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RADE digital voice

RADE is FreeDV's newest digital voice mode. It sends speech as a narrow digital signal over an ordinary SSB radio, and on a reasonable signal it sounds much cleaner than SSB. The console decodes and encodes it itself, on your phone, tablet or computer, so it works with any radio RemoteMyShack runs: nothing extra to install at the shack or on the radio.

RADE is part of the Super Station plan (and the free trial) when you operate remotely. At the shack, on the shack computer's own network, it's always available. See Plans and pricing.

Listen

Click RADE with the mode buttons. It puts the radio in USB with DATA on and opens the RADE panel, and coming from another mode it tunes to the band's usual FreeDV frequency. Clicking another mode button leaves RADE and turns DATA off.
To change band, use Go to band… in the panel. It lists the common FreeDV calling frequencies, such as 14.236 MHz on 20m and 7.177 MHz on 40m. You can tune anywhere else as usual.
While you're in RADE, you hear the decoded speech instead of the modem's tones. The panel shows:
- a green light and Receiving, with the signal-to-noise ratio and how far off frequency the other station is, while a RADE signal is being decoded;
- End of over for a few seconds when the other station finishes;
- Listening when there's no RADE signal.

The first time, the console downloads the RADE modem (about 3.5 MB); after that your browser keeps it.

RADE stays on whichever tab or layout you're using, including with the panel out of view, until you leave RADE. Your volume and speakers work as usual.

Talk

Hold to talk works as usual: the console encodes your voice as RADE and sends it to the radio. When you let go, it sends RADE's end-of-over signal, which tells the other station you've finished, and then unkeys, about half a second later. All the usual transmit safeguards apply, and a radio with transmit disabled on the setup page stays receive only.

RADE is a digital signal, so set the radio's power as you would for other digital modes, with little or no ALC. A signal path with an amplifier works as for any other mode.

Good to know

The decoding runs on your device, so every console listening decodes for itself, and the shack computer does no extra work. Phones from the last few years manage easily; a very old device may struggle and sound broken up.
The callsign some FreeDV stations send at the end of an over isn't shown yet.
RADE uses the radio's USB DATA mode so its audio isn't processed. If your radio's DATA mode needs its own transmit audio source, see Connecting a radio by USB.
The decoder and encoder are FreeDV's RADE V1 (rade_c, BSD license), which works with FreeDV 2.0 and later.