Receive Only vs Transceiver Mode

Summary: What the Receive Only / Transceiver toggle actually changes, and an honest limitation worth knowing about before you rely on it.

At the top of the window is a toggle switch between Receive Only (green) and Transceiver (orange) – this affects new channels going forward and the radio’s own transmit lock, not just a display preference.

Receive Only (the default)

• Every channel is set TX-locked.
• The RX Only column is hidden from the grid, since it’s implied for everything.
• The radio’s global transmit lock is set to block transmission everywhere, including on Ham bands.

Transceiver

• Ham, PMR and Baofeng/FRS/GMRS channels default to transmit-enabled at full power when created.
• Aviation, Marine, Rescue and any AM-mode channel always stay receive-only regardless of this toggle – the firmware itself won’t transmit in AM mode at all, and Squawker PC doesn’t try to override that.
• The radio’s global transmit lock is restored to its default (unlocked) state.

A Limitation Worth Knowing

The global transmit-lock value Squawker PC uses for Receive Only mode was confirmed by physically testing against one specific F4HWN build. Different F4HWN builds compiled with different optional features can shift this value, so on some builds the global lock may not fully match what Squawker PC sends, even though the per-channel TX lock still applies to Ham-band channels. Per-channel TX lock itself only blocks transmission on frequencies that fall inside a recognised Ham band in the first place – for the aviation, marine and business frequencies this Programmer mostly deals with, receive-only behaviour instead relies on those channels never being set to transmit in the first place, not on the lock switch. In short: treat Receive Only mode as “this radio shouldn’t transmit under normal use,” not as an absolute, independently-verified guarantee on every possible firmware build.