N5ZY Co-Pilot: VHF Contest Automation for Rovers
By Marcus N5ZY | February 2026
After years of juggling multiple WSJT-X instances, manual grid updates, and the constant fear of losing QSOs to UDP packet drops during VHF contests, I finally built the tool I always wanted. The N5ZY Co-Pilot is a Python application designed specifically for VHF/UHF rover operations, automating the tedious stuff so you can focus on making contacts.
Developed over January 2026 with assistance from Claude (Anthropic), turning scattered ideas into working code just in time for the January VHF Contest.
The Problem
Running a multi-radio rover station during ARRL VHF contests is an exercise in multitasking chaos:
- Three radios, three WSJT-X instances – IC-7610 on 6m, IC-9700 on 2m/70cm/23cm, IC-7300 with transverters on 1.25m/33cm
- Existing tools dropping QSOs – Apps using UDP multicast are fire-and-forget; when two radios decode simultaneously, packets vanish. Most also only support two WSJT-X instances, which doesn’t cut it for a multi-band rover setup
- Manual grid updates – Every boundary crossing means updating N1MM+, all three WSJT-X instances, and hoping you don’t fat-finger it after 10 hours of contesting
- No situational awareness – Who else is on the band? Is there a Sporadic-E opening you’re missing?
The Solution
The Co-Pilot runs on my rover laptop and handles all of this automatically.
Core Features
Automatic Grid Updates A $9 USB GPS dongle feeds coordinates to the Co-Pilot, which converts them to Maidenhead grid squares and pushes updates to:
- All WSJT-X instances via UDP
- N1MM+ via RoverQTH
- APRS-IS for position beaconing
Cross a grid boundary? Everything updates automatically. No menus, no typos, no forgotten updates.
Reliable QSO Relay The Co-Pilot listens directly to WSJT-X UDP broadcasts and queues QSOs for N1MM+ (or N3FJP). It uses a sequential queue with retry logic, supporting up to four WSJT-X instances simultaneously. No more lost contacts when multiple radios decode at once.
Battery Monitoring Connected to my Victron SmartShunt via Bluetooth, the Co-Pilot displays voltage, current draw, and state of charge right in the status bar: 13.2V -15A 85%. At a glance you know if you need to swap batteries at the next stop before getting on the air. Color-coded warnings (green/orange/red) and voice alerts catch critical voltage drops during transmit.
Voice Announcements “Grid change. Entering EM15.” “QSO logged. W5ABC.” “Warning: GPS lock lost.”
Hands-free awareness while driving between grids.
Situational Awareness
PSK Reporter Integration Monitors PSK Reporter every 5 minutes for:
- Multi-hop Sporadic-E (the holy grail for 2m/70cm DX)
- Single-hop Sporadic-E openings
- Tropo ducting conditions
- Unusual mode activity (Q65 on 23cm? Someone’s trying!)
Priority-coded alerts tell you when to stop calling CQ and start pointing the beam.
QSY Advisor This might be my favorite feature. The QSY Advisor maintains a database of stations and what bands they operate, built from:
- ARRL contest public logs (January VHF, June VHF, September VHF, 222 MHz and Up)
- Manual entries for stations you know
When you work someone on 2m, it instantly tells you they also have 70cm and 23cm. Click their callsign to look them up on QRZ. Before the contest, browse stations in your target grids and reach out to coordinate schedules with high-band operators.
APRS-IS Monitoring Track other rovers in your area via APRS-IS (internet, not RF – no 2m conflict). Get alerts when mobile stations enter your vicinity.
Specialized Tools
Manual Entry Tab For phone and CW contacts that don’t go through WSJT-X. Supports both VHF contests (grid exchange) and State QSO Parties (county exchange).
Grid Corner Tracker When multiple rovers meet at a grid corner for the “grid dance,” this tool tracks who you’ve worked on which bands. Big colored buttons turn green as you log each band. Never lose track of whether you worked your fellow rovers on 33cm in EM15 or EM16.
Slack Notifications Post grid activations to Slack channels automatically:
📍 N5ZY/R now in EM15 on 6m, 2m, 1.25m, 70cm, 33cm, 23cm
Fixed stations watching the channel know exactly when to look for you.
Slack Notification Setup requires an Incoming Webhook on a channel
- Admin access to a Slack workspace, OR
- Ask your Slack admin to create an Incoming Webhook for you
Contest Modes
- VHF Contest – Standard ARRL January/June/September VHF with 4-character grid exchange
- 222 MHz and Up – 6-character grid precision
- State QSO Party – County-based exchange with N1MM+ integration
Technical Details
- Language: Python 3 with Tkinter GUI
- GPS: Any NMEA-compatible USB dongle ($9 on Amazon)
- Battery Monitor: Victron SmartShunt via Bluetooth LE
- Battery: Today I use a 300 AH LiFePO4
- Logging: N1MM+ or N3FJP
- WSJT-X: Supports up to 4 simultaneous instances
The app runs on Windows and should work on Linux/Mac with minor tweaks however N1MM runs on Windows… so that’s what I went with.
Internet Connectivity
Some features require mobile internet while roving:
| Feature | Internet Required? |
|---|---|
| GPS grid tracking | ❌ No |
| WSJT-X relay to N1MM+ | ❌ No |
| Battery monitoring | ❌ No |
| Voice announcements | ❌ No |
| QSY Advisor (local database) | ❌ No |
| Grid Corner tracker | ❌ No |
| PSK Reporter monitoring | ✅ Yes |
| APRS-IS beaconing/alerts | ✅ Yes |
| Slack notifications | ✅ Yes |
Options for mobile data:
- Phone hotspot – Simplest, uses your existing cell plan
- Dedicated hotspot (Verizon Jetpack, T-Mobile, etc.) – Separate data plan
- Starlink Mini – Works anywhere with sky view, no cell coverage needed
I use a Starlink Mini which works great in rural areas where cell coverage is spotty. I believe data usage is minimal – PSK Reporter and APRS-IS together use less than 500MB over a contest weekend.. Starlink does consume some battery power however!
What’s Next
- Twilio SMS alerts – Text message notifications to subscribers when activating new grids (waiting on A2P 10DLC approval)
- PyInstaller executable – One-click install
Get It
The Co-Pilot is available for free. If it helps your rover operation, consider a donation to offset development/coffee time and expenses. https://paypal.me/n5zy
Download: https://github.com/N5ZY/copilot
73 de N5ZY/R 🚗📻
N5ZY CoPilot
The alerts window provides status information and also prints in text the audio that may have been played.
Note that on all these screen shots I didn’t quite have the window wide enough to show the APRS-IS enable tick-box along the top.
The manual entry is simply to use for non-WSJT entries. Straightforward..
The QSO Log displays any logging the application has relayed or was manually entered and sent to your contest logger.
Source will contain WSJT-X, Manual, GridCorner or ADIF if the application was closed and reloaded.
The PSK Monitor contains query results of PSK Reporter for VHF activity, how far approximately a QSO was made and the distance, direction and WSJT mode.
The priority gives P1 to MSp-E.
QSY Advisor was created from scraping the public results from the ARRL’s Contests for the January, June and Sept VHF as well as the 222 and Up contest.
This data only changes a few times a year so I highly discourage updating it unless you see new data has been published for these contest. Even then it’s unlikely to change much. It only collects 1 years worth of public records.
The Grid Corner tab allows you to setup multiple rovers and rotate through them as you work each other in a corner. When a round is done and everybody moves, just click one at a time and ‘Update Grid’, entering where everyone is located for the next round.
The settings tab is where you configure the contest mode, your callsign, the GPS port, what bands you have, and your contest logger (N1MM or N3FJP).
Also you need to indicate where each WSJT-X profile stores it’s logs and the port it is configured to broadcast on (where Co-pilot listens). This is for the Autogrid into WSJT.
The last section is to set parameters for the PSK Reporter query.
As for Slack channel notifications, you have to have an Admin of the Slack channel create the webhook and share it with you.
In WSJT you must enable “AutoGrid”
This DOES NOT change your “My Grid”, it instead changes your in TX6 when you CQ. If you close WSJT and re-open it or switch to a different saved config the grid reverts to your ‘My Grid’ however the application monitors for jt9.exe to have a new process ID. If it does then we resend the AutoGrid immediately.
You can have up to (4) instances of WSJT HOWEVER each needs to have it’s own UDP Server Port number. 2237, 2238, 2239, 2240. This needs to match in N5ZY-CoPilot settings tab so CoPilot knows where to listen. With this set N5ZY-CoPilot can set your AutoGrid in 4 instances of WSJT simultaneously!
In N1MM to allow dynamic RoverQTH you must enable “JTDX / Others TCP Settings”.
Then N5ZY-CoPilot can set your RoverQTH in N1MM!