Cloud WSJT-X

A couple of weeks ago, I was approached by Pearce N2LW with an interesting project idea. I don’t want to spoil the entire idea, but the basic premise is to be able to “play” WSJT-X from anywhere. With Forester and kel-agent, I have a good tech foundation to make that a reality, and Pearce’s background also lends itself to the project, so we’ve been working together.

The first phase of the project needs a basic WSJT-X GUI in a web app so we can see what all WSJT-X’s UDP interface can and cannot provide, which led to the screenshot above. It’s surprising useful for making FT-8 QSOs, but there are also some pretty wide gaps in functionality that make it hard to replicate the full WSJT-X experience. The biggest information gap is the band graph showing the waterfall of activity. Since that information isn’t available over the UDP interface, we’ll have a hard time showing the user where they can safely transmit without stepping on another station (or being stepped on). Still, it gives us a good base to work from.