wfview controls modern Icom rigs using either a USB serial connection or OEM network (ethernet or wifi) connection. Live, real-time spectrum analyzer data are displayed, and rig controls are presented. Additional programs may tie into the CIV bus using the pseudo-terminal device (linux and macOS), virtual serial port loopback (windows), or hamlib-compatible rigctld server.

wfview provides the user with controls that may be comfortably operated from a keyboard, mouse, or touch screen interface.

On rigs with built-in network interfaces (such as the IC-705, IC-905, IC-7610, IC-7850, IC-R8600, IC-9700, and Xiegu X6100), live audio streaming is available for both receive and transmit. Special care was taken in the creation of the network code for very low latency audio — ideal for general QSOs as well as time-sensitive modes such as FT8 and JT65.

On the IC-7300 (and other non-network rigs), wfview can serve as a USB to Ethernet “bridge”, connecting the IC-7300 to the network for remote control and live streaming full-duplex audio using another instance of wfview on a remote computer. The server can be a humble Raspberry Pi or a normal desktop computer.

wfview has been developed with an eye towards compatibility. Even though our target platform consists of modern-era transceivers, wfview’s command dictionary is focused on commands with the most compatibility. Many of Icom’s transceivers from the last 20 years will work to some degree with wfview, and we are always adding more.

The user may select between the current desktop theme, an included “dark” theme (qdarkstylesheet), or a user-specified qt stylesheet. All colors can be customized via the built-in User-Defined Color Editor or by specifying a custom stylesheet.