Install it on the computer that runs WSJT-X or JTDX. On your phone, use the free FT8 Hero Remote app for iPhone, or the web remote in any browser: you scan a code and your station is there.
Windows 10 or later · 64-bit, with a 32-bit build for older machines · requires WSJT-X 2.x or JTDX
Free download · Windows 64-bit Free download · Windows 32-bitThe installer is signed with a code-signing certificate issued to the author. If Windows still shows “Windows protected your PC” — it does that for any newly signed program until enough people have installed it — click More info, then Run anyway.
Not sure which? Settings → System → About shows “64-bit operating system” or “32-bit”. Nearly every PC from the last ten years is 64-bit.
Apple Silicon and Intel · macOS 11 or later · requires WSJT-X 2.x or JTDX
Free download · Apple Silicon Free download · IntelNot sure which? Apple menu → About This Mac. A chip named M1, M2, M3 or M4 is Apple Silicon.
AppImage for any distribution, or a .deb for Debian and Ubuntu
· x86-64 and arm64 · requires WSJT-X 2.x or JTDX, and xdotool
FT8 Hero presses WSJT-X’s buttons through its keyboard shortcuts, which needs
xdotool: sudo apt install xdotool on Debian and Ubuntu, sudo dnf install xdotool on Fedora.
It works on an X11 desktop, and on Wayland where WSJT-X runs under XWayland. Changing band and mode from the phone is not
available on Linux yet; everything else is.
AppImage: make it executable (chmod +x) and run it. The .deb installs with
sudo apt install ./FT8*.deb and puts FT8 Hero in your applications menu.
Five minutes, once. The app walks you through every step on its first run.
On a Mac, drag FT8 Hero to Applications; on Windows, run the installer. Open it on the same computer as WSJT-X or JTDX. Your decoder stays exactly as you have it; FT8 Hero sits next to it.
In Settings → Reporting, set the UDP server to 127.0.0.1 on port
2237 and tick Accept UDP requests. On a Mac, grant the permissions it
asks for; on Windows, allow it through the firewall. The guide inside the app walks
through every step.
Open the Pair tab. On an iPhone, tap Scan the QR code in the free FT8 Hero Remote app; on any other phone, scan it with the camera and the web remote opens in the browser. Then go and do something else: the film, the beach, the dog. Your station comes with you.
FT8 Hero Remote is free for iPhone. Open it, tap Scan the QR code and point it at the Pair tab in FT8 Hero on your computer.
Scan with your iPhone camera
Available now
Coming soon
No app needed on any other phone: scan the Pair code with the camera and the web remote opens in the browser. Add it to your home screen and it runs full screen, like an app.
Want the station to make the contacts by itself while you watch from your phone? Hamilton Auto FT8, from the same author, does exactly that, and runs beside FT8 Hero on the same computer.