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Next up is my Python script for shutting down my contest station. That probably makes it sound like I’m running some massive, high-end operation—but in reality, I just really like things to work smoothly. I find it incredibly handy to simply double-click a Python shutdown icon on my desktop and have everything taken care of automatically. Some might call that lazy, overly dependent on a PC, or a bit geeky. I prefer the last option, and I’m fairly certain my dear wife would agree.

The reason I use a Python script for shutting the station down is the same reason I use one for startup: everything shuts down in the proper order. The shutdown process is essentially the reverse of the startup sequence, with a few hiccups that required some creative workarounds.

One issue was that certain applications—Win4Icom in particular—take noticeably longer to shut down than they do to start up, so I had to extend some of the timing in the script to allow for a clean exit. Another problem was that Win4Icom was not shutting down my Icom 7610 as it’s supposed to. As a result, the radio was staying powered on until the Wi-Fi plug turned off, cutting power to the supply and abruptly killing the radio. That obviously doesn’t allow for a proper shutdown sequence.

In the video, you’ll see that the Icom 7610 now shuts down cleanly at the very end of the shutdown process. I accomplished this by adding Python code that sends the appropriate Icom HEX command to power down the radio correctly.