ICOM doesn’t ship RS-BA1 for MacOS and I wanted to go wireless for digital modes using WSJT-X on my M1 Air. After a bit of digging I found WFView (https://wfview.org/) and got to work. Thankfully the MacOS virtual serial port world is a whole lot more straight forward than in Windows and the venerable BlackHole virtual audio application works wonderfully for pushing audio around.

Get the Software Installed:

For my setup, I used a couple of pieces of software that are all thankfully free!

BlackHole

Head over to https://existential.audio/blackhole/ and register to grab a free download of BlackHole. The two-channel version works just fine for getting your audio routed around between WFView and WSJT-X but if you already have it, or might be thinking about using it for other things the 16-channel version should work all the same.

WFView

I’m currently using the v1.1 release you can grab from https://wfview.org/download/ but I suspect the 1.2 betas are good to go as well if you’re feeling adventurous. WFView acts as the remote rig control supporting remote control over the network for the IC-705. Installing is pretty straightforward, as with most applications you’ll need to head over to Settings->Security and Privacy->unlock and allow the app to run after it complains the first time you try to launch it.

WSJT-X

You can grab WSJT-X from https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html. There’s a little RTFM gotcha in the software ReadMe/User Guide. You’ll need to run an included script to get some memory management settings ironed out for the application to run successfully.

And that’s it… you’ve got all the software you need to get going.

Setup your IC-705 for Remote Access

I highly recommend watching the HamRadio Crash Course videos on Setting up networking on the IC-705 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrn8HB7qLfA&t=835s but I’ll do a quick summary here if you’re more of a reader type.

There are two ways to use WiFi on the IC-705. You can have the device connect to your existing WiFi network as a Station or have it establish its own AP that your devices can connect to. For SOTA and portable operation I’m going the AP route and that’s what I’ll cover here. Setting it up in station mode is pretty much the same outside the Connection Type and Connection Settings.

Head to Menu->Set->WLAN Set->Connection Type and select Access Point. If you previously had WiFi enabled at this point you’ll probably get a message notifying you it’s been disabled while we finish setting up the AP.

Next, you'll head to Menu->Set->WLAN Set->Connection Settings and define your SSID (the network name your IC-705 Will be broadcasting as its Access Point), Password (the password you’ll use to join the network), an Inactivity Timer (automatically disables WiFi after a period of time to save battery when you’re not using the functionality) and the base IP Address the radio will have. The IP Address can probably be left alone but you’ll need to note it for getting connected later. If you do wish to change the IP address for some reason, I haven’t experimented outside the 192.168.x.x range. Going to 10.x.x.x or something may cause issues.

Next, you’ll need to set up some remote access settings. These are found under Menu->Set->WLAN Set->Remote Settings

First, you’ll want to Enable Network Control (this requires a restart to take effect but you can do that after everything else is set up). I’d recommend leaving the ports alone unless you have to change them.
Next, you’ll need to configure at least one of the Network Users by defining an Id and Password. You’ll use these settings in WfView later to connect to the unit, so keep them handy.

At this point, you can enable WiFi by heading to Menu->Set->WLAN Set->WLAN and turn it on.

The last setting you’ll need for using WSJT-X is to enable MOD over WiFi. You can enable that by
Menu->Set->Connectors-Mod Input->Data Mod and selecting WLAN. If you intend to wire up in the future with USB or some other data modulation scheme, you’ll need to come back here and switch this setting up.

To make sure you’re all good to go, it’s worth powering down the radio at this point and then turning it back on.

Getting Connected

Go ahead and connect you Mac to your new IC-705 served wireless network using the SSID and password you defined in getting the system set up. Once you’re connected, open up wfview and head over to the settings tab. I had some issues when “show full screen” was enabled so I’ve been keeping that disabled.

Then head down and select “Connect over LAN”. You can select any of your available Virtual Serial Ports, the application handles this for you more or less on MacOS using the built-in Psuedoterminal functionality. You’ll need to copy out whatever you select here later to connect to in WSJT-X. Down from there configure your Radio IP Address, Radio Control Port, Username and Password as you had set things up on the IC-705. Next up are your Audio Output and Input. This is where you put your newly installed Blackhole Audio device. If you installed the 2ch version, just select them here and save your settings with “Save Settings”. I’ve found it worth using “Exit Program” and relaunching at this point just to make sure the settings are saved, and the configuration is correct. Once your back, you should be able to click “Connect” next to Connect over Lan and pop over to the “View” tab to see your waterfall. All the rig control options present here should also be reflected on your IC-705. You can roll the VFO knob to verify.

At this point, it’s worth making sure your system isn’t tied up to your blackhole audio at all. Just check your audio input/output settings in the MacOS System Preferences->Sound haven’t jumped to that shiny new audio device or you’ll wind up wondering what’s going on in WJST-X.

On to WSJT-X! Go ahead and launch WSJT-X. If you get a memory error, you probably want to go back and read the readme that’s in the .dmg, and run the script as described. I typically start in the system bar->Configurations, and clone the default configuration (or another configuration like if you’ve already set one up for cabled use) and name it something useful like… IC-705-Network.

To get WSJT-X talking to our radio, you need to go to WSJT-X->Preferences in the system bar. If you haven’t already, go ahead and drop your settings into Station Details. Again for more configuration/usage details, go check out Ham Radio Crash Course or some other source for really using WSJT-X. I just want to cover getting your IC-705 connected and for that, you need to go over to the Radio tab up top. For Rig Set yourself up to the Icom IC-705 (now that it’s natively supported you don’t have to change the CIV address as referenced in some earlier videos that are out there for IC-705 remote control). Under CAT Control, you’re going to want to copy and paste over that Virtual Serial Port location from wfview. Note that this won’t be listed in the dropdown, but you can just select the text, delete it and paste in the string from before. I set up my serial port for the standard 9600 8n1 settings and that’s working for me. Under PTT set the PTT Method to CAT, mode to Data/Pkt, and Split Operation to None although Rig would probaby work as well.

At this point, if WFView is connected to your radio, you should be able to press “Test CAT” and get an error free connection!

Once CAT is successful the last step is to move to the Audio tab and get it configured. Again, you’re just using the BlackHole 2ch devices for both Input and Output. Press OK and WSJT-X should be receiving. Select your mode and frequency and you’re on the air!

I hope this helps.

Matthias - KC3SSO