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Version: 26.10.1

Green Heron Everyware

The GHE applet selects the antenna on a Green Heron Everyware remote antenna switch and turns a rotator attached to the same station. It talks to the Everyware server directly over TCP, knows nothing about the radio, and works with any radio connected, or none.

The switch and the rotator arrive on one connection, which is why they share one applet.

Requirements​

The address you enter is the Everyware server: a service running on a PC with the switch hardware attached to it over serial, not a switch. One server can present several switches (for example AS-84F-1 to AS-84F-4), each with the same set of antenna ports.

Setup​

The GHE applet is in the Antennas & Switching category. It is configured in the applet itself, not in Peripherals.

FieldMeaning
IPAddress of the Everyware server
PortIts TCP port; 10000 unless the installation moved it
SwitchWhich switch feeds this radio. Filled from the server's roster once connected, and remembered

Click Connect. The status line reads "Connected — waiting for roster", then "Connected — waiting for switch state" until the server reports.

Using the antenna rows​

A radio is wired to one switch, so the applet shows only that switch's antennas, one row per port:

RowMeaning
Beam-20 · ON (lit)The antenna the device reports this switch is on
Beam-15 · in use by AS-84F-3 (greyed)Held by another switch; an antenna feeds one switch at a time, so the device would refuse it
EFHW-40Free: click to select it

Nothing is assumed from a click. The row lights only when the device reports the change, which it does within about an eighth of a second. A relay that fails to move shows up as a row that does not light.

When the link drops, the last known state stays on screen marked stale ("Reconnecting — state is stale") and the rows are disabled until it comes back.

Using the rotator​

The rotator section appears under the antennas only while the device is reporting a heading:

Rotor            62.9° · asked 64.3° · Δ1.4°
[ 64.3        ]  [ Turn ]
  • Type a heading in degrees, then press Turn or Enter. Typing alone sends nothing.
  • The readout is the reported heading. After a turn it adds what was asked and the difference. It never says "on target": the measured sensor noise at rest is about ±3.8°, larger than any useful arrival threshold.
  • There is no stop or park command in the protocol, so a rotation that has started cannot be cancelled from AetherSDR. Use the rotator controller.
  • If the server reports more than one rotator, a Rotator selector picks which one this applet drives.
  • The section disappears when the rotator stops reporting ("The rotator has stopped reporting a heading").

Popped out into its own window, the applet adds a compass rose under the Turn row. The needle is the reported heading; a dashed tick shows the asked heading. The rose is display-only: clicking it does nothing, by design.

Known issues​

  • If an Everyware server restarts and announces its switches in a different order, the applet can name the wrong switch as holding an antenna (#5250).

Troubleshooting​

Re-sending a heading does not correct a small error​

The heading is inside the controller's deadband, so the same request does nothing.

  1. Type a slightly different heading.
  2. Press Turn.

The antenna rows are greyed out and marked stale​

The link to the Everyware server has dropped. The applet shows "Reconnecting — state is stale" and keeps the last known state on screen.

  1. Wait for the link to come back; the rows are enabled again when it does.
  2. If it does not, check that the server is running and that this PC can reach its IP and Port.

See also​