Amateur radio

Related articles

• GNU Radio
• RTL-SDR

Amateur radio enthusiasts (sometimes called ham radio operators or "hams") have been at the forefront of experimentation and development since the earliest days of radio. A wide variety of communication modes are used on a vast range of frequencies that span the electromagnetic spectrum. This page lists software related to amateur radio. Some of it is stand-alone while the various digital communication applications require interfacing to radio hardware and possibly the computer soundcard. Interface hardware can be purchased from vendors or home-built.

Warning International treaties require that users of amateur radio frequencies have a government-issued license. This only affects you if you have a transmitter and an antenna, receiving amateur radio or just downloading amateur radio software is not illegal.

Getting started

Many of the following programs will need to access a serial port to key the transmitter (eg. /dev/ttyS0). This requires that the user to be added to uucp user group.

Hardware

A common interface for various radio hardware is Digirig. Although there are several models, they will all generally present to the operating system via ALSA as a "C-Media Electronics USB Audio Device", with two channels for both audio input and output. Rig control is also provided by the Digirig via the /dev/ttyUSB0 serial device.

Other devices, such as the ICom IC-705 have built-in soundcard and CAT control. You can directly connect to the transceiver via USB, which should be exposed as USB audio (via Burr-Brown USB Audio) and serial devices (via /dev/ttyUSB0 and /dev/ttyUSB1)

Software

Analysis tools

• adif-multitool — CLI validator/converter for ADIF and Cabrillo logs.

https://github.com/flwyd/adif-multitool || adif-multitool^AUR

• gpredict — Real-time satellite tracking and orbit prediction.

http://gpredict.oz9aec.net/ || gpredict^AUR

• hamsolar — Desktop widget showing current solar-terrestrial indices.

http://hamsoftware.org/old_index.html || hamsolar^AUR

• splat — RF propagation, loss & terrain analysis (20 MHz – 20 GHz).

http://www.qsl.net/kd2bd/splat.html || splat^AUR

• sunclock — Astronomical world-map (day/night, Sun/Moon) useful for grey-line work.

https://www.spinnaker.de/debian/sunclock.html || sunclock^AUR

• xnec2c — GTK+ GUI for the NEC-2 antenna-modelling engine.

https://www.xnec2c.org/ || xnec2c^AUR

AX.25 & Packet

AX.25 is a data link layer protocol used extensively in packet radio networks. It supports connected operation (eg. keyboard-to-keyboard contacts, access to local bulletin board systems, and DX clusters) as well as connection-less operation (e.g. APRS). The Linux kernel includes native support for AX.25 networking. Please refer to TLDP's Amateur Radio AX.25 HOWTO for more information.

• aprx — Light-weight APRS digipeater / i-gate.

http://thelifeofkenneth.com/aprx/ || aprx^AUR

• ax25-apps — Essential user-land utilities for AX.25 networks.

https://linux-ax25.in-berlin.de/ || ax25-apps^AUR

• ax25-tools — Low-level tools to configure AX.25/NETROM/ROSE interfaces.

http://www.linux-ax25.org || ax25-tools^AUR

• direwolf — Sound-card software TNC, APRS encoder/decoder, digipeater & i-gate.

https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf || direwolf^AUR

• libax25 — Run-time library for AX.25, ROSE, NETROM, KISS, 6PACK.

https://linux-ax25.in-berlin.de/ || libax25^AUR

• soundmodem — Multi-platform sound-card packet-radio modem (KISS, AX.25).

https://web.archive.org/web/20130824024508/http://www.baycom.org/~tom/ham/soundmodem/ || soundmodem^AUR

• xastir — Full-featured GUI APRS mapping & messaging client.

http://www.xastir.org/ || xastir^AUR

Digital voice

• codec2 — Open-source speech codec (450-3200 bit/s) used by FreeDV.

https://github.com/drowe67/codec2 || codec2

• freedv-gui — FreeDV narrow-band digital voice for HF.

https://freedv.org/ || freedv-gui^AUR

• mumble — Low-latency VoIP client (also usable for HamWAN / DMR bridges).

https://www.mumble.info/ || mumble

Digital weak-signal modes

• fldigi — Multi-mode GUI modem (PSK31/63, RTTY, Olivia, MFSK, CW…).

https://sourceforge.net/p/fldigi/wiki/Home/ || fldigi^AUR

• flamp — NBEMS Amateur-Multicast-Protocol client.

http://www.w1hkj.com/ || flamp^AUR

• flmsg — Forms manager for NBEMS/ICS traffic.

http://www.w1hkj.com/ || flmsg^AUR

• flrig — CAT / rig-control frontend (works with fldigi).

http://www.w1hkj.com/flrig-help/ || flrig^AUR

• flwrap — File encapsulation/compression utility for fldigi.

http://www.w1hkj.com/ || flwrap^AUR

• js8call — Keyboard-to-keyboard chat built on FT8 protocol.

https://bitbucket.org/widefido/js8call || js8call^AUR

• jtdx — High-performance WSJT-X fork optimised for contest/ DX-pile-ups.

https://github.com/jtdx-project/jtdx || jtdx^AUR

• jtdx-improved — Enhanced JTDX by DG2YCB (two GUI layouts).

https://sourceforge.net/projects/jtdx-improved/ || jtdx-improved^AUR jtdx-improved-jtdxgui^AUR

• linpsk — Console PSK31/63/125 and RTTY terminal.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/linpsk/ || linpsk^AUR

• wsjtx — Weak-signal suite (FT8, JT65, WSPR, JT9…).

https://wsjt.sourceforge.io/wsjtx.html || wsjtx^AUR

• wsjtx-improved — WSJT-X fork with extra DX/contest features (3 layouts).

https://sourceforge.net/projects/wsjt-x-improved/ || wsjtx-improved^AUR wsjtx-improved-al^AUR wsjtx-improved-widescreen^AUR

• xpsk31 — GTK+ PSK31 transceiver with waterfall.

http://www.qsl.net/5b4az/pkg/psk31/xpsk31/xpsk31.html || xpsk31^AUR

Logging

• cqrlog — Advanced logger with MySQL/Firebird, HamLib, ADIF, LoTW/e-QSL.

https://www.cqrlog.com/ || cqrlog-bin^AUR

• fdlog — Multi-node Field-Day logger.

http://www.fdlog.info || fdlog^AUR

• hamrs-appimage — Portable logger for POTA, Field-Day, etc.

https://hamrs.app/ || hamrs-appimage^AUR

• klog — Multi-platform Qt logger.

https://github.com/ea4k/klog || klog^AUR

• pyqso — Light-weight Python/GTK ADIF logger.

https://christianjacobs.uk/pyqso/ || pyqso^AUR

• tlf — Console contest logger (CQWW, WPX…).

https://tlf.github.io/ || tlf^AUR

• trustedqsl — Sign & upload QSOs to ARRL LoTW.

https://www.arrl.org/tqsl || trustedqsl^AUR

• xlog — General-purpose GTK logger.

http://www.nongnu.org/xlog/ || xlog^AUR

• yfklog — Console logbook with LoTW & QRZ support.

http://fkurz.net/ham/yfklog.html || yfklog^AUR

• yfktest — Console contest helper (Cabrillo export).

http://fkurz.net/ham/yfktest.html || yfktest^AUR

Morse / CW training

• aldo — Morse tutor with random chars & speed tests.

http://aldo.nongnu.org/ || aldo^AUR

• cutecw — Qt6 Koch-method CW trainer.

— || cutecw^AUR

• cwirc — X-Chat/HexChat plug-in to send/receive CW over IRC.

https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/CWirc || cwirc^AUR

• ebook2cw — Convert plain-text to Morse MP3/OGG.

http://fkurz.net/ham/ebook2cw.html || ebook2cw^AUR

• gtkmmorse — GTK+ Morse tutor (Koch & Classic modes).

http://gtkmmorse.nongnu.org/ || gtkmmorse^AUR

• kochmorse — Qt5 Koch-method Morse tutor.

https://github.com/hmatuschek/kochmorse || kochmorse^AUR

• qrq — High-speed (60-300 WPM) CW trainer.

http://fkurz.net/ham/qrq.html || qrq^AUR

• unixcw — Suite of CLI CW tools (cw, cwgen, cwcp, xcwcp).

http://unixcw.sourceforge.net || unixcw^AUR

Programming / rig control

• chirp-next — Cross-platform radio memory programmer.

https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home || chirp-next^AUR

• flrig — CAT & rig-control GUI (works with fldigi).

http://www.w1hkj.com/flrig-help/ || flrig^AUR

• grig — Simple GTK rig-control front-end based on Hamlib.

http://groundstation.sourceforge.net/grig/ || grig^AUR

• hamlib — Runtime library for rig control (used by most apps).

https://hamlib.github.io || hamlib

• linrad — High-performance SDR receiver & analysis tool.

https://www.sm5bsz.com/linuxdsp/linrad.htm || linrad^AUR

• owx — CLI programmer for Wouxun HT series.

http://owx.chmurka.net || owx^AUR

• quisk — SDR transceiver GUI by N2ADR.

http://james.ahlstrom.name/quisk/ || quisk^AUR

SSTV / imaging

• qsstv — Slow-scan TV (SSTV) transmit/receive using sound-card.

https://github.com/ON4QZ/QSSTV || qsstv^AUR

VoIP / linking

• qtel — Qt GUI for EchoLink VoIP.

https://github.com/sm0svx/svxlink || qtel^AUR

• svxlink — Advanced EchoLink server + repeater controller.

https://github.com/sm0svx/svxlink || svxlink^AUR

Misc utilities

• cty — ARRL Country-files (entities/prefixes) for contest software.

http://www.country-files.com/cty/ || cty^AUR

• dxcc — Tiny utility to resolve DXCC entity of a callsign.

http://fkurz.net/ham/dxcc.html || dxcc^AUR

• hamclock — Full-screen clock + solar data + band-plans.

https://clearskyinstitute.com/ham/HamClock || hamclock^AUR