One service, many radios, one coherent station
CAT4OM was designed to manage more than one radio from the beginning. A station can contain a single transceiver, several independent radios, a main rig with one or more receivers, or multiple operating positions—without requiring every application to open and manage every physical connection itself.
Each radio keeps its own configuration, connection, capabilities and live state. Different manufacturers, models and communication methods can coexist behind the same CAT4OM service, giving clients a consistent way to discover and control the equipment.
Organise radios into control groups
Radios are organised into groups. Each running group has its own control endpoint and its own set of connected clients, allowing a station to separate equipment and workflows in a way that matches the real installation.
A compact station may use one group for everything. A larger installation could create different groups for an HF operating position, a VHF/UHF station, a remote receiver system or a development and testing bench.
Groups provide a practical boundary for:
- radio lifecycle and connection management;
- network control endpoints;
- client ownership;
- authentication settings;
- automatic startup and shutdown behaviour;
- independent monitoring and troubleshooting.
Combine different radio technologies
A multi-radio station does not need to be homogeneous. One group can contain equipment controlled through traditional serial CAT or CI-V, while another uses TCI, FlexRadio SmartSDR or a UDP-based interface.
CAT4OM translates those differences into a common state and command model. A client can request a frequency or mode change without implementing the framing rules, value maps and response parsing of each manufacturer.
At the same time, CAT4OM does not pretend that every radio is identical. Each model publishes its real supported modes, VFOs and available commands. Clients can adapt their controls to the selected radio instead of presenting functions that the hardware cannot perform.
Several applications can watch the same station
Multiple CAT4OM clients can connect to a control group and receive the same live radio updates. This makes it possible to use a main control interface alongside a monitoring dashboard, logging integration or secondary display.
Only one native client at a time holds control ownership and may issue write commands. Other clients remain connected as observers and can request ownership when they need to take control. Every client is notified when ownership changes, so its interface can update immediately.
This model removes a common source of CAT conflicts: several programs attempting to write independently to the same radio port without knowing about one another.
Radio coordination when simple sharing is not enough
Some station layouts need radios to work together rather than independently. CAT4OM’s Radio Follower feature can keep a secondary receiver or SDR aligned with a leading transceiver. Follower synchronization remains an internal service responsibility, so ordinary control clients do not need special logic to coordinate the pair.
Suitable for stations of different sizes
Single-radio station
CAT4OM provides a clean separation between the radio and the applications using it. Even with one transceiver, this makes it easier to add a second interface or integration later.
Main radio plus SDR
The transceiver remains the leading device while a listening SDR follows its frequency and mode. A dashboard and logging application can monitor the shared state at the same time.
Multi-position station
Independent groups can separate radios, control ports and ownership between operating positions while one management surface reports the health of the whole service.
Remote or automated station
Software can start groups, monitor connections, control compatible radio power and react to status changes without having to reproduce the radio protocol stack.
A foundation that does not impose a ceiling
CAT4OM works for a simple shack because it removes unnecessary coupling. It works for a complex station because the same group, capability and ownership rules continue to apply as radios and clients are added.