Settings reference

Settings is organized into thirteen tabs. Only the active tab renders, so typing in one field doesn’t lag the whole panel. Save at the bottom applies your changes; most take effect live (a few say “takes effect on restart”, and a few apply the instant you touch them — those say so too).

Your callsign is required, but Save is never greyed out. Clicking it with an empty callsign takes you to the Station tab with a message saying so, rather than leaving a dead button with no reason and no fix.

The tabs, in the order they appear:

Station · Remote · Radio · Satellites · Phone · CW · Digital · Spots & Alerts · Logbook · Services · Contesting · Appearance · App

The panel header carries the build stamp (confirm a fresh install actually took), a Check for updates button and a Licenses button (the license texts of the packages built into the interface and of the Rust crates the app is built from), all at the right-hand end of the same row as the search box.

The ten tabs and the setting search, in Nexus 1.10.3.

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Station

Your operator identity, license privileges, and default frequency.

Operator & Radio

• Callsign — “Your station callsign (required).” Everything keys off this.
• Grid — “Maidenhead locator. All 6 characters — 4 measures every distance and bearing from the middle of a ~100-mile square.” Drives satellite passes, propagation anchoring, and distance math. Every contact you log carries it as your grid (ADIF MY_GRIDSQUARE) unless the contact arrived with one of its own (WSJT-X’s, or one typed in the Logbook). Your LoTW uploads leave a grid Nexus filled in itself out, so TQSL keeps signing from your Station Location; every other service receives it.
• Operator name — “Used by the CW {NAME} macro and logging.”
• Operator at the key — for multi-operator only: the callsign of whoever is actually running the station, when that is not the station call. It is stamped on every contact you log (ADIF OPERATOR), so a shared activation can be split per operator afterwards — POTA and Field Day both want each operator to submit their own. Blank means single-op: your station call is logged as the operator. Change it when you swap seats. It is the same setting as Operator at the key under Who’s who at this event; editing either one moves both.
• State — your US state or province for everyday contacts: the CW {MYSTATE} macro, the QTH an RTTY ragchew sends, and your state on each contact you log (ADIF MY_STATE). A park or summit activation logs the park’s state instead, never this one, and LoTW uploads leave it out as they do the grid. A contest has a box of its own, State or province under Your station data on the Contesting tab, because a contest entry can be somewhere else: a portable or mobile entry types where it is operating there, and this one stays as it is.
• License Class — Technician / General / Amateur Extra (US), the grandfathered Novice and Advanced classes, or Open for non-US operators. “Sets your transmit privileges + the licensed-segment band dropdown. Open = no limits (outside the US).” This is a software transmit guard in every Nexus TX path, checked against the Part 97 sub-band table — Nexus refuses to key the rig outside your segment.
• Your experience — New to the hobby, New to digital or Experienced: the answer to the first-run wizard’s first question. It picks which screens start on (New to the hobby: FT8, the log and the maps; New to digital: the same plus Phone and CW; Experienced: everything) and, for the two “new” answers, opens each Settings tab on the sections you need first, with the rest folded to their headings until Show all, a search or a link opens them (Accessibility and Features never fold). Changing it replaces the set in Features, asking first, and naming them, whenever the change would turn screens off. It saves when you pick it. A station set up before this question existed shows Not set, and nothing changes until you pick an answer. It changes nothing about transmitting.
• Units — Automatic (from your system), Metric (km, °C) or Imperial (mi, °F). Covers distances, temperature and wind speed across the whole app. Automatic follows your operating system’s region, and a change applies everywhere the moment you make it. (It used to sit under Digital ▸ Station Housekeeping.)
• Band & Frequency — “Pick a band-plan channel, or type a dial frequency in MHz.”

The right-hand half of Operator & Radio in Nexus 1.10.3 — callsign, grid and operator name sit to the left of these. The values shown are one station’s, not recommendations.

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Remote

Signing this station in to Nexus Remote, pairing it with a browser or another computer, and approving the devices that connect. One card, with the older pairing and permission options folded under Advanced.

Remote access

Remote lets you use this station from a web browser. Remote streaming is a beta feature, and access could be revoked at any time; the card says so beside its switch. The shack PC keeps the radio and stays in charge: what you click and type in the browser goes to the station, the browser shows what the station reports back, and your log, settings and radio never leave this computer. The card holds the streaming switch, where the station stands with the Remote service, and your browsers with their keys. The pairing’s transmit option and the per-browser permissions are folded under Advanced.

Pairing. Give the station a Station name and start Pair a station. In the browser, sign in, enter the code and choose Attach this station. Back here, compare the account ID on both screens and choose Approve this account pairing — that starts the account’s 14-day trial, turns Remote on, and approves the browser you paired from. A browser streaming this station uses Nexus as you would here, transmit included, with this approval alone. Any other browser asks with the Remote site’s Stream button, and Nexus asks you wherever you are in it: Let Chrome on Windows stream this station?, with the browser’s key. Approve it only if the key matches the one the browser shows. Approve there is Approve browser; Deny refuses the request, and Escape closes the question and answers nothing.

Turn on Remote opens an outbound encrypted connection. No port forwarding is required. Pairing stays in the operating system’s credential store, and so does whether Remote is on: if Remote was on when Nexus closed, it turns itself back on and reconnects the next time Nexus starts, with no click needed. If you turned it off, or revoked the station’s access, it stays off. A locked or unavailable credential store leaves Remote off.

Remote can only come back after the computer itself restarts if Nexus starts too. The first time you turn Remote on, Nexus offers to start when you sign in to this computer; that is the Start at sign-in setting under Appearance, and it stays off unless you say yes.

What a browser may do is decided here at the station. Approving a browser gives it station controls, which is all a stream needs: with streaming on, they let a browser stream this window and use Nexus as you would here, transmit included. They are kept when Nexus restarts, until you revoke them, for as long as that browser stays approved: a browser whose approval was revoked, or given again, starts with nothing kept. The switch under each approved browser, under Advanced, limits it, or gives station controls back. Without station controls a browser cannot stream this station.

• Allow station controls — tuning, band and mode changes, receiver filters and DSP, RF power and mic gain, decoder settings, the amplifier, and which radio is active. One browser holds control at a time. Revoking them also ends that browser’s stream. A browser streaming this station logs with Nexus’s own log form, as you would here.

Stream this station from my browser is off by default, and on Windows only for now. With it on, a browser approved for station controls, while it holds control, can be shown this Nexus window and operate it as you would here, transmit included, and hear the station’s receive audio. Only this window is sent: a dialog that opens outside it, such as a file picker, is not, and a minimized window sends nothing. The browser’s clicks and keys reach Nexus only, never anything else on this computer. While a browser is attached, every transmission at the station stops within five seconds if its connection drops, and within seven if its picture freezes. In Phone, the browser can talk on the rig with its own microphone, at a Mic level that browser remembers; see Talk from Remote.

How long a browser stays approved. Until you remove it. An approval never runs out, whether the browser is used or not: only Revoke browser approval (or Remove) here, the browser forgetting itself, or Revoke station access ends it. Nexus shows each one as approved until you remove it, and so does the browser (Nexus 1.17 and 1.18 show such an approval as “Approved until 9999-12-31 UTC”). Approvals given under the earlier rule (30 days from last use, 90 at most) last until removed too; one that had already run out stays ended, and you approve that browser again.

While it holds station control, a browser can press Listen to hear the station’s receive audio; Volume beside it sets how loud, and that browser remembers it. Revoke browser approval removes that one browser: every other browser and computer keeps what it has. Turn off Remote only pauses: it disconnects every browser, and turning Remote on again gives each still-approved browser back what it had, with the TX switch off. End remote control does the same for everyone at once: it turns Remote off (it stays off after a restart), disconnects every browser and every computer, and turns off Remote over this network; nobody is approved again afterwards, and turning Remote on gives each approved device back what it had. Revoke browser approval clears that browser’s permissions for good. Revoke station access disconnects the station and removes its Remote pairing; pair again to reconnect.

This station’s key. Pairing gives this station a signing key of its own, kept in this computer’s password store with the pairing; a station paired by an earlier Nexus gets one the first time this Nexus starts. The station signs every stream it answers with it, and the Remote service records it the first time the station connects. A browser takes only a stream this key signed, so nothing between the two can pass itself off as your station. The card shows the key as This station’s key, eight groups of four characters. Each browser keeps the key the Remote service lists for this station the first time it sees one, and shows it on the station’s card the same way: compare the two, group by group. If the service later lists a different key for this station, the browser says so, shows both keys, and connects nothing until you press Accept the new key there. Accept it only if the new key matches the one shown here. If the key is lost (the password store was cleared, say) or you want a new one, use Revoke station access and pair again: a new pairing makes a new key, which each browser keeps the first time it sees it, so compare it then. Until you do, the card says the Remote service holds a different key for this station, and browsers refuse its stream.

Each browser has a key too, which you compare when you approve it, in the same eight groups the browser shows. An older Nexus at the shack shows only four groups: they are the browser’s first four. Taking control, keeping it, Listen and every command from a browser carry that browser’s key, and Nexus takes them only from the key you approved; Stop TX never needs it. A browser approved before browser keys existed is asked for again, here, before it can take control.

Remote over this network lets Nexus on another computer on the same network operate this station with no internet at all: no Remote service and no sign-in. It is off by default, and on Windows only for now. Turned on, the station listens on one private address of this computer (a home or club network: 10.x, 172.16–31.x or 192.168.x), and the card says where, or why it is not listening. Only computers paired here can connect, and only from that network.

Virtual adapters and VPNs are never used: not WSL’s or Hyper-V’s virtual switch, not VirtualBox’s or VMware’s, and not a VPN’s tunnel, even one that carries all of this computer’s traffic. When more than one network is left, choose which one under Network; Automatic takes the one this computer reaches the internet by. A picked address that goes away for a while (sleep, a new address from the router, a cable out) is waited for, and the station listens there again when it is back.

While it listens, other computers on that network can find the station by name (“Nexus” and the first characters of its key, never this computer’s name) through Windows’ own name service. Where Windows will not do that, the card says so: type the address the card shows on the other computer instead, which always works. The first time it listens, Windows asks whether Nexus may use networks: allow Private networks only. Nexus adds no firewall rule of its own. It reads what the firewall says of the network it listens on, and the card says what stands in the way: a network Windows calls Public, a question that was cancelled (which leaves Nexus blocked there), a firewall set to block every incoming connection, or one an administrator’s policy sets. What it cannot see from here is a network that keeps its devices apart, as guest Wi-Fi often does: on one of those, other computers cannot reach this one at all.

To pair one, choose Pair a computer. The card shows a code, which the other computer’s Nexus asks for when you pair it with this station. Choosing Pair a computer is the approval: whoever types the code within ten minutes is paired at once, with no second step here, so keep it to yourself. A code pairs one computer, three wrong tries end it, and Cancel pairing ends it sooner. Up to eight computers can be paired. Each keeps access until you Remove it here, which disconnects it at once and stops anything it was keeping on the air. A paired computer holding control uses this station as you would, transmit included, under the same rules as a streaming browser: one controller at a time, and every transmission stops if its connection drops.

The station’s network key and its paired computers are kept in this computer’s password store, apart from the Remote pairing, so Revoke station access leaves them alone. Reset network identity (under Network identity) makes a new key and removes every paired computer; pair them again afterwards. End remote control turns this off too. Turning it on or off, pairing, removing and resetting work only at the station itself, never through a stream.

Remote stations… is the other end of the stream. On a Windows computer you operate from, it opens the Remote page in a Nexus window of its own, for a station you have paired. You sign in there, and approve the window at the station once, as you would a new browser. F11 puts the window in full screen and takes it out again. It is the window’s own full screen, not the page’s, so Esc over the picture still stops transmitting. The browser’s own shortcuts are off in this window: F5, Ctrl+R, Ctrl+P, Ctrl+F and the like reach the page, and over the picture they go on to the station like any other key. Links to other sites open in your browser. The window reopens where you left it, fitted to the screens attached at the time, and a window closed in full screen reopens at its last size. The page in this window can reach nothing in Nexus, exactly as in a browser. On Linux and macOS, use Remote in a browser for now.

Stations on this network… is the other end of Remote over this network. On a Windows computer you operate from, it opens a Nexus window of its own for the stations on this computer. To add one, press Sign in… and sign in to Nexus Remote in your web browser with the account the station is linked to, or one its owner invited to operate it: the window finds the station on your network by name (or asks for its address), checks that it is the station its owner signed in for, and the station is then on this computer on its own network, with no code. Over the internet this computer waits until you approve it at the station under Remote access, as a computer paired with a code does: Nexus asks there, with this computer’s key. A sign-in alone never lets a computer or a browser operate the station over the internet. The station takes this computer on its network for 30 days from that sign-in; in the last week the window offers Sign in again. If Nexus Remote cannot be reached, pair such a computer again with a code (Pair with a code instead…, below): the station then keeps it until you remove it there, with no 30 days to count, and removing it on the Nexus Remote web page no longer takes it off the station’s network. Signing in from somewhere else (a laptop away from home, a friend you invited at their own house), press Not on this network when the window asks where the station is: the station is then on this computer by its name, over the internet only once you approve this computer at the station, until you press Sign in on its row once while this computer is on the station’s network. For a station whose owner has not signed in to Nexus Remote at the station, choose Pair with a code instead…: the window looks for stations by name on your network and offers each one it finds (“Nexus” and the first characters of its key, as the station’s card shows it). Press one to use its address, or type the address the station shows, then the code it shows under Pair a computer (capitals or not, spaces or not). Either way this computer makes keys of its own for that station and keeps them in this computer’s password store, with the station’s keys, the station’s address and nothing else. Stream connects and opens the station’s stream as the Remote page does, with the same Stop TX, Esc and F11. It tries the address that worked last first; if the station is not there any more (a new address from the router, say), the window looks for it by name and connects where it is found. If the station’s key ever changes (Nexus reinstalled there, or its network identity reset), this computer refuses it and says so: pair it again. If the two copies of Nexus are different versions, the window says which one to update. Forget deletes this computer’s key for that station; remove this computer at the station too. If the station turns its hosted Remote on or off while you stream, control comes back to the station for a moment, and the window takes it again by itself. The page in this window reaches nothing in Nexus.

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Radio

Everything about the rig itself: the roster, CAT, PTT, satellite Doppler, the rotator, and sound-card routing.

Setup health

A strip above the roster answering “is the station actually working?” — three live indicators, so setup stops running on faith:

• Rig — responding / not answering / untested (a live Test CAT result wins over the passive CAT state).
• RX audio — the live level in dB, or the audio error.
• TX — on / off, and while a tune carrier is keying, the forward power.

Prove TX keys a ~2-second tune carrier to verify the CAT → PTT → RF path. It asks for confirmation first, every time, and reminds you to have an antenna or dummy load connected. The button sits at the right-hand end of the strip.

Setup health on a working station in Nexus 1.10.3. Prove TX is at the far right of the same strip, off-frame here.

Radios

Run more than one rig. Always shown — with one radio it is just a card and an + Add radio button.

• Per-radio cards — rename in place; Active marks your operating radio; Edit loads that radio’s CAT + audio into the form below without changing the radio you’re operating on (no swap, no dropped carrier) and shows an Editing badge; Make active swaps rigs (dropping any carrier first); Remove deletes a non-active radio. The card’s meta line shows model, port/address, audio device, and rigctld port.
• Disable / Enable — with two or more radios, each card has a Disable button. A disabled radio keeps its whole setup, but Nexus stops watching it and lets go of its CAT port, so another program on the same computer can use that rig. The card shows a Disabled badge, auto band-routing skips the radio, and its pill leaves the header’s radio switcher. It can’t be made active until you enable it, here or from Nexus Remote: Make active is greyed out. Enable opens its CAT port again and brings the pill back. The radio you are operating can’t be disabled (its Disable is greyed out): make another radio active first.
• Covers bands — band chips per radio for auto band-routing. None = covers all. Appears once you have two radios.
• + Add radio — the discovery affordance. “Run two rigs at once — e.g. an HF radio plus a VHF/UHF radio on a different antenna?”

A three-radio roster in Nexus 1.10.3. The outlined card is the active radio; the per-radio settings further down the tab edit whichever card you last pressed Edit on, which need not be the same one.

With two or more radios, three more controls appear:

• Routing rules — band coverage sends a whole band to one radio; a rule adds the mode, for when two radios share a band (2 m FT8 to the digital rig, 2 m FM and APRS to the FM rig). Each rule is band chips + a mode class (Weak-signal digital, FM & APRS, SSB phone, CW, RTTY) → a radio. Rules are checked top to bottom and the first match wins; ↑ / ↓ reorder, ✕ removes. Satellite rides the same dropdown but is a context, not a sixth mode: it is matched only by transponder picks, at a tier above the mode rules, so a terrestrial tune never matches it.
• Everything else — the default radio for anything no rule and no band coverage matched, or “Stay on the current radio”.
• Test a band + mode — pick a band and mode, click Where would this go? and the answer comes from the same resolver the radio loop uses. It does not QSY anything.
• Run both radios at the same time — launch Nexus and it asks which radio this window drives; open a second window for the other. Both share one logbook. Leave off if you only ever use one radio at a time — you can still switch between them from the top bar.

How a QSY picks a radio

Every retune asks the same question — which radio owns this band and this mode? — and answers it in a fixed order. The first tier that answers wins; nothing below it is consulted.

1. Satellite-designated rules, but only for a tune that started from a transponder pick. A rule whose mode box reads Satellite is invisible to every terrestrial retune, and it is checked above the mode rules — so it beats your FM & APRS rule for a packet bird no matter where the two sit in the list. Order inside this tier is still first-match.
2. Routing rules, top to bottom, first match wins. An empty band selector means any band; Any mode means any mode class. A rule aimed at a radio you have switched off is skipped at the moment of the decision — an unplugged rig never becomes the handoff target, and the rule comes back when you switch the radio on. A rule aimed at a radio you remove is deleted along with it, so no rule is ever left pointing at nothing.
3. Band coverage — the Covers bands chips on each card. A radio that lists the band explicitly beats one that covers everything, which beats one that lists the band nowhere. Nexus only moves you when another radio scores strictly better than the one you are on, so a tie leaves you where you are and a fine-tune inside a shared band never bounces between rigs.
4. Everything else — the fallback radio, or “Stay on the current radio”.

Two things this order implies, and both surprise people. A rule outranks band coverage, which is the whole reason rules exist: it is how 2 m FT8 leaves an HF rig that also does 2 m. And a matched rule pointing at the radio you are already on means stay put — it does not fall through to a broader tier that would then walk you off.

The top bar’s Peg switch turns the whole thing off: while it is on, band changes never move the active radio.

One station’s routing table in Nexus 1.10.3 — an example, not a recommendation. The Everything else selector and the Where would this go? button sit to the right of these rules and below them.

A worked example. Take the roster above — an FTDX10 covering 160–6 m and active, an IC-9700 covering 2 m and 70 cm, an FT-991A covering 6 m and 2 m — with those four rules and Everything else left on Stay on the current radio.

Delete all four rules and the same station still works, on band coverage alone: 2 m and 70 cm would go to whichever of the two VHF rigs the tie-break picked, and that is exactly the ambiguity a rule exists to settle.

Test a band + mode answers the same question without touching the rig — it calls the resolver the radio loop calls, so it is the configuration’s own answer, not a second implementation of it.

Audio follows the active radio, not the routing table. Each card carries its own input and output device, and the live RX audio, the waterfall and the decoders all follow whichever radio is active at that moment. That is why an APRS decoder armed by hand can report No 2 m radio on a station that clearly has one: arming Monitor tunes nothing, so no routing decision has been made and the decoder is still listening to the HF rig. Use APRS’s Tune to 144.390 instead — that is a retune, it runs the FM & APRS rule, and the decoder follows the rig that ends up active.

Profiles

• Saved profiles — Load applies a profile merged onto your current settings; Delete removes it. “Switch a whole rig / antenna / CAT / band setup in one move.” Your callsign, license class, radio roster and sync history never come from a profile, and anything the profile predates keeps its current value.
• Save current as — snapshots the current settings under a name.

Rig & CAT

Most controls here are per radio: they belong to whichever card you pressed Edit on, not to the station. These are station-wide instead, one setting for all your radios: Interface keys RTS on the CAT port, Split operation, Follow the radio’s split and Wheel tuning sensitivity, and under Advanced, Sharing port, Serial handshake and Keying line at startup. Changing one while you edit another radio changes it for the radio you are operating too.

The first four Rig & CAT controls in Nexus 1.10.3. Connection, Serial Port and Baud continue across to the right.

• PTT Method — “How transmit is keyed”: CAT (via rigctld), Serial RTS, Serial DTR, or VOX (no keying). PTT and CAT are independent axes — VOX PTT with full CAT control is a valid setup.
• Transmit audio source (CAT PTT) — appears on CAT PTT for a radio whose Hamlib driver can key either of its audio inputs (the Kenwood TS-480, TS-590S, TS-590SG, TS-890S and TS-990S, the Yaesu FTDX-5000, the ELAD FDM-DUO and a few more). Front/Mic is how Nexus has always keyed the radio. Rear/Data keys its data input instead (Hamlib’s data transmit: TX1; on a Kenwood), for a sound card on the rear DATA or ACC jack, such as a SignaLink, or on the radio’s own USB audio. The symptom it cures: the radio keys but sends no audio from Nexus, while VOX works. The Phone cockpit’s PTT and an FSK keyline key as they always have. Per radio.
• PTT Serial Port — appears on RTS/DTR. The COM port your keying line is on, for an SO2R controller (u2R/MK2R) that routes PTT separately from CAT. Blank = keying shares the CAT port, which is how a single-cable interface like a Digirig Mobile is wired. Per radio.
• Interface keys RTS on the CAT port — tick it when your interface keys the radio from the CAT port’s own RTS line, which is how a Digirig Mobile and most other one-cable interfaces are wired. Nexus then holds RTS down instead of leaving it up, where on some rigs it starts a transmission the moment the port opens. If your radio transmits as soon as Nexus starts, this is the setting. Leave it off when a plain serial cable runs straight to the rig: that radio may be using the line for flow control, and taking it away can cost you CAT.
• Zero-config setup ▸ Detect my radio — “One scan for everything: USB radios (fills model, port, sound device) AND FlexRadios on the network (fills the SmartSDR CAT config). Review, then Save.” Each hit gets a Use this button. The list is honest about what it found: a recognised interface cable says so and tells you to pick the rig yourself; a generic USB bridge chip says the port is right but the model isn’t known; a missing Windows driver links the driver. Dual-UART Icoms show two rows and the CI-V one is tagged.
• Rig Model — “Hamlib rig model.” A curated ~50-rig list by default; tick Show all models for the full Hamlib catalog, or type a model number directly (“Hamlib may still support it even without a friendly name here”).
• Connection — “Serial for a rig on a USB/COM port (most rigs, including Xiegu). Network for anything serving CAT over TCP: an SDR program on this PC (Thetis, PowerSDR, SmartSDR CAT, piHPSDR), or a remote rigctld.” For a Hermes Lite 2, see Hermes Lite 2 and SDR Program Setup. For the six Icoms with a network port (IC-7610, IC-9700, IC-705, IC-905, IC-7760, IC-7300MK2) there is also Icom network (LAN / Wi-Fi) — Beta: receive and control only, with the Radio address, Network user, Network password (stored in the keychain, write-only) and Control port (UDP) in place of Serial Port and Baud. See the Icom guide. For an SDR program’s own TCI server (ExpertSDR3, Thetis, piHPSDR) there is TCI (SDR program) — Beta, offered for every radio: Nexus sets the dial and mode and transmits through the program. It puts the SDR program address, the TCI port, Find TCI server, the Transceiver and the SDR program in place of Rig Model, Serial Port and Baud, with three switches: Audio over TCI, on by default, carries the receive audio and Nexus’s transmit audio over TCI with no virtual audio cable; SDR panadapter in the scope, off by default, draws the program’s own spectrum in Nexus’s scope; Spots on the SDR panadapter, off by default, marks the stations you still need on the program’s panadapter; a click on one there only tunes Nexus. Find TCI server reads what the server at that address says about itself and closes, the form’s port first and then 50001 and 40001; it never transmits. See TCI: connect to an SDR program’s TCI server.
• Network Address (Network only) — host:port. For a Flex, the WSJT-X-proven path is the SmartSDR CAT app on this PC: its default TCP port 5002 is directed at slice A, so 127.0.0.1:5002 with the FLEX-6xxx model works out of the box and audio rides DAX. Multi-slice ports are B=60001, C=60002, D=60003 — Nexus drives one slice. (Direct-to-radio :4992 needs Hamlib’s experimental native model and failed on real hardware.) A one-click ⚡ Pair DAX audio button appears when SmartSDR’s DAX devices are detected and neither audio side is already a DAX device — it bootstraps, it does not override a working hand-picked config.
• Serial Port (Serial only) — “COM / tty device for rig control — or Auto-test to find it.” Refresh re-scans; Auto-test probes each port read-only (never transmitting) and selects the one that drives your rig. You can type a port that never enumerated. Rig-specific warnings appear inline: Xiegu CAT is on the SERIAL-B port; the Icom CI-V port is the CP210x one marked Enhanced.
• Baud (Serial only) — “match your rig’s CAT setting (most modern rigs: 38,400 or 115,200). Native Icom CI-V scope needs 115,200 here and on the rig.”
• Split operation — None / Rig / Fake It. “Keeps your transmitted audio between 1500–2000 Hz by shifting the TX dial in 500 Hz steps, so audio harmonics fall outside the transmit filter — cleaner signal. Rig = uses VFO B split. Fake It = retunes the VFO around each over (works on any CAT rig). None = stock WSJT-X default.”
• Follow the radio’s split — off by default. Turn it on and Nexus reads the radio’s own split, so a split you set at the radio is the one it checks your licence privileges against; if the radio says it is split but not where it transmits, Nexus will not transmit. Nexus first asks each radio whether its split can be read without moving it, and never asks one that cannot. Station-wide, like Split operation.
• Wheel tuning sensitivity — how far the dial moves per mouse-wheel notch. Lower it if a free-spin mouse tunes too far per flick. Applies to the frequency readout and the Phone/CW scope wheel.

Advanced (a collapsed group) holds the rest:

• rigctld TCP Port — “Port Nexus launches rigctld on” (default 4534).
• Data modes use plain SSB — leave this off unless you know you need it. Nexus normally puts the radio in its DATA submode (DATA-U / USB-D / PKTUSB) for FT8, FT4, RTTY-AFSK and SSTV, because on most rigs that is the only mode where the USB codec reaches the transmitter. On a rig whose codec feeds only the data port, plain SSB takes audio from the mic and the radio transmits no RF at all. Only correct when your transmit audio goes in the microphone path (some RIGblaster models). Per radio. True FSK RTTY is unaffected.
• Native Icom CI-V (early access) — appears on a serial IC-7300/7610/9700/ 705/905. Nexus drives CI-V directly instead of launching rigctld, unlocking the rig’s real spectrum scope (“CI-V RF”) and instant dial tracking. Needs 115200 baud set on both the radio and Nexus, plus “CI-V USB Port = Unlink from [REMOTE]” on the rig; below that the rig refuses to stream the scope (CAT still works, the panadapter just stays off).
• Flex native panadapter (Beta) and Flex native DAX audio (Beta) — appear on a network Flex. Stream the real SmartSDR panadapter (VITA-49 FFT) into the cockpit scope, and carry the radio’s audio over the network instead of the “DAX Audio RX” / “DAX TX” sound devices, which are invisible under Remote Desktop. Native DAX audio works only through the Flex native client (Beta): with SmartSDR CAT it does nothing, and the setting is kept for the client. On the client the digital modes transmit over DAX, while Phone at the shack keeps the radio’s own mic, and the voice keyer switches the radio to DAX for each message. Both are Beta and unverified on hardware, so both are opt-in; if the scope stays blank or decodes stop, turn them back off.
• Let Nexus send CW, Tune and ATU through the native Flex client (not yet bench-tested) — appears once the Flex native client (Beta) serves the radio (switched on, with the radio’s IP set). Off by default, per radio. On the client Nexus does not send CW through the radio’s keyer, tune with the radio’s own carrier or run its ATU until a tester has checked each on a real radio; this switch lets it do all three on that radio before then. Every other check still applies, the TX-enable latch, your licence privileges and the TX watchdog among them. Not yet checked on a real Flex: try them into a dummy load first. Save to apply; Nexus reconnects to the radio. It changes only at the shack, never through the Remote stream.
• CI-V bus diagnostic log — appears once native CI-V is on. Records every byte to and from the radio to a file in your Downloads, for hardware-only issues like the IC-9700 PTT flicker. Turn on, reproduce, turn off, send the file. It keeps running while you’re on other screens.
• Flex radio IP (native panadapter) — the FlexRadio’s own LAN IP (SmartSDR API, port 4992). “This is the radio’s address, not the SmartSDR-CAT port.”
• Serial handshake — Auto (the default), None, Hardware (RTS/CTS) or XON/XOFF. It tells Nexus what your cable actually does, instead of letting it guess. On Auto, Nexus goes by what your rig’s Hamlib driver declares, as it always has; any other choice is passed to rigctld as your cable’s handshake and replaces that guess. Leave it on Auto unless your rig keys at launch. If CAT stops working after a change, put it back on Auto: on some rigs Hamlib quietly refuses the setting and then answers without ever having opened the radio, so you get a CAT light and a rig that ignores you. Station-wide.
• Keying line at startup — Auto (the default), Never touch it, Hold it low or Hold it high: what the serial line that keys your transmitter (RTS or DTR) is held at while you are not transmitting. It exists for one fault, a rig that keys at launch before you have touched anything, so leave it on Auto unless that is happening to you. Auto changes nothing about how your station works today. If CAT stops working after a change, put it back on Auto. Only you can see whether the rig unkeys, so try it on a rig you are watching. Station-wide.

Test CAT saves, launches the bundled rigctld (Hamlib ships with Nexus on Windows — no separate install), and reads the rig’s frequency to confirm the link.

Audio

With two or more radios, a banner names which radio these devices belong to: “Audio devices below are for <name>. Each radio has its OWN input/output — click ‘Edit’ on another radio (in Radios above) to set its audio. The live RX audio + waterfall follow whichever radio is active.”

Audio for one radio in Nexus 1.10.3. Device names are whatever your computer calls its sound cards; the RX Level meter reading 40 dB is one station’s, not a target to copy.

• Input Device (RX) — “Sound card carrying receive audio.” Refresh re-scans.
• Output Device (TX) — “Sound card feeding the rig (transmit).”
• Live input spectrum — what the selected input hears, live. “Band noise should show as a moving floor. Confirms the RIGHT device before you leave Settings.” Flat means no audio on that input.
• Tx Power — the audio drive into the rig, the same control as the cockpit Pwr slider (they always match). “Trim down until your rig’s ALC is just zero. This is not the rig’s RF watts — set those on the radio.” On a Yaesu that turns its power down with the ALC, such as the FT-991A, the ALC reads above zero whenever the power is below full, so set the drive at full power.
• RX Level — a live dB meter like WSJT-X. “Aim for around 30 dB. Anything from ~15–60 dB decodes fine; red means too hot.” An audio error shows here.
• RX Gain — “Boost a quiet interface until RX Level reads around 30 dB — the meter responds as you release the slider. Leave at ×1.0 unless the meter reads low (under ~15 dB) — FT8 decodes on a small signal, so you rarely need much.”

While you Edit a radio that is not the one in use, Tx Power and RX Gain are that radio’s own levels: moving them changes nothing on the radio in use, Save stores them on the radio you are editing, and it uses them once it becomes the active radio.

Receive audio on this computer

This plays the audio your radio is RECEIVING out of a device on this computer — headphones or speakers — so you can hear the band, or check levels and RFI, without listening on the rig itself.

Receive audio in Nexus 1.10.3, off by default.

It is not a transmit monitor. In amateur usage “monitor” usually means hearing your own transmitted audio, which is what MONI on the radio does. This never plays your voice back; these controls used to be called “monitor” and the word was doing real harm, so it is gone from the labels. (The search still knows it — look for “monitor” and you will land here.)

• Play receive audio here — off by default, and UNVERIFIED on-air until the attended session. It guards against the rig’s TX device by name; if your devices go by multiple names, pick your headphones explicitly rather than System default.
• Headphones or speakers — and “must NOT be the rig’s TX output device”: playing the received band into the transmitter would put it back on the air.
• Listening level — playback volume, with no effect on transmit.

Scope source

Where the RF scope’s picture comes from. The radio (as it comes) is the radio’s own panadapter — Flex, Icom CI-V, the FT-710’s, a TCI program’s — or the sound card’s audio where the radio has none. SDRconnect (SDRplay) draws an SDRplay RSP receiver instead, through SDRplay’s own SDRconnect program over its WebSocket API: the receiver’s whole span, each station at its own frequency, with the dial, the passband and spots drawn on it as usual.

• SDRconnect is a separate, free, closed-source program from SDRplay. Install it, turn its WebSocket API on, and leave it running (with its window, or headless). Nexus ships nothing of SDRplay’s and loads none of its code. It serves every RSP except the original RSP1.
• SDRconnect computer and WebSocket API port — 127.0.0.1 and 5454 unless SDRconnect runs elsewhere or you moved its port.
• Follow the dial — the receiver’s centre is set from the rig’s dial: on every change (Keep the dial in the centre), or only when the dial nears the edge of the span (Retune only when the dial nears the edge), which moves SDRconnect’s own display far less. A retune in SDRconnect’s window is drawn where it went; Nexus retunes again only when the dial moves.
• Pick the receiver, and an RSPduo’s tuner mode, in SDRconnect. Nexus uses the primary tuner.
• The scope source is one choice for the whole station, not one per radio. With two radios the receiver’s centre follows whichever radio is active, but the receiver still hears only the rig whose RX OUT feeds it.
• Receive only: Nexus never transmits through SDRconnect and sends it no CAT. Clicking a spot on the scope tunes the rig through Nexus’s normal CAT path.
• When SDRconnect is not running, sends no IQ, or sends IQ at a rate other than the one it reports, the scope’s status line says which, and Nexus keeps trying.
• Feed the receiver from the rig’s RX OUT, or from a splitter with transmit protection — never a plain T-piece on the transmit line. An RSP takes at most 0 dBm; 100 W is +50 dBm.

Rotator

The rotator itself, and its pointing manners. The manners apply to satellite auto-track.

The first four Rotator controls in Nexus 1.10.3, on a station with no rotator hardware attached. After a pass, Tolerance and Calibration trim continue to the right.

• Rotator model — pick yours and “Nexus runs the control daemon (rotctld) for you, the same way it does CAT.” Then use the Rotor pane in Conditions, the ↗ on Needed rows, or the compass anywhere. Dummy (testing — no hardware) lets you try the whole path with no rotator attached; Other Hamlib model #… takes any model number rotctl -l knows. Entries say (az) or (az/el) where the backend declares it, so you can tell an azimuth-only model from a full az/el one before you buy into it. The Yaesu G-5500 / G-5500DC has no computer port and no Hamlib model of its own: it runs through its GS-232B or GS-232A interface, so it is named on those two entries. Pick the one for your interface. One board worth naming: DF9GR’s Easy-Rotor-Control V4 speaks three protocols, chosen in its own Service Tool. Configured the way its manual recommends (GS-232B, 9600) it belongs on the GS-232B interface entry; only in DCU-1 mode does it belong on the DF9GR ERC entry, which runs at 4800. PstRotatorAz / PstRotator (UDP) is Hamlib model 3, for YO3DMU’s PstRotatorAz. It is the one entry that talks over the network rather than a serial port (see the next item).
• Rotator port & baud — the serial port the controller is on, and its line rate. The baud is per MODEL, and picking your model fills in the right one: SPID Rot2Prog runs at 600, Rot1Prog at 1200, and the Idiom Press Rotor-EZ, Hy-Gain DCU-1 and Green Heron RT-21 at 4800 — only the GS-232 family, the M2 RC2800 and the Prosistels are the 9600 that used to be handed to everyone. At the wrong rate a rotator never answers and reads exactly like broken hardware, so the hint under the field names your model’s rate and says plainly when the saved value cannot work. For PstRotatorAz the port is its UDP address, 127.0.0.1:12000 on the same PC, and the baud does not matter. Turn on UDP Control in PstRotatorAz’s Setup. Nexus talks to PstRotatorAz itself and listens for its replies on that port + 1 (12001), so no other program may use that port.
• External rotctld (advanced) — a host:port for a rotctld you run yourself, or one on another machine. It OVERRIDES the model and port above and stops the integrated daemon. It needs the port: a bare host name is not an address.
• Park position (° az / el) — “The stow position — wind-safe, or wherever your mast rests. Used only when After a pass is set to Park.”
• Ready position (° az / el) — “Where the antenna waits for the next pass.”
• After a pass — Stop / Park / Ready. “Stop is the default and moves nothing: the antenna stays pointed where the bird set.” Park and Ready drive the rotator on their own at LOS, so set those positions first.
• Tolerance (° az / el) — a new target closer than this isn’t commanded. “Without a deadband the rotator hunts and the relays chatter for the whole pass. 2° is about a G-5500’s own resolution.”
• Calibration trim (° az / el) — added to every command. “Use it when the controller reads one heading and the boom points at another.”
• Allow flip — takes a high pass by turning azimuth 180° and running elevation past 90°. Off by default: many rotators cannot mechanically go past 90° elevation. Check your controller first.

Amplifier

Reads a linear’s own status — power out, SWR, temperature, supply volts and amps, and any alarm it is raising — and shows it in the Amplifier pane in Conditions. Nothing on this settings page changes how the radio transmits.

Reading is most of it, but Nexus does command the amplifier — three things, and only these three. Standby ↔ Operate, one band up, one band down. Nothing else is representable: there is no tune, no reset, and no way to switch the amplifier off. That last one is not merely unused — SPE’s SWITCH OFF keycode sits immediately next to TUNE in the vendor’s keystroke table, so the command set is written as a closed three-value list with no arithmetic path to either byte, and Hamlib’s own SPE backend maps its “standby” onto the off code and powers amplifiers down when asked for standby. That is the failure Nexus is built not to have.

Where the three controls are. Not here. They are a compact strip in every cockpit header once an amplifier is configured — Standby/Operate, band ◀ ▶ and power out — described under Conditions ▸ The Amplifier pane. The only control on this page that moves the amplifier is Follow the radio’s band below, and it is the only one that acts without being asked.

Both write paths are refused while you are transmitting, in the poll thread that holds the readings rather than in the button — changing band on a keyed amplifier can take a PA out. And standby is not a stop: dropping the amplifier out mid-over ends nothing, because the exciter keeps keying and the drive passes straight through. No amplifier control counts as a way to stop a transmission.

Which family does what on the wire, because it decides how the controls behave:

⚠️ The line at the top of this settings block in 1.10.3 is out of date. It reads “Nexus never commands the amplifier: it only reads it”, which was true before the cockpit strip shipped and is contradicted by the Follow the radio’s band switch directly beneath it. Read it as “nothing on this page commands the amplifier except Follow the radio’s band”.

• Amplifier — the family: SPE Expert 1.3K-FA / 1.5K-FA / 2K-FA, or Elecraft KPA500 / KPA1500. None is the default and the state of most stations; with None picked nothing is opened, nothing is polled and no amplifier surface appears anywhere. All three SPE models share one protocol; the 1.5K-FA reports itself as 15K and is confirmed working, even though SPE’s programming guide for this protocol names only the other two.

• Amplifier port — the serial port the amplifier is on, and it must be its own. A serial port can only be open once, so an amplifier pointed at the CAT port takes the port away from the radio and the radio is what stops working — Nexus warns in the status lane if you do it. There is no baud setting, deliberately. The SPE adapts itself to whatever speed it is spoken to, and the KPA remembers its own rate, so Nexus finds it by asking at each of the rates Elecraft documents: the KPA500’s four (4800 to 38400), then the KPA1500’s three faster ones (57600, 115200 and 230400).

• Connection (KPA only) — USB or serial port, or Network (KPA1500). A KPA1500 on your network is reached at its Amplifier IP address (shown on its NET IP ADDRESS menu) and Port, 1500 unless you changed the amplifier’s command port. Nexus uses the KPA1500’s UDP command server, which any number of programs can share, so Elecraft’s KPA1500 Remote keeps working alongside; the single TCP connection the amplifier allows is left for it. The readings and the three controls are the same as over USB, and so is every refusal: nothing is sent to the amplifier while you transmit. A reading that does not come back is asked for once more, then the pane says Not answering. The KPA500 has no network port.

• Follow the radio’s band — step the amplifier to whatever band you tune to, without being asked. Off unless you turn it on, and appears only once a model and port are set. It never moves the amplifier while you are transmitting, and it steps one band at a time, reading where the amplifier actually is after each step rather than assuming it arrived — so a step the amplifier ignored, or one you undid at its front panel, is simply seen and re-issued. On a band your amplifier does not have it does nothing at all rather than picking the nearest. ⚠️ If your amplifier already follows the radio through its own band-data cable — which is how most SPE installations are wired — leave this off. The hardware is doing the same job, and two things steering one band is worse than either alone.

Per radio, like the rotator: an SO2R station with an amplifier on each radio configures each one on its own radio, and the pane follows the radio you are on.

The Amplifier group in Nexus 1.10.3. ⚠️ The grey note at the top of that group is out of date in this build: as its own Follow the radio’s band control says two columns to the right, Nexus does send band steps and a standby/operate toggle. Read the section above, not the note.

⚠️ The SPE side is confirmed on hardware; the Elecraft side is not. An EXPERT 1.5K-FA was linked on 2026-08-29 — it identifies itself as 15K, and its readings and controls were checked against the amplifier’s own front panel. The KPA500/KPA1500 path is written from Elecraft’s published references and has never had an amplifier on the other end of the port, reading half included. One thing is still deliberately left off the screen rather than guessed: any °C/°F letter on an SPE temperature, because the SPE protocol does not say which scale the number is in — the amplifier reports whatever its own display is set to, so the pane shows 41° with no letter. The Elecraft temperature is documented as Celsius and is labelled.

Transmit limits & sharing

What the rig is allowed to do, and who else may drive it. These used to sit at the bottom of Rig & CAT.

Transmit limits in Nexus 1.10.3, at their defaults — the power boxes blank means full power on every mode.

• Band-edge tones — “A short audio cue when the dial crosses your license privileges — a rising ‘ding’ back in band, a falling ‘dong’ past an edge.” Applies on every mode, not just digital. On by default.

• Max power by mode (safety) — a percentage ceiling on RF output for Phone, CW and Digital; blank = full power. FT8/FT4/RTTY run ~100% duty cycle, so capping Digital (e.g. 30%) protects your finals and any amplifier. The rig is brought down to the cap the moment you enter a capped mode, not only when you touch the power slider.

• Stop transmitting when SWR is high — off by default. When it is on, two readings in a row above the threshold (2.5:1 unless you change it) stop the transmission exactly as Stop TX does, and Nexus tells you why. It never starts a transmission and never turns TX back on — you do that once the antenna is sorted out. A single high reading is ignored, so a tuner stepping or a keyup transient will not cut you off.

  The switch is greyed out on most radios, and that is deliberate. Nexus only trusts an SWR figure where it knows the radio’s own scale: Icom over native CI-V, and FlexRadio. Everywhere else the number comes straight from Hamlib with no scale Nexus can vouch for, and it can be far out — one popular radio reads 1.2:1 on its own meter and reports 6:1 to Nexus. A cut-off driven by that would take you off the air for nothing.

• Stop latched transmissions if my Parsec session drops — off by default, and on Windows only. It is for running the shack remotely over Parsec. Nexus watches Parsec’s own log on the shack PC (log.txt in %APPDATA%\Parsec for a per-user install, %ProgramData%\Parsec for a per-computer one). When the Parsec session that was connected drops, or that log can no longer be read, it stops a latched PTT, continuous RTTY or PSK, and Tune, exactly as their own Stop does, and the Now-Bar says why until you transmit again. It never starts a transmission or turns TX back on, and it leaves FT8/FT4 alone: an over ends by itself and the TX watchdog still applies. Sitting at the shack with no Parsec session, nothing happens. How fast it acts is up to Parsec, which allows about a minute for a pulled network cable before it gives up on the session, so this backs up the watchdog; it does not replace it. With it on, the line under the switch shows what Nexus last read from Parsec’s log.

• Share this radio with other programs — the CAT broker: “Run a rigctld-compatible server so WSJT-X / N1MM / loggers share this radio THROUGH Nexus.” Takes effect right away, no restart, and works even when Nexus is sharing an external rigctld. When on, it prints the address other programs connect to, and:

  • Other programs may key transmit — “Let the connected app key transmit when Nexus is idle. Off = other apps control the rig but never key it (Nexus owns TX).” Default off.
  • Sharing port — the one control of this group that stays on Rig & CAT, beside the other port settings, and appears only once sharing is on. Hamlib NET rigctl default 4532; change it only if something else on this computer already owns the port.

• Share by TCI: off by default. It runs Nexus as a TCI server for programs on this computer (WSJT-X, JTDX, MSHV, Log4OM and others), beside the CAT broker above; both may be on, though not on the same port. Once saved, it shows the address programs connect to, 127.0.0.1:40001 (the next port in a second Nexus window), with Copy; if the port is taken, the reason takes the address’s place. Only programs on this computer can connect, never another computer or a web page. When it is on:

  • TCI server port: 40001 unless something else on this computer already has it.
  • Programs on TCI may transmit: off by default, shown and set at the station only. On, a program can Tune, key the radio’s microphone or send its own audio on the Phone screen, and send CW macros on the CW screen, behind every Nexus transmit safeguard, and no program can turn TX on. A program’s own audio goes out only once it has asked for a voice mode (USB, LSB, AM or FM). FT8, FT4 and the other slot-timed modes may not transmit through TCI yet.
  • CW macros from programs: on by default. A logger’s CW macros go out on Nexus’s own CW keyer, at the program’s speed, while programs may transmit.
  • Spots from programs: on by default. Programs’ spots show on the band map and in the Phone and CW screens’ band activity; a click on one only tunes Nexus, and clicks on spots are passed back to the programs.
  • Programs connected: each connection by number, with its address, whether it is receiving audio or transmitting, the last thing Nexus refused it, and Disconnect.

  See Share by TCI.

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Satellites

Working satellites: how Nexus corrects the downlink and uplink for Doppler during a pass, and where the orbital elements it tracks with come from. These were on the Radio tab before.

Satellite Doppler

Corrects both legs of a pass — the downlink you listen on and the uplink you transmit on. Nexus tunes only while auto-track is following a pass and you have picked a transponder in the Satellites section.

Satellite Doppler in Nexus 1.10.3, set up for a full-duplex IC-9700. Pass alert sounds sit to the right, off-frame. The VFO mapping has to match your own wiring — copying this one is how you transmit on your own downlink.

• Doppler correction — on by default. “Retunes the radio through a pass so you stay on the station you are working.” Clearing it stops both legs.
• VFO mapping — which VFO carries your uplink; match it to how your radio is wired. A wrong mapping transmits on your own downlink — into the satellite’s output passband, on top of everyone else working the bird. Picking one applies immediately and confirms it for the radio you are operating; a second radio gets its own confirmation on the pass rail. The control is disabled while you are editing a non-active radio, and says why.
• Minimum shift (Hz) — corrections smaller than this aren’t sent. “20 Hz is inaudible on SSB and keeps the CAT link quiet. 0 sends every update.”
• Update interval (ms) — shortest gap between corrections. “1000 ms is what a low-orbit pass needs. Shorter fights your own tuning knob and saturates a serial CAT link.”
• Pass alert sounds — a rising tone at AOS and a falling one at LOS, alongside the popup. On by default; clearing it silences only the tones, never the popups.

Orbital elements

Keplerian elements (TLEs) for the amateur satellites — pass times, pointing and Doppler all come from them. Refreshed every 6 h from hamradiotools.io: the bird list from the SatNOGS database (CC BY-SA 4.0), the elements from CelesTrak and SatNOGS.

• Update now — fetch immediately.
• Import from file — a Celestrak TLE, AMSAT keps, or a new launch’s SupGP set; the offline-shack escape hatch. Imports persist across refreshes and the newest epoch per satellite wins.

The status line always shows the bird count, the band coverage, the fetch date and the source. A failed refresh adds a plain-language “Last refresh” line.

Orbital elements in Nexus 1.10.3. The status line is the thing to read — it says how fresh the elements actually are.

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Phone

Voice operating: the phone mode itself, repeater shift and tone, and the microphone used to record voice-keyer messages. Anything that changes the on-air signal lives here, not with the radio.

Phone (SSB / FM)

Mode

• Phone mode — SSB (USB/LSB by band) or FM. “FM drives the rig to FM + the shift/tone below.”
• Repeater shift (FM only) — simplex / plus / minus. “Offset is the band standard (2 m 600 k, 70 cm 5 M…).”
• CTCSS (PL) tone (FM only) — the repeater access tone, off or a standard EIA tone.

Microphone

• Voice mic (recording) — “Mic used when RECORDING a voice-keyer message. Default records from the audio input device — but on a digital setup that’s the rig’s RX audio, so you’d record the band, not your voice. Pick your actual mic here.” If it can’t open, recording falls back to the input device — never silent.

Mic gain and voice-keyer message recording are in the Phone cockpit, not here.

Phone settings in Nexus 1.10.3. On SSB the repeater shift and CTCSS controls are hidden — they appear when Phone mode is set to FM.

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CW

How CW is sent: the keyer backend and its ports, sidetone pitch, and the F-key macro profiles. Anything that changes what goes out on the key lives here, not with the radio.

CW

Keyer

• Keyer backend — four ways to send, also switchable live from the CW cockpit. CAT uses the rig’s internal keyer (Hamlib send_morse), but older rigs (e.g. IC-756PRO III) don’t support it. Serial keyline toggles DTR/RTS into the rig’s KEY jack — a clean method that needs only a keying cable. WinKeyer drives a K1EL. Soundcard keys an audio tone through SSB — a workaround; set drive so ALC reads zero.
• Sidetone pitch (Hz) — 300–1200 Hz. Sets the soundcard keyer tone and the CW scope zero-beat marker.
• Reverse CW (CW-R) (not shown for the Soundcard keyer) — off by default, and while it is off Nexus asks for plain CW on every band, so your radio stays in whichever CW its own menu defines. Turn it on and Nexus commands the rig’s reverse CW (CW-R / CW-L) on every band instead. It changes only the pitch you hear on a signal — CW and CW-R transmit identically and the station you work cannot tell — so treat it as a personal preference, not a band convention. Which sideband it actually selects is up to the radio: on a Yaesu it is CW-L, while an Icom follows its own CW Normal Side menu item (which ships set to LSB), so the same setting lands on opposite sidebands on the two brands. That is exactly why Nexus no longer picks for you by band. The Soundcard keyer ignores it, because that keyer never puts the rig in CW at all.
• WinKeyer port — “For the WinKeyer CW keyer (select it above). 1200 baud.”
• Keyline serial port (serial keyline only) — the USB-to-serial into your keying interface (Buxcomm, US Navigator, a homebrew DTR cable) that plugs into the rig’s KEY jack. “Must be a SEPARATE port from CAT. Set the rig to CW and its key-jack to straight-key / bug.”
• Keying line (serial keyline only) — DTR (the CW convention) or RTS. “DTR is standard (RTS = PTT); flip to RTS if your interface is wired the other way.”
• CW ID after 73 — keys your callsign in CW once the final 73 has fully left the air, in Q65, FST4 and MSK144 (stock WSJT-X option, default off). As in WSJT-X, FT8 and FT4 send no CW ID, and neither do FT2, TempoFast or TempoDeep. It uses the normal CW keying path — PTT + tone — after the over, never on top of it.

Macros (F-key profiles)

• CW cockpit F-keys — named macro profiles (New / Rename / Delete, at least one always kept), switchable here or in one click from the CW cockpit bar. The grid edits the active profile: a label and a template per key. Customize starts from the built-in F1–F8 set; Reset to defaults returns to it. Tokens: {MYCALL} {NAME} {MYGRID} {MYSTATE} {RST}, ! = the worked call, and {HISNAME} {HISSTATE} = the worked station’s QRZ name and state. Each key keeps its role (F1 CQ, F2 answer, F3 report, F4 sign off, F5 my call, F6 his call, F7 ask repeat, F8 query), so the Guided copilot’s next-step highlight still rolls F1→F2→F3→F4 through customized text.

The CW tab in Nexus 1.10.3, on a station running a hardware WinKeyer. Which ports and which backend are yours to pick — the four backends are described above.

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Digital

One fieldset per digital mode, plus the working frequencies they call on. Anything that changes the on-air signal or the decode frame lives here, not with the radio.

Digital (FT8/FT4)

Transmit & Sequencing

• Transmit period — Tx 1st (even) — “On = transmit in the even/1st T/R slots; off = odd/2nd. The two stations in a QSO must pick opposite periods.” Also on the top bar.
• Tx Watchdog (min) — “Auto-halt TX after this many minutes (0 = off).” When it ends an FT8/FT4 call, the QSO strip shows TX watchdog stopped the call in red.
• Disable TX after sending 73 — “After your final 73 goes out, Enable TX drops — working the next station is a deliberate arm (WSJT-X default). A CQ run is unaffected: it returns to CQ.”
• Double-click arms TX — “Double-clicking a station enables TX so the answer goes straight out.” Off = you arm TX yourself each time.
• Tune timeout (s) — “Auto-release the tune carrier after this many seconds — never leave a key-down unattended” (default 12).
• Tune power (%) — the power a tune-up keys at. Leave it empty and Nexus never touches your power setting, which is the default behaviour. It can only turn the rig down, never up: it keys at whichever is lower, this figure or the power you are already running, so 50 % here while you run 25 % still tunes at 25 %. On a 100 W rig, 10 % is about 10 W — enough for an antenna tuner, kind to a loop.

Four of the Digital tab’s five groups in Nexus 1.10.3. Each group continues to the right — Tune timeout and Tune power finish the first row, Best caller the second. Every value shown is one station’s.

Auto-CQ & Caller Selection

• Stop CQ after N calls — “Blank = WSJT-X behavior: CQ repeats until you stop it (the TX watchdog is the backstop). Set a number to auto-stop an unanswered CQ run.” The Tempo chat CQ run always stops (default 10 unanswered); this number overrides that budget too.
• Wait before calling CQ again — seconds off the air after an unanswered run, before the next one starts. Default 180 (three minutes). 0 = do not resume: the run simply stops. You are still listening through the pause — a station that calls you is worked as normal, and answering anyone resets the count, so a busy run never pauses at all.
• Blocked callsigns — stations your auto-responder must never answer when they reply to your CQ. They are passed over for the next caller and shown dimmed (or hidden) in the roster and Band Activity. The base call is matched, so PD2BS also blocks PD2BS/P. Alt-double-click any decode or roster row to add one without coming here. Saved as you leave the field, not on Save.
• Tempo chat: send cycles per message — “A chat message transmits at most this many cycles, then shows ‘no ack’ (tap the bubble to re-send). Blank = 3 (TempoDeep uses 5). Never affects FT8/FT4.”
• Tempo chat: a reply counts as received — when the station you messaged sends a complete message back, stop re-sending and mark yours “confirmed” (works even when the other side isn’t Nexus). A real ACK still upgrades it to “Delivered ✓”.
• Auto-CQ: drop a silent caller after N overs — abandon a station that answered then went quiet and return to CQ. “Blank = 3; 0 = never abandon (wait for you, like stock WSJT-X).”
• Best caller (auto-CQ pick) — when several stations answer, which to work first: First to answer (default), Strongest signal, Farthest away, or Prefer CQ callers, with an optional minimum SNR.

Logging Behavior

• Auto-log QSOs — “Log each completed contact to the ADIF logbook by itself. A contact you opened by clicking their RR73 or RRR exchanges no reports and is never logged by itself: it waits for your confirm in the popup.”
• Prompt before logging — a WSJT-X-style confirm-and-edit popup. It opens by itself with Auto-log on or off and holds each contact until you log or discard it; if 64 are left waiting, the oldest is logged, never one you opened by clicking their RR73 or RRR. With both off, nothing is logged until you press Log.
• Roger with RRR (not RR73) — “Acknowledge the final report with a bare RRR (partner still owes a 73) instead of the combined RR73. Off = RR73 (modern FT8 practice).”
• Clear DX call after logging — wipe the DX Call / DX Grid fields once a contact is logged. Off by default.

Decoder

All Decoder settings drive the native decoder. On a WSJT-X UDP source (Companion mode) decodes arrive already made and none of them apply.

• Decode depth — Fast / Normal / Deep. “Deep finds the most signals (WSJT-X default); Fast saves CPU on old hardware.”
• Decoder passband (Hz) — F low / F high, default 200–2900 Hz. “Raise F high toward 4000 Hz to decode stations calling above ~2.9 kHz (common on crowded FT8 bands); lower the range to focus on a narrow filter or dodge strong close-in QRM.”
• A-priori (AP) decoding — FT8 — retry marginal signals against hypotheses built from your call, the DX call and the QSO state, including the cross-cycle replay of last cycle’s QSOs. On by default. FT8 only: FT4’s AP is part of its Normal/Deep depth and has no separate switch.
• AP: CQ hypothesis only — limit AP to the “CQ” guess, no MyCall/DxCall hypotheses (FT8 and FT4). “WSJT-X switches to this by itself after 5 minutes without transmitting, as a guard against stale-context false decodes; here it is your explicit choice.”
• Single decode — decode only within ±25 Hz of your green RX marker instead of the whole passband. Isolates one weak station and saves CPU. FT8 and FT4 only: 50 Hz is narrower than a single JT65, Q65 or MSK144 signal, so those modes keep the full passband.
• DXpedition mode — Off or Hound. “Hound = DXpedition pile-up discipline (calls above 1000 Hz; your report auto-moves to the Fox’s frequency).”

Station Housekeeping

• Journey — track a weekly streak — off by default. “A gentle ‘weeks on the air’ counter on the Journey board — never a daily streak, never a penalty for a break.”
• Beacon — announce presence (CQ) — “Off = passive (hunt & pounce): Nexus listens and only transmits when you act. On = periodically calls CQ to announce you’re on frequency.”
• IR-HARQ — combine retransmissions — on by default. “A weak frame that fails is recovered by joint-combining its retransmissions (RV0+RV1+RV2), and unacknowledged QSO overs escalate redundancy. Off = RV0-only.” (TempoFast/ TempoDeep — see the Tempo chat layer.)
• Clock check (NTP) — measure the PC clock against public NTP servers and correct for it. TempoFast/TempoDeep are slot-timed to UTC, and Nexus shifts its own transmit and decode windows by the measured offset so they land on the true UTC grid even when the clock is off — so a clock a few tenths of a second out is not something you need to go and fix. The top bar shows what is being applied, how old the measurement is, and who is keeping the clock right (if you run NetTime or Meinberg, Nexus leaves the clock entirely alone and says so). A clock more than a minute out is not corrected: that is too far to fly, and your logged QSO times would be wrong by the same amount, so the bar asks you to set the machine’s clock instead. Turn the check off for fully-offline operation (no network calls) — the last measurement then keeps steering until it ages out, and the bar says when it has.
• Station power (W) — “Your transmit power in watts — logged on every contact as its power (ADIF TX_PWR), and unlocks the Journey miles-per-watt & QRP feats.” It also feeds the P.533 link budget. Leave blank if unknown, and contacts are logged with no power. This is what you actually run, for the record — it commands nothing; the rig’s power lives on the cockpit Pwr slider.

Units used to be the last field in this row; it is now on the Station tab under Operator & Radio.

Station housekeeping in Nexus 1.10.3, left half.

The same row’s right half in Nexus 1.10.3, before Units moved to the Station tab. 1000 W is one station’s figure, recorded so the Journey miles-per-watt maths is right — not a setting that changes the rig.

Weak-signal and beacons

The modes most stations never need, under one heading: JT65, MSK144, the WSPR and FST4W beacons, FST4 and Q65. Each keeps its own box inside it. For a station new to the hobby or new to digital this heading starts folded, like the other sections a first contact does not need; Show all, a search, or a link to one of the five opens it.

JT65 — classic EME

• Submode (tone spacing) — A (HF standard, narrowest), B (2× spacing), or C (4× spacing, most Doppler-tolerant). “JT65 always uses a 60 s T/R period, so spacing is the only choice. A is what you want on HF; EME operators move up to B or C as Doppler spread on the higher bands smears the tones. Both stations must use the same submode.”

JT65 transmits and receives. Its messages are the older 22-character format, not the 37-character one FT8 and friends use — nothing downstream cares, decodes are just shorter.

MSK144 — meteor scatter

• T/R period — 5 s (fast turnaround, big showers), 10 s, 15 s (the 6 m standard), or 30 s (sparse pings, more to stack). Both stations must match.

MSK144 transmits for nearly the whole period, sending the same 72 ms frame hundreds of times — that is how meteor scatter works, and a contact can take many minutes of apparent silence. The audio frequency is fixed at a 1500 Hz centre and the signal is 1 kHz wide, so there is nowhere to tune it. Shorthand (MSK40) messages are off, matching WSJT-X’s default.

Beacons — WSPR & FST4W

A separate surface from the QSO modes: there is no exchange, only a schedule. Off by default — beaconing keys the radio unattended, so it is always an explicit choice.

• Transmit % — “Fraction of intervals to transmit on. 0 = listen only. A beacon that transmits every interval hears nothing, so a minority is the convention — 20–30% is typical.” Below 40% Nexus also avoids back-to-back transmissions while still hitting the rate you asked for.
• Transmit power (dBm) — required, and it has to be real. “WSPR reports are published to a public propagation database that other operators draw conclusions from, so a wrong figure corrupts their data as well as yours. The beacon stays silent until this is set. 23 = 200 mW, 30 = 1 W, 37 = 5 W, 43 = 20 W.”
• FST4W Round Robin slot — “0 = use the transmit-% schedule. Otherwise your slot in a coordinated rotation: stations agreeing on the same slot count and each taking a different slot never transmit at the same time, because the assignment is fixed by UTC.”
• Round Robin slots — how many stations are in the rotation. Ignored when the slot is 0.

Beacons transmit your callsign, grid and power, so Call CQ and S&P are inactive on these tiers. Transmit still has to be armed as usual: the schedule never keys a radio whose transmit you have not enabled.

Beacons in Nexus 1.10.3, at their defaults — Transmit % 0 is listen-only, and Transmit power 0 keeps the beacon silent until you enter your real power.

FST4 (QSO) / FST4W (beacon)

• T/R period — 15 / 30 / 60 / 120 / 300 / 900 / 1800 s, shared by both tiers. “Longer periods hear weaker signals at fewer exchanges per hour. FST4W beacons run at 120/300/900/1800 s; FST4 QSO work is usually 15–60 s.”

FST4 is the QSO mode, FST4W the WSPR-like beacon mode — pick which on the tier selector. Both transmit; the difference is that only FST4 has an exchange to sequence, so FST4W keys on the schedule set under Beacons above. FST4W hashed callsigns show as <...>: the lookup table upstream fills from a file this build does not carry. (The fieldset’s in-app note still says Nexus transmits neither; that text is stale — both report tx: true.)

Q65 — EME / VHF+ scatter

• T/R period — 15 s (troposcatter), 30 s (6 m meteor / ionoscatter), 60 s (EME, most common), 120 s (deep EME), 300 s (deepest, microwave EME). Changing it changes the decode frame length, so it takes effect on the next slot.
• Submode (tone spacing) — A through E. “Wider spacing survives more Doppler spread and frequency drift but costs sensitivity. Move up the letters as the path degrades — EME on the higher bands usually needs B or C.”

Q65 transmits and receives, and both stations must match: a correspondent on a different period or submode will not decode you.

Q65 in Nexus 1.10.3. Both boxes have to match the station you are working.

Quick-reply macros

Comma-separated chip lists for the quick text you fire from each surface:

• Chat — chips for Chat.
• QSO — chips for sequenced QSOs.
• Band / CQ — open broadcasts: the Call CQ launchpad and band feed.

RTTY

Receiving

• Start receiving when RTTY opens — on by default: entering the screen arms the decoder, so a signal on the tuned tone pair prints without touching anything. Turn it off to arm by hand (the Arm RX button in the decoded-text pane) — for instance on a shared rig you monitor from. Either way this arms the receiver only; transmitting is never armed for you. Stopping the receiver yourself is remembered for the rest of the session, so re-entering the section does not restart it behind you.

Keying

• Keying backend — AFSK plays the two-tone waveform through the same TX audio path as FT8 (soundcard-clocked, jitter-free; set drive so ALC reads just zero). True FSK bit-bangs the rig’s FSK input over a serial control line with the rig in RTTY mode, unlocking its narrow RTTY filters. “Software FSK timing is casual/Field-Day grade; AFSK is the timing-cleanest path.”
• AFSK sideband (AFSK only) — LSB (standard, the default) or USB. On USB, Nexus puts the rig in its upper data mode (DATA-U / USB-D / DIGU) and swaps the tones itself, so mark stays high on the air and the decoder still copies. Leave Reverse off for this.
• FSK serial port (True FSK only) — the port whose control line feeds the rig’s FSK input. Empty = the CAT serial port.
• FSK data line (True FSK only) — DTR (the common wiring, leaving RTS free for PTT) or RTS. “PTT must ride its OWN path — CAT PTT or the separate PTT line, never this one; Nexus refuses a send if they collide.”

Signal

• Baud rate — 45.45 (the HF standard) or 75. Drives the TX bit clock and the RX demodulator — true 45.45, never rounded to 45.
• Shift (Hz) — 170 (the HF standard), 425 or 850. The TX tone pair and the RX demodulator both.
• Reverse (swap mark/space) — swaps mark and space on TX and in the RX decoder, to work a station sending upside down. Not for running USB: pick the AFSK sideband instead, which keeps the sense right on its own.

Auto call

The RTTY cockpit’s Auto call button sends CQ, listens, and sends CQ again if nobody comes back, repeating until you stop it. These two set its rhythm, and both ship carrying what Auto call already did — change them only if you want a different cycle.

• Listen before repeating — seconds of silence before it calls CQ again, and the same wait before it asks a station for a repeat. The clock starts when your over has finished going out, not when it was queued. 5 to 120 seconds; below 5 you would key over the answer you just asked for.
• Repeats before giving up — how many times it asks again inside a contact before letting that station go, 1 to 10. It does not limit CQ: an unanswered CQ repeats until you stop it, which is what the Stop button and the TX switch are for.

RTTY in Nexus 1.10.3, on the AFSK default. Baud and shift drive both the transmitter and the decoder, so they have to match the station you are copying.

PSK

PSK31 receive needs no setup: open the PSK screen, tune a watering hole (14.070 is the classic), click a warble trace on the waterfall and the text prints. The click nets the decoder — it never moves the rig — and a slew-limited AFC (never more than ±25 Hz) rides small drift for you.

PSK31 and QPSK31 both transmit as well as receive in this build. Nothing about sending lives on this tab, which is why there is only one control here: you type and send from the PSK cockpit, and its dock carries the macros, the continuous-TX latch and its own Stop. An over is capped at 500 characters — about two to three minutes of air time, so a single message can never key past the default TX watchdog on its own — and every send is refused up front, with a reason, if TX is not armed, the dial is outside your licence privileges, another section owns the rig, or a tune carrier is up.

(The PSK entry in the Features list still ends “(receive)”. That wording is stale — the mode transmits.)

• Start receiving when PSK opens — on by default: entering the screen arms the decoder, so a signal on the band prints without touching anything. Turn it off to arm by hand (the Arm RX button in the decoded-text pane) — for instance on a shared rig you monitor from. Stopping the receiver yourself is remembered for the rest of the session either way. This arms the receiver only — transmit is never armed for you.

JTTY, the WSJT-X keyboard mode, is the Keyboard section’s other modem, so its one setting is here too.

• Start receiving when JTTY opens — on by default, as for PSK: entering the JTTY screen arms its decoder. Turn it off to arm by hand (the Arm RX button in the All decodes pane). Stopping the receiver yourself is remembered for the rest of the session. This arms the receiver only; this build of the JTTY screen does not transmit.

JTTY’s F Tol is set on the JTTY screen and kept between sessions, as WSJT-X keeps it. Its Rx frequency goes back to 1500 Hz each time JTTY is opened from another mode, as in WSJT-X.

The whole of the PSK tab in Nexus 1.10.3 — one receive control. Transmitting is done from the PSK cockpit, not from here.

JS8

JS8 is the JS8Call-compatible keyboard mode; the JS8 chapter is the tour. What lives here is what JS8Call keeps in its own settings and Nexus cannot infer.

Speed & receiving

• Transmit speed — Slow (30 s periods), Normal (15 s), Fast (10 s), JS8 40 (6 s) or JS8 60 (4 s), the names JS8Call 3.0 uses: JS8 40 was called Turbo before 3.0, and JS8 60 is 3.0’s experimental fifth speed. The period the TX clock follows; Normal is what most of the band runs. The speed chips in the JS8 header change this same setting.
• Decode these speeds — all five on by default, exactly as JS8Call 3.0’s multi-decode: a Slow station and a JS8 60 station on the same band both print, each activity row marked with its speed letter (E/A/B/C/I). Untick a speed to save CPU on a small machine. Settings saved before JS8 60 arrived keep the four speeds they had; tick JS8 60 to add it.
• Callsign aging (minutes) — off (0) by default, as in JS8Call. Otherwise a station not heard for this many minutes drops off the cockpit’s Stations list (the one you have selected, or one with an unread message for you, stays) and is left out of your HEARING? replies. Up to 1440, a day.
• Band activity aging (minutes) — 2 by default, as in JS8Call. A row of the cockpit’s Band activity pane whose newest decode is this many minutes old leaves the pane, unless RX is on its offset. 0 keeps every row. Up to 1440, a day.

Frequencies

• Return to the last used frequency — off by default, as in JS8Call. On, opening JS8 tunes the rig back to the frequency you last used in JS8, instead of the band’s JS8 frequency.
• JS8 frequencies — JS8Call 3.0.3’s suggested frequencies until you change, add or remove one; then the list is your own, each row a dial in MHz and an optional description. The JS8 band picker shows it, and opening JS8 tunes the first one on the band. Reset puts JS8Call’s list back (asked first); Export… saves yours to Downloads as a file and Import… reads one back (it asks before replacing a list of your own).
• Change frequency by schedule — off by default, as in JS8Call. On, Nexus changes the rig’s frequency by itself, with nobody at the radio, at the times in the schedule: a notice in the JS8 screen first, then the change 30 seconds later unless you cancel it. Never while transmitting or while a message is going out. Each row of the Schedule (UTC) is a frequency and a window (both ends count; one that ends before it starts runs over midnight; where rows overlap, the one starting later wins). Nothing changes back when a row ends: add a row for that. Move off a scheduled frequency yourself and that row leaves you there.

Automatic transmissions

Every one of these is the second of two acts. The first is the session TX latch in the JS8 header, which is never remembered across launches — so a switch left on here keys nothing until you enable TX in the cockpit, every session.

• Heartbeat interval (minutes) — 0 sends a heartbeat only when you press HB. Otherwise, while the HB chip is on, one goes out every this-many minutes on a random free slot between 500 and 1000 Hz. The HB chip itself is session-only.
• Answer heartbeats — off by default, as in JS8Call. On, a heard heartbeat gets your signal report (HEARTBEAT SNR), one frame per station, and a message you hold for that station is offered to it. Never acknowledge heartbeats from these callsigns, comma-separated and empty by default, leaves those stations unanswered.
• Heartbeat networking — off by default, as in JS8Call (its Enable Heartbeat Networking). On, the cockpit shows the HB button and Answer heartbeats can answer; off, no heartbeat and no acknowledgement goes out. It is the cockpit’s HB NET switch. Updating from a version without it turns it on if Answer heartbeats was on or a heartbeat interval was set, so the HB button stays. Heartbeats and acknowledgements go out at Slow, Normal and Fast only, never at Turbo.
• Allow heartbeats outside 500–1000 Hz — off by default, as in JS8Call. On, heartbeats and acknowledgements go out on your own TX offset instead of a free spot in 500–1000 Hz.
• Pause heartbeats while a call is in the To box — on by default, as in JS8Call’s pause while in a QSO. While the To box holds a call the heartbeat repeat pauses (it starts again one interval after you clear the box), no heartbeat is acknowledged, and a repeating CQ stops. Switching HB on clears the To box.
• Don’t acknowledge stations that heartbeat more often than every 55 minutes — off by default, as in JS8Call 3.0. On, a station heard heartbeating again within 55 minutes of its last acknowledged heartbeat is added to Never acknowledge heartbeats from these callsigns, as JS8Call adds it to its list, and is not acknowledged then or later; the HB ACK chip names it. Take it off that list to acknowledge it again; turning this off leaves the list as it is. A station added while this screen is open is kept when you save it.
• Do not take part in @ALLCALL — off by default, as in JS8Call. On, nothing addressed to @ALLCALL is answered (QUERY MSGS included) or marked as addressed to you, and @ALLCALL leaves the To box’s list. Heartbeats and CQs are handled as before.
• Auto-reply to queries — on by default, as in JS8Call: SNR?, GRID?, INFO?, STATUS?, HEARING? and QUERY MSGS addressed to you are answered, and a MSG to you or a group you joined, or a MSG TO: you hold for another station, gets an ACK. On @ALLCALL only QUERY MSGS is answered, when a message waits for that station, at most once every 15 minutes. Off, a reply is put in the cockpit’s message box for you to send, as JS8Call does, and QUERY MSGS is not answered.
• Ask for confirmation before sending automatic replies — on by default, as in JS8Call. Every automatic reply (to a query, an ACK, a relay, a heartbeat acknowledgement) waits in the cockpit for your Yes; No, or no answer within 89 seconds, sends nothing. Off, each goes by itself in the next period.
• Only auto-reply to these callsigns / Never auto-reply to these callsigns — JS8Call’s allow and deny lists, comma-separated, empty by default. A station is matched by its call as heard or its base call (W1AW covers W1AW/P). Empty, the allow list lets everyone in; set, anyone not on it, like anyone on the deny list, is not acted on at all: no reply, no relay, its message not filed, nothing held for it.
• Relay for other stations — on by default, as in JS8Call: a message routed through your callsign is passed along (with Auto-reply off it is put in the message box for you to send), and MSG TO: messages are held in your inbox until the addressee asks for them. This is third-party traffic; whether it is permitted where you operate is your call.
• Idle watchdog (minutes) — after this long with nothing typed, heartbeats, auto-replies and relaying all switch off and the cockpit says so (the JS8Call rule, so an unattended station goes quiet). 60 by default; 0 turns it off; anything below 5 counts as 5. TX enable is left as it was — this is separate from the six-minute transmit watchdog in Digital (FT8/FT4), which JS8 also obeys for everything but heartbeats.

Station text

• INFO — what an INFO? query gets back: rig, antenna, power, a QTH. Upper-case letters, digits and basic punctuation pack tightest.
• STATUS — what a STATUS? query gets back. Blank sends the JS8Call form: IDLE, the idle minutes, and the app name.
• Groups — the @GROUP names you belong to, comma-separated; a message to one of them counts as addressed to you. @ALLCALL is everyone and is always on. @APRSIS and @JS8NET cannot be joined, as in JS8Call: Settings will not save while either is in this field, and says so. The call list’s Add new station or group… and Remove this group change this same list.

Lists and marks

• Reset Band activity, the call list and the RX pane at startup — JS8Call’s “Reset the Band Activity, Call Activity, and RX history at startup”, off by default. On, each time Nexus starts the three lists start empty, as Clear all lists… leaves them; what is heard after fills them again. Your Inbox and the station’s own record of who it heard are kept. It takes effect at the next start.
• Hide these callsigns in the RX pane — JS8Call 3.0’s RX block list, comma-separated and empty by default. Nothing a listed station sends prints in the RX pane (by its call as heard or its base call), and the call list marks it ✕; it is still heard, answered and filed as before, and it still shows in Band activity. The call list’s Block this station adds to it.
• Highlight these words or callsigns — two lists, primary and secondary colour, empty by default as in JS8Call. A Band activity row holding one of the words, and the call list row of one of the calls, is tinted; a row both lists name takes the primary.
• End of transmission mark — ♢ by default, as in JS8Call; up to two characters. It follows the last frame of a message in the RX pane and Band activity.
• Missing frame mark — …… by default, as in JS8Call. It stands where the next frame of a message did not come within one and a half periods.

Sounds

A sound for each of: a CQ, a heartbeat, an ACK for you, a message directed to you or your group, a message filed in your Inbox, a new callsign, a callsign you have worked. All off by default, as JS8Call’s notifications are. Each plays a short tone of its own, or a WAV file you pick with Choose…, as JS8Call plays the file you pick for each; Reset to built-in goes back to the tone, and Test plays it. A file that cannot be played (moved, not a WAV file, larger than 10 MB) plays the tone instead, and Nexus says so once. They sound whichever screen is showing while JS8 is the mode, as JS8Call’s do. The files are this computer’s and travel in a profile; only a file chosen here is ever read. Play the sounds on picks the output (the system default unless you pick one). It is never a device your radio transmits from: a sound there could key a rig on VOX, so the radio’s TX audio devices are shown but cannot be picked, and every sound is checked as it plays, so one is refused even if a TX audio device is changed to it later.

Colours and fonts

• JS8Call’s colours and fonts for the RX pane (background, received text, transmitted text, and a font for each kind of text), Band activity and the call list (one set for both, as in JS8Call: background, text, selected row, traffic to you, CQ messages, the primary and secondary highlights, and a font) and the compose box (background, text and a font). Each colour starts as the theme’s and opens a colour picker. What you pick is kept for the theme in use (Light or Dark); the other theme keeps its own, so a colour chosen to read well on one never paints the other. A font (a family name, and a size in points) serves both themes; a family this computer lacks falls back to the theme’s. A sample of each pane shows the result, a line under it says when a text would be hard to read on its background (under 4.5:1), and Reset gives that pane back to the theme.

Sending

• Hold PTT between frames — off by default, as in JS8Call: PTT drops after each frame of a message and keys again for the next (at Normal the radio is unkeyed for about 1.4 seconds between two frames). On, the radio stays keyed from the end of one frame to the start of the next. It still drops after the message’s last frame, never holds from one message into the next, and drops at once on Stop TX or TX Off.
• Allow TX offset changes while sending — off by default, as in JS8Call: while a message is waiting to go or going out, the TX offset stays where it is, and the cockpit says why when you try to move it (a list row’s Jump to … Hz is greyed out). On, the move or the jump is taken at once: the frame on the air moves too, from where it has got to (a heartbeat on its own spot stays there), and the frames still to go are sent at the new offset.
• TX delay — 0.2 seconds by default, as in JS8Call (0.1 to 0.5): how long before each period a frame keys the radio. The frame’s first tone still goes out at the period’s start delay, so a radio slow to switch to transmit no longer sends it late. Lengthen it for an amplifier or a radio whose relay is slow.

Composing

The JS8 compose box as JS8Call 3.0.3 keeps it; the JS8 chapter shows it at work.

• CQ message — what the CQ button and the repeating CQ send. JS8Call’s default, CQ CQ CQ <MYGRID4>, is one CQ frame, and so is any of the eight CQ forms the field offers (CQ DX <MYGRID4> and the rest). Longer text takes more frames. It must start with CQ or hold your callsign, as in JS8Call: Settings will not save otherwise, and says so. Empty sends CQ CQ CQ and your square.
• Reply message — what REPLY sends to the call in the To box; HW CPY? by default, as in JS8Call.
• Saved messages — the dock’s Saved menu, in this order: add, edit, move up or down, delete. TNX 73 GL to start with, as in JS8Call; a list you empty stays empty. The macros a message may carry are listed under it, and work in the CQ and reply messages, INFO and STATUS too: <MYCALL>, <MYGRID4>, <MYGRID12>, <MYINFO>, <MYCQ>, <MYHB>, <MYREPLY>, <MYSTATUS>, <MYVERSION>, <MYIDLE>, and for the call in the To box once it has been heard, <CALL>, <SNR> and <TDELTA>.
• Send CQ, REPLY, SNR, INFO, STATUS, saved messages and a station’s asks at once — on by default, as JS8Call’s Immediately transmit…. Off, those buttons and a station row’s quick asks put their message in the compose box, and Send sends it. The repeating CQ always sends.
• Show calls and commands as pills in the compose box — on by default, as in JS8Call 3.0.
• Suggest cheaper words in the compose box — on by default, as in JS8Call. A word the JS8 dictionary sends in pieces is underlined; right-click it for words that take less airtime.

Spotting and APRS-IS

Spotting itself follows the PSK Reporter switch in Integrations & Feeds, as JS8Call’s SPOT button carries PSK Reporter and JS8NET together: while it is on, the stations you hear on JS8 go to PSK Reporter and to JS8NET, and commands sent to a @group go to JS8NET. The JS8 chapter has the details.

• Spot @APRSIS messages to APRS-IS — off by default (JS8Call ships it on). A station heard sending @APRSIS GRID is put on the APRS map at that locator, and the text after @APRSIS CMD goes to APRS-IS as a raw packet, under your callsign; Nexus logs in to APRS-IS with the passcode worked out from it, as the iGate does.
• Relay APRS-IS messages to heard stations — off by default. It transmits with nobody at the radio: an APRS message for a station heard on JS8 is keyed to it as @APRSIS MSG TO:, only while TX is on and through every transmit guard, and never to a station on the never-spot list. Needs the switch above.
• Never spot these callsigns — comma-separated, empty by default, as in JS8Call. A station on it, as heard or by its base call, is spotted to no network.

JS8Call API

For programs written for JS8Call (loggers, maps, message tools) on this computer; the JS8 chapter says what they get. Read-only: they cannot send, tune or change a setting. Both listen on 127.0.0.1 only, and none of these settings can be seen or changed from the Remote page.

• TCP API — off by default, as in JS8Call. Programs connect to 127.0.0.1 on TCP port (JS8Call’s 2442), one at a time.
• UDP API — off by default, as in JS8Call. Nexus sends to a program listening on 127.0.0.1 at UDP port (JS8Call’s 2242) and answers it there.
• Accept TCP requests / Accept UDP requests — off by default, as in JS8Call. Off, a program on that side gets what Nexus hears and sends, and its requests get no answer. On, Nexus answers its requests to read; a request to send, tune or change a setting is never answered.

SSTV

SSTV in Nexus 1.10.3. A blank transmit power means Nexus leaves your power alone — an SSTV over is up to 290 seconds of continuous key-down, so most operators run it well below their SSB drive.

Receiving

• Start receiving when SSTV opens — on by default. The SSTV screen starts the decoder as soon as you open it, so a picture on the band decodes without your arming anything. Turn it off to arm by hand (the Arm button in the SSTV header) — worth doing if you keep SSTV open as a monitor on a shared rig. Stopping the receiver yourself is already remembered for the rest of the session.
• ISS SSTV auto-arm — off by default. Tunes 145.800 FM and arms the decoder when the ISS is overhead while the SSTV or Satellites screen is open, and restores your dial at LOS. On any other screen it only tells you the ISS is up, and leaves your radio alone. If your radio cannot receive 145.800 MHz, it tells you once per session and does nothing else. A pass arm is an explicit act, so this works whether or not the switch above is on.

Transmitting

• Transmit mode — the mode the SSTV screen starts on; you can still change it there for one picture. Automatic follows the band: HF gets Scottie 1 (the NA calling-frequency convention — Martin 1 is the EU one), 2 m gets PD-120, which is what ARISS transmits. Pick one of the 15 modes to always start there.
• Transmit power — the drive the SSTV screen starts on, and the level an image is sent at. Leave it blank and Nexus never touches your power. SSTV is up to 290 seconds of continuous key-down at full duty, so most operators run it well below their SSB drive. Your Phone power cap still applies on top of this.

Your callsign is burned into the top-left of every picture you transmit and there is no switch for it: an SSTV over is one long carrier of picture-only audio, so the picture is the identification (§97.119(b)(4)). Send is refused until you have set a callsign in Station. If a picture already shows your call — a pre-made QSO card — tick “My picture already shows my callsign” in the SSTV screen; that one is per-picture on purpose and resets with every new image.

APRS

Over the air

These are the RF side, and none of them needs the internet feed below — most stations run APRS on the radio alone.

The RF side of APRS in Nexus 1.10.3. Beacon SSID continues to the right. The channel is regional — Automatic picks it from your grid.

• Channel (RF) — the 2 m FM channel APRS runs on, which is regional. Automatic follows your grid square, so moving to another region lands you on the right channel with nothing to configure, and the number it picked is shown in the menu itself. The boundaries between regions are approximate; pick a channel to pin it for good. Picking one from the APRS screen’s header pins it too — the two surfaces write the same setting.
• Beacon symbol — the icon other stations see on the map for your beacon. Car, House, Person, Bicycle, Jeep, Motorcycle, Truck and Dot come from the primary symbol table; Digipeater and iGate come from the alternate one and are what a fixed station running as infrastructure should show.
• Beacon comment — free text carried with your position: a name, a net, a URL. This goes on the air, and APRS caps it at 43 characters.
• Digipeater path — which digipeaters may repeat your beacon. WIDE1-1, WIDE2-1 is the near-universal default: one hop through a local fill-in digi, then one wide hop. Leave it empty to transmit direct, with no digipeaters at all.
• Beacon SSID — the suffix on your callsign in every APRS frame you send, which is how other operators tell your mobile from your home station (-9 mobile, -10 iGate, -7 handheld, -13 weather). From my callsign uses whatever your callsign already spells out, so if you have set it to KD9TAW-9 on the Station tab, that is what goes out.

APRS-IS (internet feed)

The internet feed in Nexus 1.10.3. Watched calls, Weather stations and Objects & items continue to the right. This side uses no radio and never transmits — the iGate below it is the one control that puts RF you heard onto the internet.

• APRS-IS feed — “Plot stations the internet reports alongside the ones your own antenna hears — each one tagged so you can always tell which is which. Runs whether or not the APRS decoder is armed: it uses no radio and never transmits.” If internet stations appear while your receiver stays silent, the fault is in the RF chain.
• Server — “Your regional Tier 2 rotate is best — noam / soam / euro / asia / aunz .aprs2.net. rotate.aprs2.net works anywhere.”
• Port — “14580 is the filtered port clients and iGates should use. The full-feed ports would send you the entire planet.”
• Radius (km) — how far around your grid to subscribe. “APRS is a local mode; 150 km is a generous 2 m-plus-digipeater horizon. 0 = no distance limit (busy).”
• Watched calls — comma separated. “These come through from anywhere on earth, however far outside your radius they are — the club tracker on a road trip, a friend chasing a summit.”
• Weather stations — include weather reports in the feed.
• Objects & items — repeaters, NWS alerts and event markers other stations have placed on the map.
• Messages — show APRS text messages from the feed. Display only — replying to an internet message is not wired up.
• Keep stations for (min) — how long a station stays on the map after its last packet; they start to fade at a third of this. An hour by default, because fixed stations often beacon only every ten to thirty minutes and a shorter window makes the slow ones blink off between their own beacons. 0 keeps every station forever (the 2000-station ceiling still applies).
• Receive-only iGate — contribute packets your own antenna hears to APRS-IS, so stations in your area reach the global map through you. It publishes under your callsign, so it is a separate choice from watching the feed, and it needs the APRS decoder running to have anything to send. Nexus never sends the other way: gating the internet back onto the air means transmitting unattended.

Working Frequencies

The dial frequency used when a band/mode is selected. These are overrides of the stock WSJT-X working-frequency table — “leave the list empty to use stock everywhere. An override replaces the stock row for its band + mode.”

Working Frequencies in Nexus 1.10.3 with no overrides set, which is how it ships.

• Standard table (read-only) — the stock WSJT-X dial frequencies. A row with an active override shows your value, highlighted.
• Your overrides — rows of band + mode + dial MHz. Add override adds a row, Reset to standard clears them all, ✕ removes one. “MHz is the dial (suppressed-carrier) frequency.” A duplicate band+mode is flagged inline and the last row wins. Save to apply — band switches then use your value.

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Spots & Alerts

What Nexus tells you about, and how loudly. Kept quiet by default so the app doesn’t cry wolf.

Pounce — new-one alert

Interrupts you the instant a needed station appears on the cluster or RBN, rather than waiting for the spot board to refresh. A loud tone plays whether or not Nexus is the window you are looking at, and a banner offers one-click Work. Each station alerts once per band and mode.

Pounce in Nexus 1.10.3. How rare “rare” should be depends on your own totals — start narrow.

• Alert me for — Off (default) / New DXCC entity only / New entity or CQ zone / New entity, zone, or US state.

How rare “rare” is depends on your own totals: if you are chasing your first hundred entities then almost every DX spot is a new one and this would never stop talking. Start with New DXCC entity only once your log is far enough along that a new one is genuinely an event.

Alerts

Alerts in Nexus 1.10.3. New grid and Rare grid continue to the right.

• Pop-up notifications — the messages in the bottom-right corner, on unless you turn them off. Off, the confirmations (Logged QSO, Saved, a QSY) and the alerts (a new DXCC, a station calling you, a band opening, space weather, a DXpedition you chase coming on) stop popping up. Their sounds are unchanged. Errors, notices about transmitting, the radio or the log, and any message with a button (an alarm’s Stop, an Undo, an update’s Download) still pop up.
• Keep pop-ups up for at least — Each pop-up’s own time (the default), or 10, 20, 30 or 60 seconds. Most pop-ups go after 4 seconds and errors after 12. The choice only makes a pop-up stay longer, so pick a longer time if you look away and miss them. A pop-up that stays until you close it still does.
• My call — “Beep + flash when someone directs a call at you.”
• CQ calls — “Alert on any decoded CQ. Off by default — CQs are constant.”
• Show WPX prefix needs — adds a WPX chip to a Needed-board station that would be a new CQ WPX prefix on that band and mode (CW, phone or digital). Off by default: almost every station is a new prefix, so with it on most rows carry the chip. A chip only: no sound, no pop-up, and the row’s headline and order stay as they were.
• Show WAE country needs — the same for a new Worked All Europe country. Off by default.
• New DXCC and grid alerts — the sound and the pop-up when you decode a new DXCC, a new grid or a rare grid 💎 on a band its menu allows. On by default. Off silences those alerts and changes nothing else: the three menus keep their choices, and the Needed boards and the NEW ONE and GRID icons keep following them.
• New DXCC — Off / HF only / VHF+ (6 m and up) / All bands. The bands where a new DXCC entity — a “new one” — counts: the Needed boards, the NEW ONE icon and its loud alert all follow this choice. Off takes NEW ONE off every board.
• New grid — same band choices. The bands where a grid you haven’t worked counts: the Needed boards, the GRID icon on the roster and the decode rows, and its quiet toast. Default VHF+ only — grid awards (VUCC/FFMA) start at 6 m; on HF nearly every decode is an unworked grid.
• Rare grid 💎 — same band choices. The bands where a rare or water-only grid (rovers, maritime, DXpeditions) counts: the Needed boards, its GRID icon and the loud 💎 alert. Separate from plain grids, so silencing HF chatter keeps the gems.

Each menu always shows the band choice the boards follow, whatever the alert switch says, and picking one changes only that one. Set New grid to VHF+ and an HF FT8 roster stops showing GRID chips and the Needed boards stop listing HF grids. The board’s own New grid chip filters within that; it never brings HF grids back.

• Watch list — the calls you want flagged wherever they turn up. Each entry can carry a note of your own, such as why it is there and when it can come off (Samoa DXp 9/27-10/3): type it when you add the entry, or later in the field on its row, which saves when you leave it. A note changes nothing about what alerts.

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Logbook

The logbook’s own settings: how the Logbook shows your contacts, how long a deleted contact can be put back, the callbook that fills in a station’s name and grid, and the lists a logged contact is checked against. The services you upload to are on Services.

Logbook display

• Logbook columns — the columns and widths you chose in the Logbook (its Columns button) are kept with your settings. Reset puts back the default table; it is greyed out while nothing has been changed.
• Station card on hover — off by default. A click on a call, or Enter on it, always opens its station card; turn this on and resting the pointer on a call for half a second opens it too. Remembered per computer, in every window.

Deleted contacts

Keep deleted contacts for (days) — the logbook keeps a full copy of every contact you delete or purge, so Recently deleted and the Undo on the delete, import and purge messages can put it back exactly as it was. This sets how long, 90 days by default. After that the copy is removed, a little at a time in the background, when Nexus starts. The old and new values of every edit are kept for good whatever this says; 0 keeps deleted contacts for good too.

Callbook lookups

What fills in a station’s name, QTH, grid and state when you look a call up or log it. QRZ is asked first, then HamQTH, then callook.info.

QRZ

• QRZ username / QRZ password — “this is what powers callbook lookups” (name, QTH, grid). Separate from the QRZ Logbook API key on Services ▸ Confirmations, which only uploads QSOs. “Grid & state need a QRZ XML subscription; free accounts return only name/address/country.”

HamQTH

• HamQTH username / HamQTH password — “A free callbook used as a fallback when QRZ isn’t configured or has no match — a HamQTH account returns name, grid & US state at no charge.”

Callbook cache

• Also ask callook.info — free, no account: US licences only, asked after QRZ and HamQTH. Only the callsign is sent. On by default.
• Keep answers for (days) — a call looked up within this many days is answered from this computer without asking the callbook again (30 by default). Offline, a kept answer is used at any age.
• Update from callbook: seconds between lookups — the Logbook’s Update from callbook waits at least this long before each call it looks up (2 by default, 1 to 60). HamQTH and callook.info, asked only when QRZ has no record, go in the same turn.
• Update from callbook: lookups per day — the most lookups it makes in 24 hours, across runs (250 by default). QRZ publishes no daily number, so the default is a cautious one. Answers from the cache do not count; a sign-in to QRZ or HamQTH does, and so does the count QRZ itself last reported for your account in the past day.
• Refresh this call — type a callsign and Refresh to look it up again now.
• Clear cache — forgets every kept callbook answer. Your log is not touched, and passwords are never kept here.

Worked-before (B4) & dupes

What “worked before” means, everywhere it appears. The B4 chip on the roster and decode feed comes in two strengths: hollow — you have worked this callsign somewhere, on any band — and solid — you have worked them on the band you are on now. The log strip’s Dupe badge uses the on-band scope.

Match mode too (off by default, matching WSJT-X): when off, working a station on 40m marks them B4-on-band for 40m in every mode, and a 40m contact in any mode reads as a dupe on 40m. Turn it on and 40m FT8 and 40m phone become separate contacts — the solid chip and the Dupe badge then require the mode to match as well. The hollow any-band chip is unaffected either way. Most awards count band slots, not band-and-mode slots, which is why off is the default.

LoTW users list

• Fetch now — downloads ARRL’s weekly activity list; the status line shows the call count and date. This powers the teal L marks on decode and roster rows.
• Count as a LoTW user if uploaded within (days) — the recency window (default 365).

“ARRL’s activity list updates weekly — refetching more often just returns ‘unchanged’. Manual fetch by design (WSJT-X convention).”

Callsign → state database

• Update now — “A callsign→state index (from the FCC license file) so a New State lights up on cluster / CW / SSB spots that carry no grid.” Downloads on first launch, then auto-refreshes weekly from hamradiotools.io; a live decode grid refines it for rovers.

Country file (DXCC)

• Update country file — “The AD1C cty.dat country file maps callsigns to DXCC entities — the country on decode rows, the Needed board and the log.” A copy ships built in, so entity resolution always works offline; Nexus checks weekly for a newer AD1C release and downloads it automatically. The resolver is fixed for a running session, so a downloaded update applies at the next launch — the status line shows the active release date and notes when a newer download is waiting.

IOTA island list

• Show IOTA island names — on by default. IOTA Ltd’s island-group list (© RSGB and © Islands On The Air (IOTA) Ltd) ships with Nexus by IOTA Ltd’s permission, and while this is on Nexus checks iota-world.org for a newer copy at most monthly; a newer download replaces the shipped one, and a failed check keeps the copy in use. The Logbook and the contact card show each group’s name beside a reference, with IOTA Ltd’s credit and a link, and flag a reference that is not an island group. The line below says how many groups are in use and whether that is the copy shipped with Nexus or a newer one. Turning it off shows no names, stops the check and deletes any downloaded copy: a reference is then checked by its shape (EU-131) only.

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Services

Where QSOs go and what feeds come in: the logbook services, the programs that log through Nexus, and the spot and data feeds. It used to be called Logging & Connectors. Credentials live in the OS keychain, never on disk; a saved password or key isn’t shown again after you click Set, and Forget removes it.

Connections

A status grid of every connector, and a Test button on QRZ Logbook that round-trips the API without logging anything. Below it, a session Connection log: “every save, sync, push, and failure lands here.”

Connector health in Nexus 1.10.3. The dots are one station’s; read the shape, not the values — amber against LoTW here means a stored credential nothing has been pushed through yet, which is not a fault.

The dot reports the last time Nexus actually talked to the service, not whether a password is on file. That distinction is the point: a revoked ClubLog app-password or a rotated QRZ Logbook key leaves the secret sitting in your keychain, so a “credential stored” dot stays green while nothing is getting out. What you see instead:

• working (green) — an upload got through; the row says when.
• failing (red) — the last attempt bounced, with the service’s own reason.
• paused (red) — ClubLog’s auth kill-switch has tripped and every upload is being skipped until you fix the credentials.
• stored — not verified yet (amber) — a credential is saved but nothing has been sent through it yet. Not a fault, and deliberately not green.
• auto-upload off / no credential / lookup only (grey) — nothing is expected of this row.

LoTW, eQSL, QRZ Logbook and ClubLog read their history from the per-QSO stamps in your log file, so it survives a restart — right after upgrading you will see real history rather than a blank panel. HRDLog.net and Cloudlog leave no per-QSO stamp, so they read “not verified yet” after each restart until the next contact goes out. The QRZ callbook and RepeaterBook only ever look things up, so they carry no upload history at all.

Integrations & Feeds

Local APIs & Loggers

The loopback feeds in Nexus 1.10.3, at their defaults. Companion UDP address and the decode-log switches continue to the right.

• WSJT-X UDP API + UDP Address — “for JTAlert / GridTracker / loggers” (default 127.0.0.1:2237).
• Ham Radio Deluxe logging + HRD UDP Address — push each QSO to HRD Logbook over its QSO-Forwarding UDP port (default 127.0.0.1:2333). HRD must be running, and don’t also run JTAlert/QSO Relay into HRD or you’ll double-log.
• Companion UDP address — “Where Nexus listens for WSJT-X/JTDX in Companion source mode.”
• Write ALL.TXT decode log — WSJT-X-format decode log for GridTracker / loggers to tail. “Written only while this is on, and it first appears after the next decode.” The saved path is shown, with Reveal in folder.
• Save a WAV per logged QSO — “Auto-records the last ~60 s of RX audio to the recordings folder on log.”
• Save received audio (.wav per period) — None / periods with decodes / all periods. WAVs land in recordings/periods (12 kHz mono, ~360 KB each). “‘All’ writes ~2 GB/day of continuous monitoring — use for decoder debugging, not always-on.”

Spot Sources

Spot sources in Nexus 1.10.3, before cluster nodes were chosen automatically. On your own list, which nodes you list is a matter of coverage, not correctness — Nexus connects to all of them and merges what they report.

• PSK Reporter — “upload spots to the global map.” While a contest whose rules allow spotting only over amateur RF is running (Winter Field Day 2027), no reports are sent whatever this switch says, and a note beside it says so; they resume when the event ends.

• DX Cluster / RBN spots — “Surface ‘new ones’ from the Reverse Beacon Network on the Needed board + Conditions.” Takes effect on restart.

• Phone/SSB cluster nodes — human DX-cluster nodes for SSB/phone spots, since RBN only carries CW and digital. Two choices:

  • Pick working nodes automatically (recommended), the default. “Nexus keeps two of these nodes connected for SSB/phone spots and spreads operators across them. A node that stops answering for five minutes, while your other spot feeds are working, is skipped for a day and another takes its place.” The eight nodes built into the release are listed read-only, each In use, Connecting…, Standby or Not answering with the reason — and, while it is skipped, until when.
  • Use my list. “We connect to ALL listed nodes and union their human SSB/phone spots”; “Nexus never changes this list for you.” Add from the + Add a known node… presets — the built-in nodes — or + Custom, and each row shows how its node is doing. An added node connects, and a removed one disconnects, on the next Save.

  An install still on a node list Nexus shipped starts on automatic; a list you edited yourself stays yours.

• Cluster login SSID — added to your callsign at login (2 → W9XYZ-2). A node allows one session per callsign and drops the older one, so a second Nexus, or another cluster program on the same call, knocks this one off unless each uses a different SSID. 1–99, or leave it empty to log in with your bare call (the default). Your spots still reach the network under your plain callsign — relaying nodes strip the suffix. On a node that requires registration, register the suffixed call there too, or it will not let you post spots. Takes effect on the next Save.

Propagation

• Near-region opening watch — “Watch VHF/10 m activity near your QTH (not just your own contacts) so openings flag ‘open around you’ before you’ve worked anyone.” Takes effect on restart.
• Log space weather on each contact — on for a new installation; a station that already had Nexus keeps the choice it had (off unless you turned it on). On, every contact you log carries the planetary K index, A index and solar flux (ADIF K_INDEX, A_INDEX, SFI) from the latest reading Nexus fetched from NOAA SWPC, and nothing when that reading is more than 3 hours old.
• Prediction engine — Modelled (fast heuristic) or ITU-R P.533 (full physics). “P.533 is the real circuit-reliability method (validated against the ITU reference; ~0.1 s per prediction, uses your station power). Live spots always win over any model.” See Conditions.
• Antenna gain (dBi) — TX / RX (under Antenna gain (advanced)) — “Used by the P.533 link budget only. 0 = a simple wire/vertical (isotropic); a 3-element yagi ≈ 6–8. Honest v1: a plain dB shift — no pattern or takeoff-angle modelling, and the fast heuristic ignores it.”

DXKeeper (DXLab Suite)

Pushes each logged QSO into DXKeeper over its TCP Network Service. Enable it in DXKeeper under Configuration ▸ Defaults ▸ Network Service first.

DXKeeper in Nexus 1.10.3, disabled — a blank host is off.

• DXKeeper host — “Usually 127.0.0.1 — same PC. Leave blank to disable.”
• DXLab Base Port — the Base Port from DXKeeper’s Network Service panel (default 52000). DXKeeper itself listens on base + 1 and Nexus adds the 1 for you, so the number you read off DXKeeper is the number that works.
• Let DXKeeper do the uploads — “Off by default: Nexus already uploads to LoTW / eQSL / ClubLog / QRZ, so turning this on would upload every QSO twice.” DXKeeper ignores it for Club Log and QRZ if Auto upload is ticked on its own QSL Configuration tab — untick it there.

N3FJP Integration (club master log)

“Each contact you log in Contest mode reaches the club’s master N3FJP log the moment you log it.” Nexus fills in the form of the N3FJP Field Day Contest Log (call, band, mode, class and section), so at Field Day the whole club’s score updates in real time. CQ WPX, CQ WW RTTY and the ARRL VHF contests carry their exchange too, in the boxes N3FJP’s own programs for them use (both reports and the serial received, with N3FJP told the serial you sent; both reports, the zone and the state or province; the grid). A QSO party, Sweepstakes or CQ WW CW/SSB contact reaches N3FJP without its exchange: N3FJP does not publish which boxes those programs use. Run N3FJP on the master computer and point Nexus at its IP and port.

N3FJP in Nexus 1.10.3, disabled — a blank host is off. Forward every QSO and the Test N3FJP button continue to the right.

• N3FJP host — IP or hostname of the master log computer. Blank = off.
• N3FJP port — N3FJP’s API TCP port (default 1100).
• Use ENTER for contest scoring — on by default. Logs each contest contact with N3FJP’s ENTER sequence, “which scores the contest — the correct path.” Off falls back to a plain ADDDIRECT insert, which may not score and carries no exchange beyond a class and section.
• Report my band to N3FJP — “Tell N3FJP which band you’re on (no CAT needed), so the club’s Network Status Display band board shows this position.” Off by default.
• Forward every QSO — also push every logged QSO, not just contest contacts, to N3FJP ACLog. “N3FJP dedupes, so it’s safe to run alongside the contest push.”
• Connection test — Test N3FJP saves, then tests the TCP link. “Run this at the club site before the event starts.”

N1MM+ Integration

• N1MM contact broadcast address — host:port, UDP. “Name the port — consumers stack on one host, and 12060 is often already taken by another logger.” Blank = off. An address alone sends only the contacts you log in Contest mode.
• Broadcast every QSO — send the contact packet for every logged QSO, not just contest contacts: point a map app such as GridTracker at the address and each contact plots as you log it. “One packet per QSO: this never doubles up with the contest broadcast.” Off by default; turning it on with a blank address fills in 127.0.0.1:12060 visibly, rather than as a hidden default.

Confirmations

One group per service, in the order the panel shows them. Every password, key and token here goes into the operating system’s keychain, never to disk in the clear, and none of them is ever shown back to you — the boxes read their placeholder whether or not something is stored. Set saves one, Forget removes it.

LoTW

• LoTW username — “Often your callsign, but not always — use your LoTW account login.”
• LoTW password — your LoTW website password, not your TQSL certificate password.
• LoTW confirmations — Download confirmations “pulls new confirmations into your log and marks which of your uploads LoTW now holds on file (so they read ‘waiting on the other op,’ not ‘never uploaded’).” This only goes one way, down; to send your contacts to LoTW use Upload to LoTW (N) in the Logbook. The first pull covers your whole history and can be slow; later ones are incremental.
• Download everything again — for confirmations an earlier download missed. It asks first, then downloads your whole LoTW history once, straight away: one large download. If that download cannot run or fails, your next Download confirmations still asks for all of it. Your logged contacts and the confirmations on them are not changed.
• LoTW Station Location — for uploading. Signing is done by your installed TQSL against this named Station Location — set it up in TQSL first; the name must match exactly. No certificate or password is stored by Nexus.
• Sign from ADIF location (travelers) — turn on if you set TQSL to “use the location in the ADIF file” rather than creating named Station Locations. Nexus then stamps your call and grid into the upload and omits -l. The whole batch is signed from your current grid, so if you operate from more than one location, upload before you move.
• TQSL path (optional) — “Only if TQSL is installed somewhere non-standard; otherwise leave blank to auto-detect.”
• Upload to LoTW automatically — every few hours, hand your un-uploaded contacts to TQSL in one batch: the same thing the Logbook’s Upload to LoTW button does, on a timer. Not a per-QSO push like the auto-upload switches on the other services — one batch, one TQSL run, one result for all of it. Needs TQSL installed and a Station Location set. If a batch is refused it stops and waits for you rather than retrying; saving any LoTW setting starts it again. Unavailable while “Sign from ADIF location” is on — that mode signs the whole batch from wherever you are now, which is only ever right when you pick the moment yourself.

eQSL

• eQSL username / eQSL password — your eQSL.cc login, often your callsign.
• QTH Nickname — only for a callsign with more than one QTH profile at eQSL. Enter it exactly as eQSL’s My Profile page spells it, capitals included. Each nickname is an eQSL account of its own, so changing it (or the username) makes the next Sync eQSL now read that account’s whole InBox.
• eQSL confirmations — Sync eQSL now downloads confirmations into your log. “These count as confirmations but not for DXCC/WAS (ARRL doesn’t accept eQSL) — a separate tier.”
• Auto-upload QSOs to eQSL — upload each logged QSO as you log it.

LoTW and eQSL in Nexus 1.10.3. The empty eQSL boxes are what an unconfigured service looks like.

QRZ

• QRZ Logbook API key — a separate key from your QRZ logbook’s settings page, used to upload logged QSOs. The QRZ login that powers callbook lookups is on Logbook ▸ Callbook lookups.
• Auto-upload QSOs to QRZ — push each logged QSO to your QRZ logbook.
• Pull confirmations automatically — “As people confirm on QRZ, the confirmations flow in on their own — no need to press Sync. After the first run only what CHANGED is fetched.” The last pull time is shown. QRZ confirmations never count toward DXCC or WAS, which need LoTW or a card.
• Two-way sync — Sync from QRZ now pulls your QRZ logbook down, adding QSOs you logged elsewhere (e.g. a phone app in the field) and marking QRZ-confirmed contacts. Safe to run repeatedly (deduped).

ClubLog

• ClubLog email — your ClubLog login email, not a callsign.
• ClubLog callsign — “The ClubLog logbook to upload into (empty = your callsign).”
• ClubLog app-password — “Use a ClubLog Application Password (Settings → App Passwords), not your main password.”
• ClubLog API key (application-level) — “This is the application credential, not yours — official installer builds bundle one, and you only need email + app-password above. Building from source? Request a free key at clublog.org/requestapikey.php and paste it here (open-source can’t ship one — ClubLog auto-revokes published keys).”
• Auto-upload QSOs to ClubLog — push each logged QSO in real time.

QRZ, HamQTH and ClubLog in Nexus 1.10.3. QRZ takes two separate credentials — the login that powers callbook lookups, and a Logbook API key that only uploads. The login and HamQTH have since moved to Logbook ▸ Callbook lookups.

HRDLog

• HRDLog.net upload code — from your HRDLog.net account (Options → your code). Uploads log under your station callsign. “This is the online HRDLog.net service — separate from the HRD Logbook UDP push under Integrations & Feeds.”
• Auto-upload QSOs to HRDLog.net — “HRDLog.net is a live-logging and awards site — it is not an ARRL confirmation source, so an upload here never earns DXCC/WAS credit.”

World Radio League

WRL is a live-logging site. Nexus pushes contacts up to your WRL logbook as you make them, one contact per QSO. Nothing comes back down — there is no confirmation sync and no download — and like HRDLog it is not an ARRL confirmation source, so an upload here never earns DXCC or WAS credit.

You need a WRL account and a logbook on it. The only thing to fill in here is the key.

• API key — from worldradioleague.com ▸ Integrations ▸ Developer API. Paste it and press Set. Nexus checks it against the live service before saving, so a mistyped key fails here, with a plain message, rather than silently on your first contact. The same check resolves where your contacts will land: your account’s default logbook if you have one, otherwise its only logbook. An account with several logbooks and no default is a real ambiguity and Nexus refuses to guess — set a default on the WRL site, then press Set again. The key is stored write-only in the OS keychain and is never shown again. Forget removes it.
• Auto-upload each QSO — pushes every logged contact as it lands. Saving a valid key switches this on for you; Forget switches it off, because there is nothing to push with.
• Already have a log? ▸ Export ADIF for WRL — writes your whole log to an ADIF file in your Downloads folder, for WRL’s own ADIF import on their site. Use it once, when you start: auto-upload only covers contacts made from now on, and WRL’s API caps uploads at 5,000 a day, so for a log of any size the file is much the faster path.

When an upload fails. The World Radio League row under Connections carries the state and the time of the last successful push, and every attempt — good or bad — lands in the Connection log underneath it. What Nexus does next depends on what WRL said:

• accepted or duplicate — done. WRL saying it already has the contact counts as success: Nexus stops and marks the upload done rather than retrying something that has already landed.
• key invalid — the credential is wrong or has been revoked. This is not retried, because retrying cannot fix it. Set the key again.
• busy — a rate limit, or trouble at their end. The contact is fine, the moment was not, so it goes back on the queue and retries with widening gaps (4 s, 8 s, 16 s… up to five minutes) until it gets through or twenty attempts are up.
• rejected — WRL refused the contact itself. Not retried; the log line carries their reason.

Contacts waiting to go out survive with the switch off, up to the most recent 256, so turning auto-upload on later still sends this session’s recent work.

The World Radio League connector in Nexus 1.10.3. The key box shows its placeholder — a stored key is never displayed back.

RepeaterBook

• RepeaterBook API token — optional. “Without a token the Repeaters section uses the open hearham.com directory. Add a personal token (from your RepeaterBook account’s API Apps page) to pull from RepeaterBook.com under your own account instead.” Shared RepeaterBook access for every Nexus user is pending RepeaterBook’s approval; if RepeaterBook is unreachable, Repeaters falls back to hearham.com.

Cloudlog / Wavelog

Auto-forward each logged QSO to your self-hosted Cloudlog or Wavelog logbook over HTTP.

• Base URL — your site root. “Leave blank to disable.” It must be https://, except for an instance on your own network: a 192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x, 172.16–31.x.x or 127.x.x.x address (or a local IPv6 one), or a name whose every address is one of those, may use plain http://. The API key then travels unencrypted, so a note under the field says so, and the Connections log says where it went, once a session for each address.
• Station profile id — “Your station location number — in Wavelog or Cloudlog ▸ Station Locations, it is the number at the end of that location’s Edit link (…/station/edit/3 means 3). Not your callsign.” A value that isn’t a number is flagged under the field and never sent: Wavelog answers a callsign here with HTTP 401, “station id does not belong to the API key owner”.
• API key — “Cloudlog ▸ Account ▸ API Keys — a key with read/write.” A per-instance token for your own server.
• Auto-forward QSOs — push every logged QSO to the instance above as it’s logged.

RepeaterBook and Cloudlog / Wavelog in Nexus 1.10.3, both unconfigured. A blank Cloudlog base URL is off.

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Contesting

Always visible — capability, not configuration, gates the tabs.

Contest

The first thing on this tab, because the contest decides everything under it: the exchange you pass, what counts as a duplicate, how the log is scored, and what goes in the Cabrillo headers. The switch that starts it and the rules data every contest reads are here with it.

• Contest — ARRL Field Day, Winter Field Day, ARRL November Sweepstakes (CW or Phone), the ARRL January, June and September VHF contests, CQ World-Wide DX (CW or SSB), the CQ World-Wide RTTY DX Contest, CQ WPX (CW or SSB), and the California, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas QSO Parties. Contest mode, under it, starts and stops the contest picked here. While it is running a contest, a line under the picker says which one, and saving a different pick switches at once, exactly as turning Contest mode off and on does: the running contest ends, the new one starts in Search-and-Pounce without calling CQ, each keeps its own contacts, and the Contest screen says “Now running …”. Saving anything else keeps the running contest and its log. (This is the same setting the Event chips used to carry inside what was then Field Day Setup; it moved up one level so there is one contest picker rather than a setting buried inside one contest’s own section.)
• Your role — read-only, and derived rather than chosen. A role is decided by where you are: in a QSO party the in-state and out-of-state stations send different things, and crossing the line changes which one you are. It reads in words: in-state, out-of-state, W/VE or DX, and the same word sits beside Sending on the contest log strip. Both Field Day events work the same way for everyone, so there is no role to show yet.
• Contest mode — says Off, or On and the contest the station is running now (even one started on the Contest screen after Settings opened), with one button beside it. Start contest… opens the contest setup: pick the contest (this week’s first, in UTC), fill in what it sends (filled in from these fields, with the reason it cannot start yet shown as you type), declare the entry lines its Cabrillo log writes, check the radio and mode (a mode the contest does not allow is a warning with a way to CW or Phone, never a refusal), then Start: one save with the mode on, after which the setup checks that the station really entered the contest and shows “Illinois QSO Party is on · S&P”. It saves only the answers the setup showed for that contest; other unsaved edits on these tabs stay unsaved. If the station did not enter, it says why and puts back everything it saved (the answers, the mode, and a contest it ended, which runs again), so Contest mode can no longer be on with nothing running. Start never calls CQ. For ARRL Field Day the setup asks your power once (QRP, LOW or HIGH, with ×5, ×2 or ×1 beside it, and whether you run on battery or other natural power for ×5) and sets both Power category and the power multiplier from it. Stop contest… opens the end-of-contest checklist. Both take effect at once; neither waits for Save. The mode stays on across restarts until you stop it. It was called Field Day mode; the setting is the same one. The same switch is at the top of the Contest screen (the tent in the left bar), beside Set up a contest… (or Change setup… while one runs; there a new county, state, class or section goes out through I moved where the contest allows it, and the other fields you send are shown as read when the contest starts). It is not among the Features. With a contest running, a Save that picks a contest the station cannot enter yet is refused, with the reason, and so is one when the station cannot be asked.
• Check for rules updates — the rules data behind every contest on the list: scoring, dates, exchanges and multipliers. The line beside the button says which rules year and data date are in use; a downloaded update applies at the next launch.

Your station data

What your station sends when a contest asks for it. Fill in the ones your contest uses and leave the rest alone — nothing here is guessed, because an exchange that goes on the air has to be one you typed.

• County — your county, abbreviated the way the QSO party abbreviates it (Franklin is FRAN, Bee is BEE). Only in-state entries send this. Use the sponsor’s own list: the abbreviations are irregular, and a code you worked out from the county name will often be the wrong one.
• State or province — your state, province or territory, two letters. This is not your ARRL section. Western New York is WNY as a section and NY as a state, and a QSO party wants the state; Field Day below is where the section lives, for the two Field Day events. Nor is it the Station tab’s State, the QTH your everyday CW and RTTY macros send: put here where your station is for this contest, which for a portable or mobile entry is not home. CQ WW RTTY uses its sponsor’s own Canadian codes, and some differ from the usual ones: NF (VO1) and LB (VO2) rather than NL, NWT rather than NT, and PEI rather than PE. Typing NT or PE is read as NWT or PEI; NL is not, because it is two call areas, so pick NF or LB. With a code the contest does not list, or none, you enter as a DX station and send no QTH. If your callsign is in the US or Canada, Nexus warns you about that here, on the contest log strip and when the contest starts, and suggests the code a section means (EMA is MA). It never stops you: operating from outside the US and Canada really is DX.
• Check — the last two digits of the year you were first licensed. Sweepstakes asks for it, and you send the same two digits all contest.
• CQ zone — 1 to 40, for CQ WW. Leave it at 0 if you do not know it yet.
• ITU zone — 1 to 90, for IARU. Leave it at 0 if you do not know it yet.
• Power sent — the power you send as part of the exchange, in the sponsor’s own words (KW, 500, 5), on the air exactly as you type it. Shown only for a contest whose exchange carries your power, and none of the contests on the list does, so you will not see it today; a value saved before is kept. The power your log declares is Power category, under Your entry.

If a contest needs something your station has not filled in, Nexus refuses the contest’s rules rather than sending a blank — you find out while setting up, not at 1400 on contest Saturday.

Your entry

What your Cabrillo log declares about the entry, and the switch that keeps the “unassisted” in it true.

• Entry category — what your Cabrillo log declares about the station: SINGLE-OP, MULTI-OP or CHECKLOG. It is a claim, so you make it rather than Nexus guessing: pick CHECKLOG when you are sending the log to help the sponsor check other people’s rather than to be scored yourself. New sessions read this; a session already running keeps the declaration it started with.

• Power category, Spotting assistance and Station type — the rest of what your Cabrillo log declares about the entry. Sweepstakes sends these on the air as its precedence letter, and every CQ log (CQ WW, CQ WPX, CQ WW RTTY) carries the power category and the assistance as its CATEGORY-POWER and CATEGORY-ASSISTED lines. A contest reads them when Contest mode turns on, so set them before it starts. Winter Field Day takes only QRP or LOW (its limit is 100 W PEP), and says so beside the picker: HIGH writes no CATEGORY-POWER line there. This is the one power your log declares: Power sent is what an exchange carries, and Field Day’s power multiplier is its score.

• Unassisted entry — “Turns off the CW decoder (AI and classic), DX cluster / RBN spots, the PSK Reporter needs feed, Super Check Partial and call history together, and records the change with a timestamp. Takes effect at once” — its own command, not Save, because an operator flips it as an event starts. “Your own settings for each of those are left alone and come back when you switch this off.” Picking NON-ASSISTED under Spotting assistance does not turn it on: while the switch is off, a line beside that picker says so, with a button that does.

• Assistance record — the timestamped journal: a row per flip and a row each time Nexus starts, with which sources were active. Kept in assistance_journal.json beside your settings, so it survives restarts. Newest first.

• Email for contest logs — goes on the EMAIL line of the Cabrillo log you export for a contest whose log has one (the CQ contests), so the sponsor can reach you about your entry. The NAME line is your operator name from the Station tab. Leave this blank and the EMAIL line is left out. It is not your ClubLog account email, and Remote never sees it.

• Entry class. Shown only for a contest whose rules list the sponsor’s own entry classes: the Illinois QSO Party’s eight, from its 2026 rules. It goes on the ENTRY-CLASS line of the Cabrillo log. A club running more than one transmitter at once in the Illinois QSO Party enters UNLIMITED. For a QRP entry, set Power category to QRP too, which writes QRP-COMPETITION: YES.

• Club. Your contest club, for the CLUB line of the Cabrillo log when the contest’s rules have one (the CQ contests, the Illinois QSO Party). Spell out the club’s full name, as CQ asks. Leave it blank to leave the line out.

• Other operators. The OPERATORS line lists everyone who was set as Operator at the key when they logged a contact. Type anyone else here, as callsigns separated by spaces or commas. All three are read when you export the log, so you can fill them in after the contest.

• Band category. Shown for a contest whose sponsor lists the bands an entry is entered on: ALL or one of 160M, 80M, 40M, 20M, 15M and 10M in CQ WW and CQ WPX, and the same without 160M in CQ WW RTTY. It goes on the CATEGORY-BAND line. Pick the one band of a single-band entry: you still log every contact, other bands included, and the sponsor scores only that band. A multi-operator entry in the CQ contests is ALL. Unset, CQ WW and CQ WPX write no CATEGORY-BAND line, and CQ WW RTTY writes the band its log holds (ALL for more than one), as it always did.

• Multi-operator class. Shown for a MULTI-OP entry in a contest whose sponsor scores multi-operator classes, with that sponsor’s own: ONE, TWO or UNLIMITED in the CQ contests (Multi-One or Multi-Single, Multi-Two, Multi-Multi), ONE in Sweepstakes, ONE, LIMITED or UNLIMITED in the ARRL VHF contests, ONE or UNLIMITED in the New York QSO Party. It goes on the CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER line, with the OPERATORS line these sponsors require of a multi-operator entry. Nexus marks every contact as transmitter 0, so add the second transmitter’s contacts to a Multi-Two log before you send it.

• Overlay. Shown for a contest that scores overlay categories, with its own: CQ WW’s Classic, Rookie and Youth (CQ WPX adds TB-WIRES, CQ WW RTTY has Classic and Rookie) and the New York QSO Party’s Rookie, Youth12, Youth17 and YL. It goes on the CATEGORY-OVERLAY line.

• Mailing address, then its city, state or province, postal code and country. Shown for a contest whose Cabrillo template has ADDRESS lines (the CQ contests, Sweepstakes, the ARRL VHF contests and the New York, Illinois and Tennessee QSO Parties), so the sponsor can mail a certificate or plaque. A part the template has no line for goes on one more ADDRESS line, the way its own template writes it. Remote never sees it.

• Soapbox. Your comments, for the SOAPBOX lines of a contest whose template has them (the CQ contests, the ARRL VHF contests and the Illinois and California QSO Parties); a long line is wrapped to fit. The California QSO Party asks for its award lines here (YL, YOUTH, MOBILE, NEW CONTESTER…).

  All five are read when you export the log, and none is written until you set it: a log you declare none of them for exports the file it always did.

  When a CQ contest’s Cabrillo file would leave out a line its sponsor requires (the power, the assistance, the band, and for a multi-operator entry its class and operators), the Contest screen names each one before you export, with a button to this section. Nothing is ever filled in for you.

The Unassisted switch and its record in Nexus 1.10.3, when they were a group of their own called Contest Category. The badge states what you are entitled to claim right now; the record underneath is the evidence, kept across restarts.

Super Check Partial and call history

• Super Check Partial — on by default. As you type a call in the contest strip, the line under the boxes lists the calls in the list that contain what you have typed, from the third character. Calls already in this contest’s log come first; from the fourth character, calls one character different follow, underlined. A click puts a call in the Call box. Nothing is put there on its own, and a call that is not in the list is not an error: new calls exist, and the list covers two years.
• What is downloaded, from where and when — the list is MASTER.SCP, about 360 KB of callsigns, from supercheckpartial.com, which W9KKN maintains. Nexus downloads it the first time a contest starts with this switch on, finds it through the site’s own file listing, and keeps it in a contest-lists folder beside your logbook. It is never shipped with Nexus. Nothing is downloaded while the switch is off or while Unassisted mode is on.
• Check for a newer list once a day — on by default. While a contest runs, Nexus asks the site at most once a day whether the list has changed (it sends back the version it holds, so an unchanged list is not downloaded again) and downloads it only if it has. Turn it off to keep the list you have; Update now checks straight away either way. A download that is not a whole list never replaces the one you have. The line under the switch shows the call count and when the list was downloaded, and why the last check failed if it did. At a field site without internet, the last list keeps working.
• Fill the exchange from call history — on. With a file imported, typing a call that is in it fills the exchange boxes Nexus can check: a county, state, section or zone the contest accepts. A filled box says history in its caption, and typing over it makes it yours. What you have typed is never replaced, and a value the contest would refuse is never filled, so a report, a serial number, a Field Day class or a Sweepstakes check never comes from the file. A mobile or rover (a call ending /M or /R) is never filled.
• Call history — Import a file… reads an N1MM-format call-history file (a !!Order!! line names its columns; comma or semicolon; # lines are comments) for the contest picked at the top of this tab. It is used for that contest only and stays on this computer: it never goes to the club network or to Remote. Clear forgets it.

Unassisted mode turns both off, as it does the cluster and the CW decoder, and the assistance record lists them.

Enter Sends Message

ESM for short. “With ESM on, Enter in the contest log strip sends the contact’s next message from your F-keys, and the contact logs at its last step. ESM is off until you turn it on, in each cockpit separately. Enter never turns TX on, and nothing is sent by a timer.” How a contact runs, step by step, and the rules ESM keeps are in the Field Day manual.

• ESM in the CW cockpit, in the RTTY cockpit, in the Phone cockpit — one switch per cockpit, so you can run CW with it and leave Phone without it. All three are off on a new install. In Phone, “Enter plays the voice keyer’s recordings. When you are running, you say his call and your exchange yourself: a recording cannot say a callsign.”
• Call once (S&P) — “In search and pounce, your call goes once per station. The next Enter asks for a repeat instead of sending your call again.” Off by default.
• CW steps — which keys of the active CW profile send each step: CQ, his call and your exchange, TU, your call, your S&P exchange, AGN and QSO B4 (to a dupe that calls you while you run). A step can send two keys as one message, such as F5 then F2. The mapping is saved with the profile, and Reset to defaults under CW clears it with the profile’s keys. A profile still on the built-in sets shows their steps and has nothing to map until you Customize it under CW.
• RTTY steps — the same for each RTTY set, Everyday and Contest, each with its own mapping. The Contest set’s built-in key for each step is shown beside your choice, and a step left on Built in sends it. A key you changed in the cockpit keeps its place, so its step sends your text.
• Voice keyer steps — which recording each step plays, one slot per step. The built-in slots are F1 CQ, F2 your exchange, F3 TU, F4 your call and F8 AGN, the key AGN is on in the CW and RTTY contest sets; F5 and F6 are yours. No slot holds QSO B4 until you map one you recorded. An empty slot plays nothing.

Every step row shows what Enter would send there, or why it would send nothing: no key mapped, or a key with nothing on it. A set with no step mapped makes ESM step aside, and Enter logs as it does with ESM off. On the hosted Remote page this section only says that ESM is set at the station.

Field Day

Shown only while ARRL Field Day or Winter Field Day is picked: their own exchange, and ARRL Field Day’s power multiplier.

• Event — the contest picker at the top of this tab (Contest); the same setting the Event chips here used to carry.
• FD Class / WFD Category (the label follows the contest) — “Number of transmitters + class letter: A=club/group portable, B=1–2 person portable, C=mobile, D=home (mains power), E=home (emergency power), F=EOC. E.g. 3A.” For WFD the box is WFD Class and Category: “The number of transmitters (your class), then your category letter: H=Home, I=Indoor, O=Outdoor, M=Mobile.”
• ARRL Section — “Your ARRL / RAC section (e.g. WI, ENY, ONN). Start typing the code or a state name and pick from the list.” Every entry is validated against the full ARRL/RAC list and an unknown one is flagged inline, so it never silently reaches the Cabrillo log. If ARRL has retired the section you had saved, the flag says so and names what replaced it. Two of them are renames and Nexus applies them for you on upgrade: GTA becomes GH (Golden Horseshoe) and NT becomes TER (Territories). The third cannot be: the Maritime section (MAR) was split into New Brunswick (NB), Nova Scotia (NS) and Prince Edward Island (PE), and only you know which one you operate from — so Nexus keeps your old value, asks, and won’t start Field Day until you’ve picked, rather than sending a section you never chose for a whole contest.
• Power multiplier, shown for ARRL Field Day only — ×5 (QRP/battery, ≤5 W on natural power), ×2 (≤100 W), ×1 (>100 W). “Multiplies your QSO points. Choose before the event.” No other contest’s score has one; Winter Field Day scores by its objectives. It is a score, not a declaration: the power your log declares is Power category, under Your entry.

Class and Section start empty on purpose and the station won’t enter Field Day until both are set — a banner says so while the mode is on and they’re blank. See Contesting & POTA/SOTA.

Who’s who at this event

A club site answers “who are you?” three different ways, and they are not the same answer. This section puts all three in one place, in the order broad to narrow.

• Callsign on the air — the call that goes out and onto every contact you log. At a club event that’s the club’s call, the same one at every position on site. It is the same setting as Callsign on the Station tab.
• Position name (“CW tent”) — which tent, trailer or table this station is. It names you on the club band board so everyone can see which position is on which band, and it never goes on the air. Nexus refuses a save that turns on hosting or sets a join address while this is blank, and falls back to your callsign rather than an internal id if it somehow reaches the board empty.
• Operator at the key — whoever is running this position right now. Change it every time someone takes the seat; their contacts are stamped with it (ADIF OPERATOR) so the club can split the log by operator afterwards. Blank means the callsign above. It is the same setting as Operator at the key on the Station tab and the OPERATOR box on the Contest screen.

Nothing here is a second copy: change one of them anywhere and it changes everywhere.

Who’s who in Nexus 1.10.3 — three fields answering three different questions.

Field Day Club Sync

Run the whole club on Nexus: one PC hosts a club event (this opens a TCP port on the site LAN, and only while the toggle is on — the spectator scoreboard below and Conditions on a TV are the other two things that listen beyond the local computer); every other position joins it with Find club events, where clicking a found event joins it at once (that saves the join address alone; the rest of the page still waits for Save), or by typing the host’s address into Join event at and saving: the host shows it after Positions join at, and an address typed without a port joins port 42073. A laptop that hosts cannot join another event, and the list says so. For a contest club sync cannot run, a click still saves the address, and the sentence at the top of the section saying why also shows under the list. Under Join event at, right under what Find club events found, each laptop says where its join stands, and the host says where it is hosting and how many other positions are connected (the Contest screen says the same, with Contest mode on or off). On Windows, Allow Nexus through Windows Firewall adds Nexus’s three rules for club sync (the Host port, Find club events’ UDP 42074 and the scoreboard’s port) on Private and Public networks through one administrator prompt; the line beside it says whether they are in place, and Remove Nexus’s firewall rules takes them out. Each position’s contacts stream to the host as they’re logged, and the host pushes back the club score, a live band board, and the club-wide dupe list that powers the while-typing dupe warning. Event name is what joining positions see; the name this station shows under on the band board is Position name, one section up. Contacts logged while the network is down are re-sent automatically on reconnect, and if the host PC dies you can enable hosting on any other position — everyone re-joins and nothing is lost. The host’s Field Day view gains Club Cabrillo / Club ADIF exports of the merged, deduplicated log. Club sync runs the contest picked above, under its own rules, and every position must pick the same one. It does not run a contest with a serial number in the exchange (Sweepstakes, CQ WPX, the California QSO Party) or CQ World-Wide: with one of those selected, this section says why and the station neither hosts nor joins.

Field Day Club Sync in Nexus 1.10.3, with hosting off. One position at the site turns Host on; every other position joins it.

Full walkthrough: Contesting & POTA/SOTA.

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Appearance

UI-only preferences (applied live, not via Save) and the section toggles.

Workspace

• Look — Shack, Field / POTA, Night, Contest, Big & clear or Touch: one tap sets several of the rows below and in Theme together, and the row names the look that is on screen, or Custom when your own mix matches none of them. Shack is the app as installed. Field / POTA turns Field mode on for sunlight, Night turns Night on; both put text size and density back to Normal and Standard. Contest (Compact), Big & clear (Larger text, High contrast, Comfortable) and Touch set the text size, density and contrast, and leave Field mode and Night as they are, so Contest works outdoors and Big & clear after dark. No look changes your theme, UI scale, colours, waterfall palettes or motion, and a Night set to Auto stays on Auto (a look that turns Night off switches off only a Night you turned On). Field / POTA also keeps your own High contrast choice, which is what the screen goes back to when Field mode goes off. Hover a look to see exactly what it sets. After a tap, Undo puts back the settings that look replaced, until you change one of them yourself. Nothing happens until you tap: opening Settings never applies a look.
• Language — the language Nexus writes in. Frequencies, signal reports, callsigns, grid squares, and band and mode names are never translated or reformatted: a dial reads the same in every language.
• UI scale — Auto (fit) scales the whole interface to the window so nothing is cut off, with Max scale cap chips so auto never overshoots on a big monitor. A cap this window can’t reach is disabled and its tooltip says why (“a larger window or monitor unlocks it”). Manual picks a fixed percentage instead. The waterfall stays sharp either way.
• Text size — Normal, Large or Larger. Makes every word on the screen bigger (Large by 12%, Larger by 25%), the decode lists, the Call Roster and the Logbook included, and leaves the rest of the layout at its size. UI scale above zooms the whole screen instead; the two combine. The numbers drawn on the waterfall and scope follow UI scale only. Remembered per computer.
• Density — Comfortable, Standard, Compact or Touch. How tightly rows and controls pack: Compact fits more on screen, Comfortable spaces the rows a little further apart than Standard. Touch is Comfortable with bigger places to tap for a touchscreen: the larger buttons grow to 48 pixels and the small chips get a 36-pixel box.
• Local time beside UTC — Off or On. On adds a second clock to the top bar showing this computer’s local time, next to the UTC clock. It is remembered per computer. Logs, spots and FT slots always use UTC.
• Pane sizes — Reset pane sizes restores the default pane widths. Pane layout itself is set in the cockpits: drag the dividers between panes to resize (double-click a divider to reset), and use the ⊞ menu to show or hide panes.

Workspace in Nexus 1.10.3. Reset pane sizes sits to the right of Density.

Theme

• Theme — three cards, each with a line on its character: Light (pale silver front, white panels, dark scopes and meters), Dark (dark panel, lit dials and meters) and System. Light reads best outdoors in daylight. System follows your computer’s own light or dark setting and changes when it does, on every computer. On Windows it is the default: until you pick a theme, Nexus looks the way Windows is set. On Linux, the Raspberry Pi and macOS, Nexus opens Dark until you pick one. A theme you picked stays picked. Earlier versions saved Dark for everyone who never picked one, so a computer that ran one of them keeps Dark; pick System there to follow your computer. Either way, the top bar’s Field chip boosts contrast and size on top of the theme you picked. Light has the warmer, softer look that was the Silver chassis theme. If you had Silver chassis picked, you now see Light, which looks the same. The brighter Light of earlier versions is the Bright theme below. Below them are ten ready-made themes, each card with a swatch of its colours. Rig looks: Amber LCD, Green LCD and Blue VFD. Modern: Midnight (true black), Slate, Lagoon, Ember, Nebula, Paper and Bright. Paper and Bright are light themes and the rest are dark. Picking Light, Dark or System again goes back to a standard theme. Every theme is checked for contrast like the standard two: the scopes and meters stay dark, and the transmit red, the ON AIR sign, alerts, and the signal and Needed colours are the same in every theme. High contrast keeps its own look whatever the theme, Night dims each theme in its own colours, and a colour you pick in Colours wins over the theme’s. On a dark theme the map’s land, sea and coastlines take the theme’s colours; the light themes keep the standard light map.
• High contrast — Off or On. Strengthens text against its background in whichever theme you are using, and changes nothing else — the interface stays exactly the size you have set it. This is the one to reach for if the screen is simply hard to read. If you want bigger as well as stronger, set UI scale or Text size in Workspace to taste; they are independent.
• Night — Off, On or Auto. A darker, warmer screen for operating after dark, in whichever theme you use: the panels, the text and the accent colour dim and warm up, and the meters and the frequency readout dim with them. Auto turns Night on at dusk and off at dawn at your grid square, when the sun is 6° below the horizon there. It needs your grid square (Settings ▸ Station); until it has one, Night stays off and the row says so. The transmit red, the ON AIR sign, alerts, and the signal and Needed colours never change. A waterfall on the Auto palette turns Amber CRT at night; a palette you picked by name stays as it is. In the light theme the change is gentle, because the Needed and signal colours were chosen for a white page and the page can only get a little darker before they stop reading well; the Dark theme gives the darkest screen. With High contrast on, every word keeps at least 7:1 against its background at night. Remembered per computer.
• Field mode — Off or On. The outdoor switch: maximum contrast and larger type together, on top of whichever theme you are using, for reading the screen in daylight. It is the same switch as the Field chip in the top bar — flipping either one moves both. While it is on it applies high contrast on its own, so the High contrast row above keeps showing your own standing choice, and that is what the screen goes back to when you turn Field mode off.

Colours

Pick your own colour for five jobs a colour does on screen, from a few choices each. Every choice has been checked for contrast in the light and dark themes, with High contrast or Field mode on, and on the dark displays (the frequency readout, the meters, the waterfall’s scale). Changes apply at once and are remembered per computer, like the theme.

• Accent — selected chips, focus rings, your own chat bubbles. Cyan (the standard), Blue or Violet.
• Readout — the frequency digits and other readouts. Cyan (the standard), Amber, Green or Violet. The digits still turn red when the dial is outside your licence privileges, whichever colour you pick.
• OK / green — good signal, RX, confirmed. Green (the standard), Teal or Mint. Teal sits further from the reds, which helps with red-green colour blindness.
• Amber — warnings and marginal signal. Amber (the standard), Gold or Yellow. In the light theme these keep the standard amber’s weight on the page, so the change there is a shift of hue.
• Cyan — information chips. Sky (the standard), Cyan or Blue.

Reset puts a colour back to the standard one; it is greyed while the colour already is. The transmit red (including the ON AIR sign), the alert orange and the Needed colours stay fixed and have no setting, so a keyed transmitter and an alert always look the same.

Waterfall & scopes

The colours of the waterfalls and scopes, the same two settings as the palette pickers in the cockpits’ scope headers — a pick here and a pick there are the same thing.

• Phone, CW, RTTY and SSTV — the palette those four modes’ scopes and waterfalls share.
• FT8 and FT4 — the FT waterfall’s own palette, separate from the others.

Turbo is the default for both, and a palette you picked stays picked. Cividis is the colour-blind-safe choice: it looks almost the same to red-green colour-blind eyes as to everyone else. Auto follows the theme, and turns Amber CRT while Night is on. On one of the ready-made themes, Auto is that theme’s own palette: Amber CRT on Amber LCD, SDR Green on Green LCD, Blue on Blue VFD, Viridis on Slate and Lagoon, Cividis on Paper and Bright, and Inferno on the rest. A palette you picked by name never changes with the theme. Remembered per computer.

Map & globe

• Logbook globe — shows the 3-D globe above the Logbook table (on by default). Turn it off and the table starts at the top. Computers whose graphics cannot draw the globe never show it, whatever this says.

The Conditions map’s own choices — the view (Globe, Flat or Beam), its layers and its colours — are made on the map itself, and Conditions keeps a separate set for each activity you pick there.

Conditions on a TV

Serves the Conditions view — the map with every layer, the panes, live openings — as a plain web page to any browser on your own network. A shack TV, a tablet on the bench, a phone in the garage. Nothing is installed on the TV and nothing can be changed from it: the page is read-only, and the server answers GET and HEAD only. The page also loads no script, font or image from the internet, so it renders fully on a shack network with no route out — which is where a wall display usually lives.

Conditions on a TV in Settings ▸ Appearance, Nexus 1.10.3, switched on.

⚠️ This puts your station on the LAN, so read what it exposes. The page carries your callsign, your grid square and the propagation picture, including the callsigns of stations you have heard and stations that have been spotted. It deliberately does not carry your log, your needs board, or the frequency you are on — what the station is doing right now is a different thing from what the ionosphere is doing, and only the second belongs on a wall. Off by default. Anyone who can reach the port can read the page; there is no password.

Put it on the TV:

1. Turn on Serve Conditions on this network and press Save.
2. Leave Port alone unless something else on the machine wants 7374. It is deliberately not the Field Day scoreboard’s port, so a club host can serve both at once.
3. Read the address off Open this on the TV. It fills in once the server is up — it says “Starting…” until then — and looks like http://192.0.2.15:7374, with your machine’s own address on the network in place of that one. Copy puts it on the clipboard.
4. Type that address into the TV’s browser, on the same network. That is the whole setup: nothing to install, no account, no pairing.
5. To take it down, turn the switch off and save. The port closes and the TV’s page stops answering; refresh it there and you get a browser error rather than a stale display.

If the TV cannot reach it, work through these in order: the two devices are on the same network and not on separated guest and main Wi-Fi; the machine’s firewall lets the port through — the first enable on Windows can pop a prompt, and denying it leaves the page unreachable with no error on the Nexus side; and the address is the one this row shows, not localhost, which on the TV means the TV. If the row shows an error instead of an address, the port is in use — change it and save.

What the page does when Nexus is busy. It is a snapshot of the same propagation data the app has, fetched by the page as it refreshes. It loads no script, font or image from anywhere outside your machine, because a shack TV is often on a network with no route to the internet at all.

Accessibility & eyes-free

Speech and sound cues for operating by ear. The keyboard and screen-reader labels throughout Nexus are always on — these settings only control what comes out of the speakers.

Accessibility in Nexus 1.10.3. A screenshot cannot show what these do — each cue is described below.

Keyboard focus in Nexus 1.10.3. Tab and Shift-Tab move the ring, and the outlined tab is where the keyboard is — separate from the coloured one, which is still the tab being shown. Every interactive control in Nexus carries the same ring. The speech and earcon settings above cannot be photographed, and were not exercised for this capture.

• Announce decodes (screen reader) — Off / Needed only (calling you / new / watched) / All (adds a per-cycle CQ summary). Silent without a reader running.
• TX / RX earcon — “A rising tone when you key up, falling when you unkey — know your TX state by ear.”
• Decode-batch tick — “A soft tick each cycle new signals are decoded — the band’s rhythm, eyes-free.”
• CW turn sound — “A short rising chirp when the CW turn cue says it is your turn to send. Never while you transmit.” Off as it comes. The cue itself is on the CW screen (Turn Cue).

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App

The app and this computer, rather than the station or the look: which screens are on (Features), updates, starting with Windows or macOS, this computer’s own audio when it drives a station over the network, motion, where your data lives, and your whole setup in one file with the way back to a clean slate. Features, updates, starting at sign-in, this computer and Performance used to be on Appearance; the data folder and Backup & reset were under Config, which merged into this one.

Features

Turn sections on and off, and pick a goal profile.

Features in Nexus 1.10.3. Custom is what the chip row shows once you have changed any individual switch — it is not a seventh profile you pick, it is the panel saying you are no longer on one. The core row has no switches because those sections cannot be turned off.

• Profile — a goal (getting started, DX/awards, contesting, POTA/SOTA, 6m/VHF, or Everything (expert), which turns the whole console on) sets sensible defaults. “Pick a goal to set sensible defaults — every feature stays toggleable below.” Hand-toggling produces a seventh chip, Custom, and switching away from Custom asks first because it discards your hand-tuned set. A Re-run setup… link reopens the first-run wizard.
• Core — always on — the spine (Operate, Logbook, Settings, Now Bar, Conditions, Needed) shows an “always on” badge instead of a toggle: a locked switch beside real ones just reads as broken.
• Optional features, grouped by category in this order: Operate, DX & Awards, Propagation, POTA/SOTA, Logging, System. Each row is a toggle with a one-line “why you’d want it”. Tempo (under Operate) is the TempoFast/TempoDeep chat: off takes Tempo off the left-hand menu. Enabling a feature pulls in anything it depends on, and the hint names what else it will turn on.
• Contest mode is not here: it is at the top of the Contest screen and in Contesting ▸ Contest.

App updates

Turn on Receive beta (pre-release) updates to have the updater offer pre-release builds — newer features sooner, but less tested; leave it off to stay on stable releases only.

Start at sign-in

Turn on Start Nexus when I sign in to this computer to have Nexus open by itself when you sign in: through the startup list on Windows, a login item on macOS, or the desktop’s autostart folder on Linux. It is off unless you turn it on, and it changes nothing else. Nexus starts listening, with transmit off, exactly as if you had opened it yourself.

This is what lets Remote come back after the computer itself restarts, so the first time you turn Remote on (Remote ▸ Remote access), Nexus offers to switch this on. The offer is made once, and your answer is remembered either way. If your computer will not let Nexus start at sign-in, the switch stays off and says so.

This computer

Shown while this computer operates a station over your own network (Operate from this computer in Stations on this network). What is set here belongs to this computer: it is kept on this computer and never sent to the station.

Audio picks where you hear the station’s receiver (The station’s audio) and the microphone you talk into when you transmit from here (Your microphone). Each starts on the system’s default. A device you picked that is not plugged in stays shown as not connected; Nexus never swaps another in its place, and says why when a device will not open. Volume sets how loud the station is heard here, from 0 to 42 dB over the level the station keeps for its decoders (24 dB to begin with, as on the Remote page); it changes nothing at the station. Microphone level shows your microphone while this section is open, and Play a test tone plays a short note in the output you picked. The voice keyer’s Record records from this microphone too, and the message goes to the station’s slot. Nexus opens the microphone only while something needs it.

Performance

• Motion — Follow the computer or Reduce. Reduce turns off the animations and fades, which also helps a slow computer (a Raspberry Pi, an old laptop in the field) keep up. Alerts still appear; they just stop pulsing. Follow the computer uses your system’s own reduce-motion setting. Remembered per computer.

Data & log folder

Your logbook (log.adi), the data tables Nexus refreshes (country file, FCC state data, Field Day rules, satellite elements) and the Winlink mailbox all live in one folder. By default that is %APPDATA%\tempo on Windows and ~/.config/tempo elsewhere.

• Folder in use — where this run is reading and writing, and where that came from: the default, your choice here, or the NEXUS_DATA_DIR environment variable (which wins for this launch).
• New folder — the folder you want to use next. Browse… opens your computer’s own folder chooser and fills the box in, so you never have to type a path; you can still type or paste one instead, for a folder a chooser will not always show. Browse only fills the box — nothing changes until you press one of the two buttons below.
• Use this folder — point Nexus at a folder that already holds a log. This is the second computer in a shack picking up the log the first one keeps in a shared folder. Nexus refuses a folder with no log.adi when your current folder has one, rather than opening an empty logbook.
• Copy my log and data there — copy the logbook, the data tables and the Winlink mailbox across, check every copied file against the original, and use the new folder from then on. Nothing is moved or deleted: your old folder is left exactly as it was, so a bad copy costs you nothing.
• Use the default folder — forget the choice and go back to the default.

A change takes effect the next time Nexus starts, and never half-way through a session — the logbook is opened once at launch.

⚠️ Keep the folder on a drive inside the computer. Nexus keeps your logbook in a database, and a database on a network drive can be damaged by the way file locking works across a network — the worst case is a logbook that will not open at all. Choosing a network drive here is refused, and one that is already in use (through NEXUS_DATA_DIR, or a data-dir.json copied in from another machine) is reported in Folder in use rather than moved for you: your log is in there, and Nexus will not quietly open a different folder instead.

⚠️ One Nexus at a time. Putting the folder on Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive lets another computer reach your log, but two copies of Nexus writing the same logbook produce a conflicted copy, not a merged log. Nexus warns when the folder looks synced — it is a guess from the folder’s name, so it can miss a renamed one. Run one, or keep one machine’s Nexus closed.

Backup & reset

Backup & reset in Nexus 1.10.3.

• Back up — writes your radios, operating preferences, memory channels, watchlist and chase sets to a single .json. For a new computer, or before a rebuild. The file also carries how Nexus looks — the theme, colours, text size, density, Night, motion, the waterfall palettes and the Logbook globe — and a restore puts that back too; a backup made before it existed restores exactly as it always did. Field mode and UI scale stay with each computer. It holds no passwords or API keys — those stay in your operating system’s keychain, so a restore asks for them again and the file is safe to keep on a USB stick, or to attach to a support thread. Your contact log is separate; export that from the Logbook.
• Restore… — replaces your current setup from a file written by Back up. It refuses anything that is not one of ours, by name and by schema: a partial restore of a mangled file is worse than a refusal, because you would believe you were configured when you were not.
• Reset all settings… — returns everything to factory defaults: radios, audio devices, callsign, preferences. Your logbook is not touched (it lives outside the settings), and stored passwords stay in your keychain — clear those individually under Services. Confirms first, and cannot be undone, so back up if you have not. Use this rather than deleting settings.json by hand: deleting the file while Nexus is running resets nothing, because the app holds your old configuration in memory and writes it straight back on the next save.

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Related guides

• Operate — FT8/FT4 digital
• Conditions — map + propagation
• Logbook & QSL
• Contesting & POTA/SOTA
• Back to the guide index