Getting started · Nexus 1.0
Four things, in order, and Nexus knows your station.
Callsign, radio, license, log. Nothing else is required to make your first contact — and the fourth one is where the app stops guessing and starts telling you who to work.
Step 1 of 4 · Your station
Who's on the air?
Your callsign and your grid square. Everything location-shaped in Nexus — the propagation map, satellite passes, distances, bearings, DXpedition windows, VHF opening locality — is computed from these two fields.
Open the first-run wizard (it appears on first launch) or Settings ▸ Station at any time.
- Callsign — stored uppercase. Nexus will not start PSK Reporter or the RBN/cluster feed until a valid one is set: 3–10 characters, at least one letter and one digit.
- Grid square — your Maidenhead locator. QRZ shows yours.
- Name — optional, in Settings ▸ Station. Feeds the CW
{NAME}macro and logbook autofill.
Give all six characters
Four characters pins you to the middle of a ~100-mile square, and every distance and
bearing you will ever read is measured from that point. EN52xa beats EN52. A malformed locator is refused outright — the wizard will not let you past it.
In Nexus
Who's on the air?
Your grid square is the anchor for everything location-based — satellite passes, propagation, the map, and DXpedition windows are all computed from it.
Setup wizard ▸ step 1 · re-run any time from Settings ▸ Appearance ▸ Features
Step 2 of 4 · Your rig
How does the radio connect?
One button does the archaeology. Nexus reads the USB descriptors, matches the rig model, pairs the audio CODEC, and looks for FlexRadios on your network — in a single scan.
In the wizard, or in Settings ▸ Radio ▸ Rig Control, click Detect my radio.
- Pick the row that is your radio. It fills the port, the Hamlib model and both audio devices at once. On a dual-UART Icom two rows describe the same rig — take the one tagged CI-V port — use this one.
- Generic cable? A CH340 reporting only “USB Serial” fills the port and audio but leaves the model blank — choose it from the dropdown.
- FlexRadio is found on the network and configured the WSJT-X-proven way:
CAT through the SmartSDR CAT app at
127.0.0.1:5002, audio through DAX. - Then press Test CAT. Nexus saves what you entered, starts
rigctldon port 4532, and reports the dial frequency it read back — or the specific error.
Nothing found?
USB: plug it in and power it on. Flex: it has to be on this network. Either way you can skip and set it up later — the wizard never blocks on hardware. Set Tx Level (default 0.9) down until your rig's ALC reads zero before you transmit.
In Nexus
How does the radio connect?
One detect finds everything — USB rigs and FlexRadios on the network. Skippable; Settings ▸ Rig Control has all of this later.
Setup wizard ▸ step 2 · Hamlib ships inside the installer
Step 3 of 4 · Your license
Declare your class, get a real lockout
This one field becomes a software guard in every transmit path in the app. Nexus parks the dial in your licensed segments and refuses to key up outside them, with a toast that says why.
On the wizard's last step, under What's your license?. It is persisted the moment you click it.
- A Technician on 40 m is held to the CW segment — phone and FT8 TX outside it are blocked.
- A General on 20 m cannot transmit in the Extra-only portion at the low end.
- The channelized 60 m segments are included.
- Outside the US? Pick Outside the US. The lockout models US FCC Part 97 / ITU Region 2 only, so it is off rather than wrong.
It is a safety net
You are responsible for knowing your privileges. The lockout catches the slip; it does not replace the knowledge. A fresh install defaults to Open, so nothing is silently restricted before you say so.
In Nexus
What's your license?
Sets your transmit privileges — the app parks the dial in your licensed band segments and won't let you transmit outside them. Pick “Outside the US” for no limits.
Setup wizard ▸ step 4 · alongside goals and modes
Step 4 of 4 · The one that matters
Bring in your existing log
One log, every mode. Import one ADIF file and the app knows every station you have already worked, every entity you still need, and exactly how far you are from your next award — on digital, phone and CW alike, computed offline from your own history.
Without a log
Every callsign looks the same, whether it arrives as a decode, a cluster spot or a voice on the band. Every station is new. The Needed board has nothing to say.
With it — worked before
B4 chips wherever a callsign appears — digital decodes, the Call Roster, spots, and the recall card in the Phone and CW cockpits.
With it — the Needed board
New DXCC, new state, new grid, new band slot — ranked across every band and mode at once, with the evidence that says it is workable now.
With it — awards
DXCC, Challenge, Honor Roll, WAS, WAZ, VUCC and IOTA — mode-agnostic and per-mode alike — the moment the import finishes.
Where your ADIF comes from
Any standard ADIF export — .adi or .adif. If you have been operating,
you already have one.
- WSJT-X —
wsjtx_log.adiin your log directory. - QRZ Logbook or LoTW — download your full ADIF export.
- N1MM+, Log4OM, HRD, ClubLog — export ADIF from the logbook.
Then import it
Wizard step 3, or Logbook ▸ Import ADIF at any time. Import as many files as you like — duplicates are detected and skipped, so a second pass costs you nothing.
Nothing leaves your computer
The import is local. Your log lives in log.adi on your own machine, and the
awards engine computes against it offline. Uploading to LoTW, QRZ, ClubLog or eQSL is
a separate, opt-in connector.
In Nexus
Bring in your existing log
Nexus works best when it knows your history. Importing your ADIF log is what powers worked-before flags, the Needed board, and your awards progress — without it, the app starts blind and treats every station as new.
✓ Imported 4,812 QSOs · 36 already present. Your worked-before and Needed board are now seeded.
From WSJT-X, N1MM, Log4OM, HRD, QRZ, LoTW, ClubLog — any standard ADIF (.adi/.adif) export. Nothing leaves your computer; duplicates are detected and skipped.
Setup wizard ▸ step 3 · or Logbook ▸ Import ADIF, any time
You're set — now go work someone
01
Open Digital. The dial starts on 14.074 MHz and the decoder runs every 15-second slot — there is no Monitor toggle to forget.
02
Within a period or two, decodes fill Band Activity — now annotated with country, B4 and New / DXCC badges, because you imported the log.
03
Double-click a station calling CQ. The sequencer runs the whole exchange and logs it. The same log feeds the Phone and CW cockpits, so a familiar call shows their name and your history there too.