OWX(1)

📦 version 0~20110415, in ubuntu jammy

🌸 OWX(1) — the Wouxun radio bestie manual 🌸

okay so real talk, this is the General Commands Manual page for owx, and yes bestie, I folded the manual name in here instead of making you read a boring header line. you're welcome 💖

✨ NAME ✨

owx — utility to program Wouxun dual-band handheld radios 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

owx-check [ -v | -h ] [ -f ] [ -p <port> ] [ -t <timeout> ]
owx-get [ -v | -h ] [ -f ] [ -p <port> ] [ -t <timeout> ] -o <path>
owx-put [ -v | -h ] [ -f ] [ -p <port> ] [ -t <timeout> ] -i <path> -r
<path>
owx-export [ -v | -h ] -i <bin path> -o <csv path>
owx-import [ -v | -h ] -i <csv path> -o <bin path>

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

So this manual page documents briefly the owx commands. Brief. Like, the tl;dr version.

owx is a whole lil squad of commands that let you fetch and update the configuration on your Wouxun handheld radio 🫶. It's made of multiple commands, not just one, so don't come for it.

🌈 COMMON OPTIONS 🌈

These ones are shared by all the commands. everyone gets them, no favorites:

  • -h — show a summary of options. the "help me bestie" flag 💀
  • -v — show the version of the program. identity check ✨
  • -c <command> — invoke owx-<command>. this only makes sense if you called it directly as owx. like, only if you're coming in through the main door, yk?

🎀 OPTIONS FOR check, get AND put 🎀

  • -f — Force the operation even if your radio identifies as something different from a KG669V.
⚠️ bestie PLEASE use this option with extreme caution — it is very possible that your radio will be rendered unusable after you use this. It was NEVER tested with any radio different from the one mentioned above. not "rarely", not "once", never. 🙈
  • -p <port> — use port <port>, and it defaults to /dev/ttyUSB0. Of course you must have the appropriate read and write permissions for this device, no cap. permissions are not optional, sorry 💜
  • -t <timeout> — specify the receive timeout for communication with radio. If you disable it (by setting it to 0) and the communication fails, the program will hang forever 😭 like, forever forever. You probably don't need to change the default value (5 seconds). leave it alone, it's doing great 🌸

🔥 USAGE 🔥

owx-check

This program just checks for the connection and the identification string. It can be used to check that your cable and port work. vibe check for your hardware ✨

owx-get

This program downloads the memory map from radio to a binary file. it's giving "backup arc" 💾

Options:

  • -o <path> — binary file to write to

owx-put

This program uploads the memory map from a binary file to the radio. main character energy, going up this time 👑

Options:

  • -i <path> — binary file to read from
  • -r <path> — reference file

Option -r is not mandatory, but it's recommended. Here's the tea: you can specify the original, unchanged file (exactly as downloaded using owx-get) and this will speed up memory uploading, because owx will compare the input file to this reference file and upload only the changed memory pages. slay, efficiency 💅

When using this option, be sure that nothing has changed in the radio (even the currently selected memory channel) between downloading the reference file and using it for upload. This is important, because some variables that cross the page boundaries (if there are any in the memory map) could be corrupted by this. so like, don't touch the radio, don't breathe on it, don't look at it funny 🫶

Example:

owx-get -o file.bin
cp file.bin backup.bin
owx-export -i file.bin -o wouxun.csv
oocalc wouxun.csv
owx-import -i wouxun.csv -o file.bin
owx-put -i file.bin -r backup.bin
😭 Please do yourself a favour and double-check that you upload the correct file. If you try to upload an incorrect or corrupted file, your radio will power down and fail to power up. owx will refuse to upload any file with an incorrect size, but this is the only safety check. one (1) safety check. that's it. that's the whole net.

owx-export

This program exports channel data from a binary file to a CSV file. This file can be later edited using your favourite spreadsheet editor or even a text editor. go wild, bestie 🍓

Options:

  • -i <path> — binary file to read from
  • -o <path> — csv file to write to

owx-import

This program reads the specified, possibly-edited-by-you CSV file, and patches the existing binary file with this updated data. The file is now prepared to be uploaded with owx-put. so it's the glow-up stage, then owx-put takes it to the radio ✨

Options:

  • -i <path> — csv file to read from
  • -o <path> — binary file to write to (must already exist). like, it has to already be there, we're not creating it for you 🧚

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

💜 AUTHOR 💜

owx was written by SP5GOF (Adam Wysocki). legend behavior, fr fr 🔥

This manual page was written by Antoine Beaupré <anarcat@debian.org>, for the Debian project (and may be used by others). iconic, honestly 🌈

and that's the whole thing bestie — this page is from October 26, 2011, and it's the OWX(1) page under the General Commands Manual umbrella. go program that radio, but maybe back up first 💖🎀

📦 where this page comes from