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Getting started

From the installer to your first FT8 contact takes about fifteen minutes. The setup wizard asks for four things in this order, and you can skip any of them and change it later in Settings.

Before you start: install Nexus from the download page (version 1.22.0). You need a radio with a USB cable, or a FlexRadio or another radio on your network, and an antenna. You can install and look around without a radio; you need one connected to transmit.

The setup wizard

1. Your callsign and grid square

The wizard opens by itself the first time Nexus starts. Enter your callsign and your grid square. The grid is the anchor for everything location-based: the propagation map, satellite passes, DXpedition windows, and every distance and bearing.

Give the grid all six characters. Four (EN52) puts you in the middle of a square about 100 miles across, and every distance is then measured from that middle. The box turns red on anything that is not a valid locator.

Step 1 of the setup wizard, Who's on the air? Four step chips run across the top: 1 Your station, 2 Your rig, 3 Your log, 4 Finish, with the first outlined. A Callsign box reads KD9TAW beside a Grid square box, with a note asking for all six characters. I'll set it up myself and a Next button sit at the bottom right.
The wizard's first step. To run it again later, use Re-run setup wizard… under Setup health in Settings ▸ Radio.

2. Find the radio

Plug the radio in, turn it on and click Detect my radio. One scan looks at your USB devices and for FlexRadios on your network.

  • A radio that names itself over USB, such as an IC-7300 or IC-705, shows as a row like IC-7300 on COM4. One click fills in the Hamlib model, the serial port and the sound card that goes with it.
  • A cable with a bridge chip (CH340, FTDI, CP210x or Prolific) cannot say which radio is at the other end. Its row fills in the port and the sound card and leaves the model for you to pick. If Windows is missing the chip's driver, Nexus shows where to get it.
  • A FlexRadio shows as FLEX-6400 on the network. One click sets up CAT through the SmartSDR CAT app on this PC, and Pair DAX audio sets up the sound.

Then click Test CAT. Nexus starts its own copy of rigctld and reads back the dial frequency; a number such as 14.074 MHz means CAT works. The Setup health strip under the step shows the rig, the receive audio and TX.

Rig not answering is CAT: the wrong port, the wrong baud rate or the cable. Fix that first. On a one-cable interface the sound card belongs to the same radio, so receive audio often comes right with it.

Step 2 of the setup wizard, How does the radio connect? A Detect my radio button sits above seven detected serial ports, each naming its chip; the dual CP2105 rows add CI-V port, use this one, or second port, not CI-V, and one of them is selected. Below them are the USB / Serial and Network choices, the audio in and audio out devices, a Test CAT button, and a Setup health strip reading Rig responding, RX audio 42 dB and TX on.
The rig step after a scan. Two rows can describe one Icom with a dual-port USB chip; take the one marked as the CI-V port.

3. Bring in your log

Import an ADIF file from the program you use now and Nexus starts with your history: a B4 mark on every station you have worked, a Needed board ranked against what you already have, and your award totals.

  • Any standard ADIF export works (.adi or .adif): WSJT-X, N1MM, Log4OM, HRD, QRZ, LoTW or ClubLog.
  • Click Import my ADIF log… here, or import from the Logbook any time. Duplicates are skipped, so a second file does no harm.
  • The import stays on your computer. Uploads to LoTW, QRZ and the other services are separate, and you switch each one on yourself.

Skip this step and every station looks new to Nexus, and the Needed board has nothing to rank against. Of the four steps, this one makes the most difference on the first day.

Step 3 of the setup wizard, Bring in your existing log, with the 3 Your log chip current. A paragraph explains that importing an ADIF log is what powers worked-before flags, the Needed board and awards progress, and that the step is optional. An Import my ADIF log button sits under it, above a line naming WSJT-X, N1MM, Log4OM, HRD, QRZ, LoTW and ClubLog as sources and noting that nothing leaves your computer and duplicates are skipped.
The log step.

4. Your license class

Every mode and every section starts switched on, so the last step asks only for your license class: Technician, General, Amateur Extra, or Outside the US.

For the three US classes it becomes a transmit lockout. Nexus parks the dial in your licensed segments and refuses to key outside them, the 2026 60 m rules included. It catches a slip; knowing your privileges is still your job.

If you would rather run a smaller program, turn sections off afterwards in Settings ▸ Appearance ▸ Features. Goal profiles there, such as contesting, POTA/SOTA and 6 m/VHF, set several at once.

Click Finish and Nexus opens the FT8 cockpit.

Step 4 of the setup wizard, You get everything, with the 4 Finish chip current. The text says every mode and every section starts on. Under What's your license? are four cards: Technician, General, Amateur Extra and Outside the US, with Outside the US picked on this station. A Show me Getting started card and a blue Finish button close the step.
The last step, where the license class is set.

Your first contact

  1. The FT8 cockpit opens on 14.074 MHz (20 m) and decodes every 15-second period by itself. There is no Monitor button to forget.
  2. Within a period or two, Band Activity fills with decodes. Each row shows the country, a B4 mark if you have worked the station before, and a New DXCC or new grid badge when it would add to your log.
  3. Find a station calling CQ and double-click its row. Nexus answers at the next period and runs the exchange (grid, report, R-report, RR73, 73), following what the other station sends back.
  4. When the contact completes, it goes in the log by itself.

Esc stops a transmission at once. A single click on a row only fills in the DX call and grid, and does not transmit.

Coming from WSJT-X

Most of what you know carries over. Double-click works the same, and so do Esc, F4 (clear the DX call), F6 (decode the last period again) and Alt+1 to Alt+6. Early decodes arrive at 11.8 seconds, split works as Rig or Fake It, and Hound mode is there for DXpeditions.

Point step 2 at the same radio and sound card WSJT-X uses, and give step 3 your wsjtx_log.adi. JTAlert and GridTracker keep working, because Nexus sends the WSJT-X UDP messages they listen for. To keep WSJT-X on the radio for a while, companion mode lets Nexus work from its decodes.

Coming from another logger

Export your log as ADIF and import it in step 3. Your current logger can stay in the loop: Nexus sends each contact to N1MM Logger+, N3FJP, DXKeeper, Cloudlog or Wavelog as you log it, and uploads to LoTW, QRZ, ClubLog and eQSL once you set them up.

For contests, the CW, RTTY and phone log strips use the standard contest F-key layout and Enter Sends Message. Contesting and Field Day has the rest.

If something does not work

  • The Setup health strip in Settings ▸ Radio shows whether the rig answers, whether receive audio arrives and whether TX works. Hover a light for the radio's own reply.
  • The troubleshooting guide walks through CAT, audio and drivers, and the manual covers every screen.
  • Ask on Discord for setup help, or on Groups.io. Bugs go to GitHub Issues.