Keyboard Operation
The transmit buffer for fldigi is type ahead which means that you
can be typing text while the program is sending an earlier part of your
transmitted message. The text widget used for this purpose does
not currently have cut and paste capability. So you will be
correctly text by the backspace key only. This will be probably
change for a future revision to the code.
Newly entered text appears in black and text which has been transmitted
is changed to red. You can backspace into the red area.
When you do and the modem in use supports the BS character it
will be sent to the receiving station. If you monitor PSK and
MFSK signals you will often find operators backspacing over previously
sent text. It's probably just as easy to just send XXX and retype
that part of the message, but we have gotten used to word processors,
email, etc. that allow us to send perfect (right) text, so we expect
our digital modems to do the same. Lets see, what was that
prosign often used in CW for oooops.
All of the alpha numeric keys perform as you would expect, entering
text into the transmit buffer. There is one very important
exception:
the caret "^" symbol. This is used in the macro expansion routine
and also used by the transmit buffer evaluator. A ^r into receive mode. So
you can enter the ^r (carat followed by the r) at the end of your
transmit buffer and when the sent character cursor (red chars) gets to
that point the program will clear the text and return to the receive
mode.
You can load the transmit buffer with any ASCII Text file of your
choice. Merely right click in the buffer window and select from
the pop-up menu. You can also short cut to the ^r from
this popup.
Many ops (including me) do not like to be tied to mouse. The
fldigi text widget supports some short cuts to make your life easier:
- Pause/Break - a transmit / receive - pause button.
- if you in the receive mode and press the Pause/Break key the program will
switch to the transmit mode. It will begin transmitting
characters at the next point in the transmit buffer following the red
(previously sent text). If the buffer only contains unsent text,
then it will begin at the first character in the buffer. If the
buffer is empty, the program will switch to transmit mode and depending
on the mode of operation will send idle characters or nothing at all
until characters are entered into the buffer.
- if you are in the transmit mode and press Pause/Break key the program will
switch to the receive mode. There may be a slight delay for some
modes like MFSK, PSK and others that require you to send a postamble at
the end of a transmission. The transmit text buffer stays intact,
ready for the Pause/Break key to return you to the transmit mode
- Think of Pause/Break key as a software break-in capability.
- Esc -
- Abort transmission. - immediately returns the program to
receive, sending the required postamble for those modes requiring it.
The transmit buffer is cleared of all text.
- Ctrl-R will append the ^r (return to receive) at the end of the current text buffer.
- Ctrl-T will start transmitting if there is text in the transmit text window.
- Alt/Meta-R will perform the same function as the Pause/Break key
- Tab moves the cursor to the end of the transmitted text (which
also pauses tx). A tab press at that position moves the cursor to the
character following the last one transmitted. CW operation is slightly
different, see the help for CW.
- Alt or Meta + three digits will insert the ASCII character designated by that entry.
Function Keys
Keys F1 through F10 are used to invoke the macro F1 - F10. If you
press the Alt button on the macro button bar the F1 - F10 keys
correspond to macro F11 - F20. You can also invoke a macro by
pressing the corresponding button with the mouse. Ctl-F1 through Ctl-F10 will open up a macro editor for that macro key.