rf-bench-drivers-yaesu

Yaesu FT-891 radio driver for bench automation. Part of the rf-bench-drivers family of packages that share the rf_bench.* namespace.

This package provides a Hamlib rigctld TCP client for the Yaesu FT-891 transceiver, with an API intentionally compatible with the IC-7300 driver (rf-bench-drivers-icom) for drop-in substitution in automated test scripts.

Hardware requirements

• Yaesu FT-891 connected via USB-B cable to the host PC
• Hamlib 4.x installed (sudo apt install libhamlib-utils or build from source)
• rigctld running before any test starts:

rigctld -m 1036 -r /dev/ttyUSB0 -s 38400 &

The FT-891's CAT baud rate is set in Menu 031 (CAT RATE); factory default is 38400. The -s flag must match the menu setting.

If you are also running an IC-7300 on port 4532, run the FT-891 rigctld on a different port:

rigctld -m 1036 -r /dev/ttyUSB1 -s 38400 -t 4533 &

Then connect with FT891("localhost", 4533).

Installation

pip install rf-bench-drivers-yaesu

No external dependencies — uses only the Python standard library (socket, math, time).

Usage

from rf_bench.yaesu import FT891, PREAMP_OFF, PREAMP_AMP1

# Connect (defaults to localhost:4532)
rig = FT891()

# Core interface — identical to IC7300
rig.set_frequency(14_200_000)          # Hz
rig.set_mode("usb")                    # 'usb','lsb','cw','cwr','am','fm','rtty'
rig.set_agc("slow")                    # 'off','fast','mid','slow'
strength = rig.get_strength()          # raw Hamlib STRENGTH value
strength = rig.get_strength_settled(settle_s=0.5, samples=3)
rig.set_rf_gain(1.0)                   # 0.0–1.0
mode, passband = rig.get_mode()        # e.g. ('USB', 2400)
freq = rig.get_frequency()             # Hz
rig.close()

# Context manager
with FT891() as rig:
    rig.set_frequency(7_100_000)
    print(rig.get_strength_settled())

# FT-891-specific: preamp / IPO control
rig.set_preamp(PREAMP_OFF)    # IPO engaged — preamp bypassed (strong-signal tests)
rig.set_preamp(PREAMP_AMP1)   # AMP1 active (~10 dB gain, MDS/sensitivity tests)
level = rig.get_preamp()      # 0 = IPO/off, 1 = AMP1

# FT-891-specific: front-end attenuator
rig.set_att(0)    # off
rig.set_att(6)    # 6 dB
rig.set_att(12)   # 12 dB
att = rig.get_att()

AGC caveat

set_agc("off") is not a true bypass on the FT-891. Hamlib maps AGC=0 to the slowest AGC time constant. The FT-891 has no hardware AGC-off path. For absolute signal level measurements, use set_agc("slow") combined with set_rf_gain() and verify linearity empirically.

This differs from the IC-7300, where set_agc("off") engages a true hardware bypass.

STRENGTH scale

The Hamlib STRENGTH value returned by get_strength() / get_strength_settled() is specific to the FT-891 + Hamlib version combination and is not directly comparable to IC-7300 readings. Run a separate S-meter calibration sweep to map STRENGTH to dBm for each rig.

Related packages

License

GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE.