I got licensed in 2022. I’m not an old timer. I have not invested decades into any one operating style. I have seen a serious issue with data mode laziness across ages and cultures. We’re gonna fix that below.

Many of you have let rig control turn you into helpless crybabies. I’ve watched countless adults give up on data modes because they couldn’t get their rig “to talk to the computer”. That’s the dumbest fucking reason in the world to give up. That’s like giving up on going to the second floor because the escalator stopped working. Make a deliberate decision to run digital modes without rig control. Learn how to make your rig send wooeeeooo noises without a serial connection. Become a much better data mode operator. Become a better person.

Rig control is a nice-to-have feature. That’s it. There’s no software I know of that requires it. Not WSJT-X. None of the VARAs. Not fldigi. Not JS8Call. Not Winlink Express. You can just dial your VFO knob to the frequency. “bUtT wHaT aBoUt PtT” you can trigger almost every rig’s PTT several ways. 

• Your rig has a PTT line somewhere in the hand mic connector. Every modern sound card chip has a general purpose input-output (GPIO) pin you can use as a PTT trigger.
• If your rig has vox – set it up and use it.
• Signalink interfaces have an internal vox function that effectively triggers your PTT.
• The Digirig Lite has a Signalink-like PTT function AND a GPIO PTT function.

None of those solutions require a serial interface of any kind. What they do require is a basic understanding of your rig’s audio and PTT pinout. You’ll have to learn a little about how your radio actually works. You’ll have to learn how your sound interface works. Imagine sitting with their respective manuals and existing forum posts until you understand some fundamentals. The horror!

And yes, this is a really long way of saying a lot of you suck because you don’t read manuals. You also suck because you skip fundamentals. You want the results without any of the work. It’s making you dumb to the point that you can’t make modes *designed to be effortless* work without bumming brain power from someone else.

But look, it’s not entirely your fault. You’ve seen a bunch of algorithm-riding YouTubers spending an hour showing you how to get rig control working. You see people asking the same question 15 times a day in every ham radio group about how to get rig control working. No one has produced anything meaningful or attention-getting on how to do data modes without a serial connection in years. What’s your fault is lacking the curiosity to think there’s something simpler, something that gets you more involved in the process, something that brings you some actual understanding in a world of rote regurgitation.

This does not only apply to rig control. It’s also a metaphor for being less automated and learning how things work. We’re deep in the age of anti-intellectualism that Carl Sagan warned us about in the 1990s. You can make the choice right now to care about learning again. Real learning, not asking ChatGPT or polling a Telegram chat then choosing the answer you like the most. Learning involves adopting facts whether you are comfortable with them or not.

Become uncomfortable. Become smarter. Do better. Thank me later.