The portable laptop
A folding table at the edge of a field, a radio in a bag, an antenna you put up twenty minutes ago and a laptop screen half the size of the one at home. Portable operating is about doing more with less room.
DX Pro's answer to a small screen is not to shrink everything — it is workspaces. Instead of one crowded window, this layout splits the station into three focused pages: one to get the antenna right, one to operate, one for digital. Each is one tap away, and on a convertible laptop with a touch screen every control is still big enough for a cold finger.
Three small workspaces instead of one crowded one
Shown here is the Operate workspace. The Set-up workspace holds the TX Monitor Scope and Transmit console at full size for tuning the antenna; the Digital workspace holds the FT8 view.
TX timer 0:42
Only what earns its space
Workspaces Available
Set-up, Operate and Digital as three separate layouts. On a small screen this matters more than anything else on the page: each layout can be generous because it does not have to hold everything.
Transmit console Available
Tune, Drive, forward power, SWR and ALC, a TX timer and a lockout. When the antenna is a wire in a tree, SWR on the main screen is not optional.
TX Monitor Scope Available
On the Set-up workspace: the last 30 seconds of power, SWR, ALC and mic, so you can see whether the SWR moved when the wind did.
Panadapter Available
One panadapter, zoomed with a pinch on a touch laptop, tap to tune. One receiver keeps things simple in the field.
CQ Caller Available
Four recorded voice messages, once or on a loop. A busy activation is a lot of CQs; let the laptop call while you drink your tea.
CW Keyer with touch paddles Available
Iambic A/B or straight, 5 to 60 WPM. Forgot the paddle? The on-screen DIT and DAH pads work on a touch laptop.
Static Reduction Available
SR2 for everyday voice when a generator or a busy road is adding noise; SR1 for CW. About 8 ms of delay.
Bands with band stack Available
Each band remembers where you left it — handy when you move between a calling frequency and a quieter spot.
An afternoon activation
12:10Table up, antenna up, network cable between the laptop and the radio. You open DX Pro on the Set-up workspace. Tap TUNE, keep Drive low, and watch SWR on the Transmit console and the trace on the TX Monitor Scope while you adjust the antenna. When it is right, a tap on the Operate tab.
12:2020 metres, SSB. A breeze is rattling the gazebo and a road hums in the background, so SR2 goes on. CQ Caller slot 1 loops your CQ. The TX timer keeps an honest count of how long you have been transmitting.
12:24First caller. Foot switch for PTT, and the contact goes into your logbook — paper or whatever logging program you carry; DX Pro is not a logger.
13:05Phone goes quiet. You switch to 40 metres CW and send on the touch paddles at 18 WPM with SR1 lifting the weaker callers.
14:30Before packing up, a look at the Digital workspace: the in-house FT8 decoder has passed its off-air tests, and the full FT8 station — reply list, auto-sequence, ADIF auto-log — is In development.
Small, light, optional
Touch convertible laptop
Not required, but on a cramped table a finger on the screen beats a trackpad — and DX Pro's controls are sized for it.
Small HID foot switch
PTT on the ground through the Hardware Hub, so both hands stay free for the log and the paddles.
Compact MIDI controller
A single knob mapped to tuning with Learn mode — touch the control, move the knob — if your bag has room.
- Everything in the Operate and Set-up workspaces Available — on Hermes-class radios, in today's pre-1.0 development builds.
- FT8 decoder, FT4 and FT8/FT4 automation In development
- CAT radios (conventional transceivers) Planned — today a portable DX Pro station transmits through a Hermes-class radio.
- Licence — one licence covers one machine. Running DX Pro on both a shack PC and a field laptop means two seats.
Pack light, operate properly
Try the canvas in the live demo — it works on a laptop or tablet screen too. One licence, £99, perpetual, for one machine.