🎛️ Rig Bridge

What Rig Bridge Is

Rig Bridge is a small, plugin-based bridge application that runs on the computer physically connected to your radio. It translates between OpenHamClock and your transceiver, handling the low-level CAT, CI-V, or network protocol of each radio make and model.

Once running, Rig Bridge exposes a simple HTTP API on port 5555. OpenHamClock's browser interface connects to that API and, from that moment, every frequency link in the dashboard — a DX spot, a POTA activator, a WSJT-X decode — becomes a one-click tune command sent directly to your radio.

How OpenHamClock Connects to Rig Bridge

OpenHamClock talks to Rig Bridge over a standard HTTP connection — the same way your browser loads any web page. The connection has two parts:

The token is generated automatically by Rig Bridge on first run and shown prominently in its setup UI. You copy it once into OpenHamClock's Settings — after that the connection is fully automatic.

Installing Rig Bridge

Option A — Installer (recommended)

The easiest way. OpenHamClock provides a platform-specific installer script that downloads Rig Bridge, installs dependencies, and starts it automatically.

1. Open OpenHamClock Settings → Rig Bridge

   Click the ⚙️ icon, navigate to the Rig Bridge tab, and enable it. Download links for your OS will appear.

2. Run the installer

   Windows: double-click install-rig-bridge.bat
   macOS / Linux:

   bash Copy

   $ chmod +x ~/Downloads/install-rig-bridge.sh
   $ ~/Downloads/install-rig-bridge.sh

   The installer downloads the code, runs npm install, and starts Rig Bridge.

3. Open the Rig Bridge setup UI

   Navigate to http://localhost:5555. You will see the Rig Bridge dashboard with your API Token displayed at the top. Keep this tab open — you will need the token in the next section.

Option B — From source

If you prefer to run directly from the OpenHamClock repository:

$ cd openhamclock/rig-bridge
$ npm install
$ node rig-bridge.js

Option C — Standalone executable

Pre-built binaries require no Node.js installation. Download the correct file for your platform from the releases page:

Supported Radios

Rig Bridge uses a plugin architecture — each radio type or connection method is a separate module. Select the plugin that matches your radio in the setup UI.

USB direct connection

Network connection

Configuring Your Radio

All radio configuration is done in the Rig Bridge setup UI at http://localhost:5555. The configuration is saved to a JSON file on your machine:

Yaesu (USB CAT)

1. Set CAT baud rate on the radio

   On your Yaesu, go to Menu → Operation Setting → CAT Rate and set it to 38400.

2. Configure in the setup UI

   Radio Type → Yaesu, select your serial port, baud rate 38400, Stop Bits 2, enable Hardware Flow (RTS/CTS) for FT-991A and FT-710. Click Save & Connect.

Icom (CI-V)

1. Note your radio's CI-V address

   Check your radio's menu under Connectors or CI-V. Common addresses:

   IC-73000x94

   IC-76100x98

   IC-97000xA2

   IC-7050xA4

   IC-78510x8E
2. Configure in the setup UI

   Radio Type → Icom, select your serial port, enter the CI-V address, baud rate 115200. Click Save & Connect.

TCI / SDR (Thetis, ExpertSDR)

1. Enable TCI in your SDR software

   In Thetis: Setup → CAT Control → Enable TCI Server (port 40001).

2. Configure in the setup UI

   Radio Type → TCI / SDR, Host localhost, Port 40001. Click Save & Connect.

Connecting OpenHamClock to Rig Bridge

Once Rig Bridge is running and your radio is connected, tell OpenHamClock where to find it and give it the API token.

1. Copy your API Token from Rig Bridge

   Open http://localhost:5555. The token is shown at the top of the page. Click to copy it.

2. Open OpenHamClock Settings → Rig Bridge

   Click the ⚙️ icon in OpenHamClock and go to the Rig Bridge tab.

3. Enter the connection details

   Enable Rig BridgeToggle on

   Hosthttp://localhost (same machine) or http://192.168.1.50 (LAN)

   Port5555

   API TokenPaste the token copied from Rig Bridge
4. Click Save

   OpenHamClock immediately opens the SSE stream to /stream. The Rig Control panel will show your radio's current frequency within a second if the connection is successful.

Rig Bridge on a Different Machine

If your radio is connected to one computer (e.g. a shack PC) and you open OpenHamClock on another (e.g. a tablet or a Raspberry Pi running the server), Rig Bridge needs to listen on the network, not just localhost.

Start Rig Bridge with the --bind flag, or change bindAddress in the setup UI:

$ node rig-bridge.js --bind 0.0.0.0

Then in OpenHamClock Settings → Rig Bridge, set Host to the shack PC's LAN IP address (e.g. http://192.168.1.50) instead of localhost.

Cloud Relay

When OpenHamClock is hosted in the cloud (openhamclock.com or your own Railway instance), the browser tab is served from a remote server — it cannot reach localhost:5555 on your home network directly.

The Cloud Relay plugin inside Rig Bridge solves this. Rig Bridge opens a persistent outbound HTTPS connection to your cloud OpenHamClock instance and maintains it as a long-poll channel. Commands from the browser travel:

Browser click → Cloud OHC server → HTTPS long-poll → Rig Bridge → Radio (USB)

To enable Cloud Relay:

1. In the Rig Bridge setup UI, go to Security and enable HTTPS. Restart Rig Bridge and install the self-signed certificate when prompted.
2. In Plugins → Cloud Relay, enter your cloud OpenHamClock URL and the relay API key from OpenHamClock's Settings → Rig Bridge page.
3. In OpenHamClock Settings → Rig Bridge, set the host to https://localhost (note the s) and click Connect Cloud Relay.

The Rig Control Panel

Once connected, the Rig Control panel in OpenHamClock shows a live readout of your radio's state, updated from the SSE stream:

Additional Plugins

Rig Bridge does more than just radio control. The following plugins are enabled from the Plugins tab in the setup UI: