FT-847

[James Holohan]

Apologies folks but at the risk of repeating myself I am still unable to get my FT-847 to talk to Skyroof via CAT. I have set up rigctld with all the relevant parameters and it is talking to the rig. However, there is no communication between it and Skyroof even though I have set up the parameters as described. Mousing-over the RX CAT and TX CAT shows no connection. How does Skyroof communicate with rigctld? Is there some path I need to set up between them?

[Jack Blake]

Did you check using other software if your cable is good? Does cat control work with WSJT-X? Hamradio deluxe? SATPC32? I would check with other software to see if maybe your cable is bad. How about your baud settings on the computer port? 

Jack L. Blake

On Wed, Jan 21, 2026 at 11:05 AM James Holohan <ei4...@gmail.com> wrote:

Apologies folks but at the risk of repeating myself I am still unable to get my FT-847 to talk to Skyroof via CAT. I have set up rigctld with all the relevant parameters and it is talking to the rig. However, there is no communication between it and Skyroof even though I have set up the parameters as described. Mousing-over the RX CAT and TX CAT shows no connection. How does Skyroof communicate with rigctld? Is there some path I need to set up between them?

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SkyRoof" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to skyroof+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skyroof/CAAh8cx-x5wNHmst5J1NERY%2B9idv_xmAPjBAHW869gTj5d31w%2BA%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Jack Blake]

I had same problem with 9709 found my usb cable was bad.,

Jack L. Blake

[Jack Blake]

That’s 9700 typo

Jack L. Blake

[Alex VE3NEA]

FT-847 is supported by SkyCAT, so you should use skycatd.exe instead of rigctld.exe. The  Setting Up CAT Control section in User's Manual explains how to set up SkyRoof with skycatd.exe. Basically skycatd.exe must be running when you try to connect to it from SkyRoof, and the port number setting must be the same in both programs.

[Thomas Schuessler]

The recommendation is, and it has worked for me to use Alex’s skyCat  software instead of Hamlib. It uses some of the same syntax that HAMLIB would use but hooks much nicer into the SKYROOF program.  I have an 847 and I can control it very nicely with SKYCAT.  Since the SKYROOF program is designed to use an SDR as the receiver and a radio like the FT847 as the Transmitter you only really would need to enable control of the transmit side, and SKYROF Caan Dr. the radio transmit frequency as you control the receipt frequency on the SDR. On his Github, pages, search for SKYCAT. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 21, 2026, at 10:05, James Holohan <ei4...@gmail.com> wrote:



Apologies folks but at the risk of repeating myself I am still unable to get my FT-847 to talk to Skyroof via CAT. I have set up rigctld with all the relevant parameters and it is talking to the rig. However, there is no communication between it and Skyroof even though I have set up the parameters as described. Mousing-over the RX CAT and TX CAT shows no connection. How does Skyroof communicate with rigctld? Is there some path I need to set up between them?

--

[James Holohan]

I have rigctld working with WSJT-X. It would appear as if something is blocking the communication with Skyroof????. I have tried reinstalling Skyroof to no avail. 

[Thomas Schuessler]

Please ditch Hamlib for Skyroof and control of the 847 anduse SkyCat also from Alex. It works. 

On Jan 22, 2026, at 16:57, James Holohan <ei4...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skyroof/CAAh8cx-674p8fT%2BtunzA3mPiFGt0DkCkBq7QSD960KvexAvEOg%40mail.gmail.com.

[James Holohan]

Thanks for coming back. I've successfully used Skycat to connect to my FT-847 but Skyroof still indicates that it is using rigctld to for CAT control. 

[Alex VE3NEA]

I will try to help you, but you have to provide more detail:

• what are your skycatd.exe command line parameters?
• what are your CAT settings in SkyRoof?
• is skycatd.exe running when you are trying to enable CAT control in SkyRoof?
• what makes you think that SkyRoof is using rigctld.exe?

It will also help if you post your logs from skycatd.exe and SkyRoof. To enable detailed logging:

• in skycatd.exe add the flags: -vvv -f , then it will save detailed log in a file, and you can attach that file to your posting
• in SkyRoof set Log Traffic to true in the Settings dialog under CAT

[James Holohan]

Alex. In reply to your queries:

1. Skycat parameters: c:\SkyCat\skycatd.exe -m 1001 -r com1 -s 57600 -t 4532 -f -vvv

2. See attached.

3. SkyCat is already running before I run Skyroof.

4. See attached.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skyroof/08d6d004-1239-4cd5-8e94-ab516bbee1e1n%40googlegroups.com.

[Alex VE3NEA]

Thand you for sending your info! SkyRoof connects to skycatd.exe just fine, but it expects skycatd v.1.6 and you are running v.1.4.  Please upgrade to  skycatd.exe 1.6 .

[James Holohan]

Alex. Many many thanks for your advice. The program is working perfectly. Fabulous piece of software! 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skyroof/01690247-72cc-48a8-824b-7ac60e330744n%40googlegroups.com.