chain (#1998)

• Aetherial Parametric EQ, AGC-T, AGC-C, Tube, PUDU, and Reverb
  editors all use the same shared title-bar widget with drag and
  trio. Title text reads "Aetherial <Stage> — <Side>" so the
  TX vs RX instance is identifiable at a glance.

Polish frameless title bar (#1931)

• Title-bar trio refined to a Discord-style sequence; dropped the
  lightbulb icon in favour of a minimal arrow accent so the trio
  sits flush against the right edge.

Local CW sidetone with low-latency sink + CWX support (#1969)

• Dedicated low-latency local sidetone path that bypasses the
  protocol-level monitor for keying feedback that doesn't fight
  network jitter. Works for paddle, straight key, and CWX
  generated transmissions. Pitch and gain follow the existing
  pitch / mon_gain_cw controls.

Two-Tone Tune shortcut (#1995, jensenpat)

• New unassigned Two-Tone Tune keyboard action under the TX
  shortcut category. Sends transmit set tune_mode=two_tone
  before starting Tune, toggles off on a second press, and
  restores tune_mode=single_tone on stop so the regular TUNE
  press isn't surprised by sticky two-tone state.

XVTR diagnostic logging (#1964)

• New xvtr logging category captures status messages, RF↔IF
  frequency translation, and pan-bandwidth conversions so XVTR
  setup issues can be diagnosed from log bundles instead of pcap.

XVTR policy regression tests (#1960)

• Test harness covers transverter active/inactive state, RF↔IF
  conversion, and the family of pan-recenter cases that used to
  drop the waterfall when crossing IF/RF boundaries.

Bug fixes

Flex compression meter derivation across radio families (#1992, jensenpat)

• FLEX-8000 series exposes TX/AFTEREQ at 20 fps as the post-EQ
  reference for compression display; FLEX-6000 captures don't
  expose AFTEREQ, so the best matching reference is TX/SC_MIC
  at 10 fps with TX/COMPPEAK still at 20 fps. Mixed cadence is
  guarded by a freshness check so a fresh COMPPEAK isn't compared
  against a stale SC_MIC sample. When AFTEREQ is present it
  takes precedence over SC_MIC.

Preserve rtty_mark_default when radio resets mark on band change (#1968, chibondking)

• The radio resets slice rtty_mark to 2125 in the status broadcast
  that follows a band change, regardless of the configured
  rtty_mark_default. SliceModel::applyStatus() was accepting
  the 2125 value blindly, overwriting the user's configured mark.
  Now tracks m_rttyMarkDefault (seeded from RadioModel) and a
  user-override flag so the correct default is pushed back when
  the radio resets, without fighting an intentional 2125 selection.

Fix choppy/harsh RADE decoded audio: dedicated buffer + sample-wise mix (#1953, NF0T)

• RADE decoded audio was sharing the SSB output buffer, producing
  glitches and harsh artefacts on decoded voice. Split into a
  dedicated buffer with per-sample mixing into the speaker output
  so RADE and SSB don't fight for the same write window.

Fix CoreMIDI init crash during MIDI auto-connect (#1949, jensenpat)

• macOS CoreMIDI initialisation could crash on launch when
  auto-connect ran before the MIDI client was fully constructed.
  Init order tightened so the client is ready before any
  auto-connect attempt.

Restore shortcuts after slider nudges (#1952, jensenpat)

• Shortcut bindings could go stale after the user nudged a slider
  with the keyboard, because focus stayed on the slider and ate
  subsequent shortcut keystrokes. Focus now returns to the main
  window after a slider nudge.

Preserve MIDI bindings when saving device settings (#1951, jensenpat)

• Saving MIDI device settings was overwriting bindings with an
  empty map because the save path read from the wrong source.
  Now the existing binding map is merged into the saved settings.

Cancel frequency entry with Escape (#1954, jensenpat)

• The numeric frequency-entry buffer didn't honour Escape, so a
  user who started typing a frequency had to clear the buffer
  manually. Escape now cancels the entry cleanly.

Gate XVTR waterfall tile shifts (#1925, jensenpat)

• Waterfall tile-shift logic continued to fire on XVTR pans even
  when the IF↔RF frequency relationship made the shift meaningless,
  producing visual tearing. Shifts are now gated on transverter
  state.

Close all floating windows when main window closes (#1920, chibondking)

• Floating applet pop-outs and panadapter pop-outs were left as
  orphaned top-level windows when the main window was closed,
  forcing the user to close each one individually. All
  floating children now close together with the main window.

Build and CI

cmake: declare Qt 6.2 minimum (#1962)

• startSystemMove is gated behind Qt 6.2; the build now declares
  the minimum explicitly so older systems get a clean configure
  error rather than a confusing link failure. Matches Ubuntu
  22.04 LTS shipped Qt.

ci(windows): switch to Ninja so sccache actually wraps cl.exe (#1963)

• The Windows CI job was using MSBuild, which sccache can't wrap
  for compilation caching. Moved to Ninja so the sccache layer
  established in #1913 actually has effect, cutting Windows build
  times further.

ci: speed up Windows build with sccache + Qt/FFTW caching (#1913)

• Adds sccache for compiler caching plus GitHub Actions cache
  layers for Qt and FFTW dependencies. First-run pulls populate
  the cache; subsequent CI runs reuse compiled objects and prebuilt
  third-party artefacts.

Add /bigobj to MSVC compile options (#1910 → #1911)

• The compilation unit hit the C1128 section count limit on
  MSVC. /bigobj raises the limit so the unit compiles cleanly
  without splitting the file.

Dependencies

• Bump mozilla-actions/sccache-action from 0.0.6 to 0.0.10 (#1941)
• Bump actions/cache from 4 to 5 (#1942)

Acknowledgements

Massive cycle. jensenpat delivered eight PRs this release —
including the FLEX-6000 compression meter derivation, two-tone
Tune shortcut, XVTR diagnostic logging and regression tests, and
four crash/UX fixes (CoreMIDI init, MIDI binding persistence,
slider-nudge focus, frequency-entry Escape). chibondking
shipped two PRs (RTTY mark-default preservation and the
floating-window close cascade). Thanks also to NF0T for the
RADE decoded-audio dedicated-buffer fix.

73, Jeremy KK7GWY

Downloads

The git tag v0.9.0 is GPG-signed (key 01FBE34B4639247E); macOS bundles are Apple-signed and notarised.