Troubleshooting

The things that actually go wrong, in roughly the order people hit them.

It will not start, or the browser cannot reach it

Something else is using port 7300. ShackNerd notices and quietly takes the next free port; the window and the browser it opens show the address it actually got. (Flrig, Hyper-V's reserved ranges and friends are the usual squatters.) Only if you need a specific port does shacknerd -listen :7301 matter.

You started ShackNerd twice. The newer launch politely replaces the older one within a couple of seconds. That is on purpose: the usual reason for a second launch is a fresh download, and the newest build should win.

The tray icon is there but you closed the browser tab. Right-click the icon and choose Open ShackNerd. Closing tabs never stops the daemon; quitting from the tray does, and disconnects from the radio cleanly.

The frequency stays 0.000.00 on a USB radio

The port opened but the radio is not answering CI-V. ShackNerd probes the common CI-V addresses on every serial connect and adopts whichever answers, so a wrong address heals itself; if the display still stays dark, the usual causes are the CI-V baud rate in the radio's menu not matching the one chosen here, or a radio whose USB is a hub showing two COM ports where only one carries CI-V; try the other. "Serial port busy" in the log means another program holds the port.

It cannot connect to the radio

Work down this list; it is ordered by likelihood:

1. Network Control is off on the radio. MENU → SET → Network → Network Control → ON.
2. Wrong ID or password. These are the radio's Network User1 credentials, not anything else. Watch for a trailing space when typing on a phone.
3. Another program holds the radio. The radio serves one client. Close RS-BA1, wfview or another ShackNerd, or power-cycle the radio to clear a stuck session.
4. Wrong network. The daemon machine and radio must reach each other. shacknerd -lan-scan auto searches your networks for radios.
5. A VPN is grabbing the traffic. ShackNerd binds to the interface that is actually on the radio's subnet, but exotic VPN setups can still win. If the log shows the connection using a VPN address, that is the problem.

Audio

No receive audio on the phone until you tap. That is the browser, not ShackNerd: pages may not make sound without a gesture. Tap start once.

Audio is delayed or drops. Try 16 kHz in Settings; it is a third of the bandwidth of 48 kHz. Buffering trades delay for smoothness and is set beside the audio controls.

Transmit

The key says ON AIR radio mic, not phone mic. Two causes, and the text under the key names which: the page is not on HTTPS, so the browser will not grant microphone access, or Transmit audio is off in Settings.

Keyed, mic level moving, but no power out. The radio is not using the network as its modulation source. MENU → SET → Connectors → MOD Input → DATA OFF MOD → LAN, and check LAN MOD Level is not at zero.

CW messages do nothing. The radio must be in CW mode with break-in on; the panel checks both and offers the fix.

A logbook service stopped getting your contacts

Settings keeps an Integrations strip: the last word from every connected service, LoTW, QRZ, eQSL, PSK Reporter and the ShackNerd Reporter, green when the most recent attempt worked and red with the error under your pointer when it did not. A wrong password or an expired API key shows up there the minute it starts failing, not months later as a hole in your log.

Staying current

ShackNerd checks for a new build once a day, and Check for updates under Settings, Help and support asks right now. When a newer build exists, a banner appears in the interface with an Update now button. One click: the daemon downloads the release itself, verifies it against the published checksum, swaps itself out and restarts; the page reconnects to the new build a few seconds later, still signed in. The download link stays beside it for anyone who prefers their own hands, and the version and date are in every file name either way.

The interface says connected but nothing updates

A network that silently died. The page notices within ten seconds and reconnects on its own; if you are impatient, reload. If it recurs on WiFi, the radio end is losing packets and a wired connection to the radio fixes more than anything else.

Still stuck

[email protected], and attach the file that Download diagnostics in Settings produces: one zip with the version, the daemon's view of the radio, a redacted copy of the settings and the log tail, which turns most email exchanges into one. The raw log is shacknerd.log beside the settings database (the previous run is kept as shacknerd.log.1), or on screen if you ran it from a terminal.