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guides › Get started › 5-minute start

weechat-radio:$ 5-minute start

You will install a small program called wcr, give it a name, and send a chat line. You do not need a radio for this.

What you need

  • This computer Windows, Mac, or Linux.
  • A ham radio callsign or a guest name starting with ~ (example: ~alice)
  • A grid square If you want to show up on the map (example: IO91wm). Search the web for “maidenhead grid square map” and click where you live.
What you need on day one You type into WeeChat Radio on this computer, which talks to the hub and the public map over the internet. A radio is an optional addition for when the internet is gone. start here · no radio needed you keyboard wcr runs on this computer internet add later hub + map chat with other stations radio for when the internet goes everything still works with the hub unplugged
Chat goes through this computer. The public map is extra. A radio is extra.

Steps

  1. Open a command window
    • Windows: click Start, type PowerShell, and open Windows PowerShell. No administrator needed.
    • Mac: press Command + Space, type Terminal, press Enter.
    • Linux: open Terminal from the applications menu.
  2. Install wcr

    Paste the install line, then press Enter.

    Linux / Mac

    curl -fsSL https://weechatradio.com/install.sh | sh

    Windows (PowerShell)

    irm https://weechatradio.com/install.ps1 | iex

    Leave the window open until it prints the next step. On Windows, WeeChat downloads after the program and the window can sit for several minutes. More fixes are on the troubleshooting page.

  3. Run setup

    Run setup first. It asks for your callsign, grid, and whether you have a radio.

    wcr setup

    If you have no radio, choose internet-only. You can add a radio later.

  4. Open the chat window

    Then open the chat window.

    wcr gui
  5. Say hello

    You land in a room called #bulletin. Type a short hello and press Enter.

    The top bar also has email. A licensed callsign can mail an internet address as callsign@mail.weechatradio.com. That works in Internet, Internet+Radio, or Radio+ with a gateway callsign. Radio-only leaves Email grey. Guests (~name) do not see it. Email.

wcr update replaces the binary with a newer release. On Linux and macOS it restarts a station installed with wcr service install. A station you started by hand keeps the old code until you stop it and start it again. On Windows, restart that station yourself, including a service.

How you know it worked

The bar at the bottom of the window shows your callsign.

After you send, a mark appears on the line:

[..]
waiting to go out
[tx]
sent
[rl]
you heard your own frame come back (echo or a relay, not a receipt). A noisy path can skip this. In radio mode this is as far as the frame goes.
[gw]
a gateway accepted the frame onto the hub. Not an acknowledgement. Retries continue.
[ok]
delivered. A direct message and #bulletin stop here. #bulletin has no member list, so it never shows [all].
[all]
every member of a closed group acknowledged
[no]
refused, or the last copy waited out two more intervals with no acknowledgement. A line a relay was heard carrying stays [rl] until its receipt or it is an hour old.
[xN]
how many times the line was keyed, until [rl], [gw], or [ok]. [x1] is the first send. With 3 retries the last copy is [x4], then two more waits before [no].

In the desktop app, the key button above the chat lists these marks, and hovering a mark explains it. A line that reached you by radio also shows the SNR it was decoded at, for example -4 dB. /snr off hides it.

The diagram is on the wire protocol page, under delivery marks.

Signal reports and weather

  • /report CALL asks that station for a signal report. A station on v0.1.109 or later answers on its own with the SNR it heard you at, at most once every 5 minutes per callsign. /report auto off stops yours answering. The request and the answer are private, so look in the CALL tab. /report is the radio signal; /wx is the weather.
  • /wx shows the weather for your grid square. /wx CALL sends it to CALL. It comes from Open-Meteo, so your station needs internet. The station receiving it does not.

Words you will see

WordMeaning
wcrThe WeeChat Radio program
callsignYour ham ID, or a guest name like ~alice
gridShort location code for the map
hubThe public internet meeting point
GUIThe window (wcr gui): live chat and email

The window uses the same indigo / orange look as this site. Change it later with /radio theme hacker or /radio theme terminal.

Have a radio? Pick a radio path. More detail for Windows, macOS, or Linux.