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General_Ham_Radio_Applications

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Neon22 edited this page May 30, 2022 · 8 revisions

HamLib - Ham Radio Control Liraries

  • from: https://hamlib.github.io/
  • Project to provide programs with a consistent API for controlling radios and rotators.
  • Extensively used by logging and other programs that need to control your rig.
  • Also several functions useful for calculating distance, bearing, and grid square conversion.
  • Control is typically via serial (RS232) connectivity. USB to serial converters are well supported.
  • IP (and other) connectivity will follow.

grig - graphical user interface to the Ham Radio Control Liraries

CHIRP - Radio Programming Software

APRS Message App for JS8Call - GUI to send APRS messages via JS8Call

QTel - EchoLink client

  • from: https://www.svxlink.org/
  • SvxLink Server is a general purpose voice services system.
  • When connected to a transceiver, can be an advanced repeater system or operate on a simplex channel.
  • Qtel, the Qt EchoLink client, is a graphical application used to access the EchoLink network.
  • Examples of Voice services are:
    • Help – A help system.
    • Parrot – Play back everything that is received.
    • EchoLink – Connect to other EchoLink stations.
    • DtmfRepeater – Repeater received DTMF digits.
    • TclVoiceMail – Send voice mail to other local users.
    • PropagationMonitor – Announce propagation warnings from dxmaps.com.
    • SelCall – Send selective calling sequences by entering DTMF codes.

QSSTV - Slow Scan TV (e.g. "Fax")

  • from: http://users.telenet.be/on4qz/index.html
  • QSSTV is a program for receiving and transmitting SSTV and HAMDRM (sometimes called DSSTV).
  • FAQ at: http://users.telenet.be/on4qz/qsstv/faq.html
  • Rig control via HamLib.
  • Has template editor for image control.
  • Three main windows:
    • Receive window: Receive functions for SSTV and DRM.
    • Transmit window: Transmit functions for SSTV and DRM and camera control.
    • Gallery window: History of received images, transmit images and templates.
  • When Transmitting note that SSTV and DRM are 100% duty-cycle. So run reduced power with the ALC at minimum.

Gpredict - Satellite prediction

  • from: http://gpredict.oz9aec.net/
  • Real-time satellite tracking and orbit prediction application.
  • Tracks a large number of satellites and displays their position etc in lists, tables, maps, and polar plots.
  • Also predicts the time of future passes for a satellite, and provides detailed information about each pass.
  • Allows grouping the satellites into visualisation modules.
  • Tracks satellites relative to different observer locations at the same time.

FreeDV - Free digital voice vocoder

  • from: https://freedv.org/
  • Digital Voice mode for HF radio.
  • Amateur Radio is transitioning from analog to digital, much as it transitioned from AM to SSB in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
  • FreeDV is unique in using 100% Open Source Software, including the speech codec. Nothing proprietary.
  • FreeDV 2020 is built around leading edge neural net speech coding (LPCNet).
    • Puts Ham radio at the forefront of digital radio innovation.
    • Provides 8 kHz wide audio bandwidth, while using just 1600 Hz of RF bandwidth.
  • You need either:
    • SSB receiver or transceiver,
    • FreeDV software
    • One (receive only) or two sound cards + cables.
  • or:
    • An SM1000 Digital Voice Adaptor and cables to connect the SM1000 to your SSB radio.

BlueDV - Client for D-Star and DMR

  • from: https://www.pa7lim.nl/bluedv-linux/
  • Supported Protocols:
    • DSTAR ( DEXTRA, DPLUS, DCS )
    • FUSION ( YSF, FCS )
    • DMR ( Brandmeister, DMR+ )
  • Supported Hardware on Linux:
    • DVMEGA with BlueStack (specialised hardware)

WsprryPi - WSPR software

  • from: https://github.com/8cH9azbsFifZ/WsprryPi
  • Raspberry Pi bareback LF/MF/HF/VHF WSPR transmitter.
  • Makes a very simple WSPR beacon from your RasberryPi.
    • connecting GPIO port to Antenna (and LPF).
  • Operates on LF, MF, HF and VHF bands from 0 to 250 MHz.
  • Note that system time is used to determine the start of a WSPR transmissions.
    • So keep the system time synchronised within 1sec precision e.g. use NTP network time synchronisation.
  • You must use a low pass filter.
  • Expected power output is 10mW (+10dBm) in a 50 Ohm load.
    • This looks neglible, but when connected to a simple dipole antenna this may transmit several thousands of kilometers.

ADSB - Flight Tracking Software

  • from: https://github.com/MalcolmRobb/dump1090
  • Aircraft transmit static and dynamic data via ADS-B on 1090 MHz.
  • Data includes flight numbers, course over ground, speed over ground, altitude, etc.
  • Visualize the received data in a map view.
  • Replicates the RTL1090.exe program for RTL2832 dongles on a Raspberry Pi.

Pi3/4 Stats Monitor

  • from: http://www.w1hkj.com/pi3/
  • Samples and displays various operating parameters of the Raspberry Pi.
    • CPU temperature, CPU load percentage
    • Data from the /proc/stat file
    • Processed output from the program 'top'
    • Raw data from the lscpu command

BOINC - donate CPU downtime to projects

  • from: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/
  • BOINC lets you donate your idle computer time to science projects like:
  • SETI@home, Climateprediction.net, Rosetta@home,
  • World Community Grid, and many others.
  • After installing BOINC on your computer, you can connect it to as many of these projects as you like.

VOACAP - HF propagation prediction

GPS Support

  • from: https://gpsd.gitlab.io/gpsd/
  • Service daemon that monitors one or more GPSes or AIS receivers attached through serial or USB ports.
  • Makes all data on the location/course/velocity of the sensors available on TCP port 2947.

Auto WiFi Hotspot - Automatically turn your Pi into a WiFi hotspot when in the field!

CygnusRFI - RFI analysis tool for Ground Stations & Radio Telescopes

  • from: https://github.com/0xCoto/CygnusRFI
  • Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) analysis tool
  • uses Python and GNU Radio Companion (GRC)
  • Also carries out automated analysis of the recorded data, producing a series of averaged spectra covering a wide range of frequencies of interest.
  • built for ground station operators, radio astronomers, amateur radio operators who wish to get an idea of how "radio-quiet" their environment is, using inexpensive instruments like SDRs.
  • Integrates with SDRs that work with GRC

wxtoimg - NOAA weather imaging software

  • from: https://wxtoimgrestored.xyz/beta/
  • Weather satellite (WXsat) signal to image decoder.
  • EXPERIMENTAL! for Raspberry Pi
  • Fully automated APT and WEFAX weather satellite (wxsat) decoder.
  • Supports:
    • recording, decoding, editing, and viewing,
    • real-time decoding,
    • map overlays, advanced colour enhancements, 3-D images,
    • animations, multi-pass images, projection transformation (e.g. Mercator),
    • text overlays, automated web page creation, temperature display,
    • GPS interfacing, wide-area composite image creation,
    • computer control for many weather satellite receivers, communications receivers, and scanners.

twHamQTH - an online callsign look up program

  • from: http://wa0eir.bcts.info/twhamqth.html
  • Uses a free XML feed from the HamQTH.com website of Petr, OK2CQR.
  • Callsign database has over 1.5 million callsigns.
  • Given a ham radio callsign, it will display:
    • name, address, city and country of the station.
  • About 40 pieces of the station data are downloaded and can be shared with other programs.

twclock - a world clock and automatic ID for amateur radio operators

  • from: http://wa0eir.bcts.info/twclock.html
  • Displays local time and GMT for hundreds of major cities around the world.
  • Can set an alarm to tell you when it is time for a station ID.
  • CW audio can be fed to your rig, so the ID is automatically transmitted.

acfax - Receive faxes using your radio and sound card

  • from: https://www.qsl.net/dl4sdc/
  • Program to decode faxes off a radio.
  • Features on-the-fly image adjustments and control over a wide array of receiving options.

adifmerg - merge tool for common HAM interchage file format

colrconv - convers client with sound and ncurses color support

  • from: http://db0fhn.efi.fh-nuernberg.de/doku.php?id=radio:db0fhn:convers
  • Colrconv is a modified version of VA3DP's ttylink client.
  • The Conversystem can be reached over the Internet in IRC-Mode.
    • IRC-Mode means that convers-software offers some IRC-functionality, but not all IRC options.
  • 3 different Convers servers are available.
    • DL/EU-Convers (german speaking) at DB0FHN-11,
    • WW-Convers (worldwide) is at DB0FHN-12,
    • local convers at DB0FHN-13 for local meetings.
      • After you connect you can join the convers system with ”/lo” or ”/lo ”.
      • After your login the help is available with ”/help”
  • Features:
    • split screen session with color and sound support,
    • basic line editing capabilities, a scroll buffer and status line.
    • default service is 3600 (convers).
    • A new color is assigned to each user the first time text is sent.
    • Six colors are used twice, the second time in BOLD.
    • Bold red is reserved for special messages (starting with ***) and for private messages (eg. <oh2bns>: Hello!).
    • Plays certain sound files when text arrives from the convers bridge.
      • callsign.au (eg. oh2bns.au), unknown.au, signedon.au says.au and pingpong.au.
      • You have to make your own .au file. The rsynth package is good at this.
      • Sound files should go into /usr/lib/colrconv.

d-rats - A communication tool for D-STAR

fbb - Packet radio mailox and utilities

gcb - Utility to calculate long and short path to a location

  • from:
  • Gcb computes long and short path given the latitude and longitude of two stations.
  • Output is relative from station1 to station2.
  • Used as a tool for pointing the antenna in the right direction, either by using:
    • the short (daylight) propagation path or
    • using the long path, which is almost always via the dark side of the earth.
  • Gcb believes the earth to be a perfect circle, which means there will be small calculation errors.

glfer - Spectrogram display and QRSS keyer

  • from: https://www.qsl.net/in3otd/
  • Spectrum analyzer updated to use GTK+ 2.0 and has some new additional features:
    • new spectral estimator,
    • several spectrum averaging modes.
    • CPU load has been greatly reduced.
    • allows selection of any device in /dev as the control device for the transmitter.

Lopora - Low Power Radio. QRSS.

  • from: https://www.qsl.net/pa2ohh/11lop.htm
  • Very low CW speed. A point lasts 3 or 6 seconds. 10 minute repeats are common.
  • Very low power. E.g. 10 mW from Holland to Spain (1500 km).
  • Most activities can be found in a band of only 200 Hz, namely 10,140.000 kHz +/- 100 Hz in the 30 meters band.
  • This band is only just as wide as a very narrow CW filter and cannot be detected by ear.
  • Results are uploaded to a website so you can see if your MEPT beacon is received by this QRSS grabber.
  • 10 to 20 minute time interval repeats means stacking can strengthen weak signals.

Meteor Decoder - Weather satellite data

NOAA APT image decoder

  • from: https://github.com/martinber/
  • docs: https://noaa-apt.mbernardi.com.ar/
  • noaa-apt takes a recorded WAV file and decodes the image.
  • Decode raw images from WAV files.
  • Add map overlays with countries, states, provinces and lakes.
  • Simple false color, Histogram equalization.
  • can disable syncing and export every step of the decoding process, useful for corrupted recordings.
  • Telemetry band reading.
  • Rotate the output image, in case of ascending (South to North) passes.

Xdx - tcp/ip DX-cluster and ON4KST chat client

  • from: https://github.com/N0NB/xdx, https://sourceforge.net/projects/xdxclusterclient/
  • A DX Cluster is a means for Amateur Radio operators to tell each other about DX stations in realtime.
  • Users who are connected to a DX Cluster are capable of:
    • announcing DX spots, send personal talk messages, send and receive mail, messages,
    • search and retrieve archived data, and access data from information databases.
  • A DX-cluster client which shows a list with DX announcements and a separate text widget with WWV, WCY, 'To ALL' and other server messages.
  • Suited to connect to ON4KST chat which is more suited for VHF and UHF operators.
    • ON4KST chatis a place to meet and plan long distance radio contact, moonbounce and meteor scatter.
    • For more info on ON4KST chat see http://www.on4kst.com.

DXSpider - DX Cluster Server

  • from: http://www.dxcluster.org/main/
  • A DX Cluster is a means for Amateur Radio operators to tell each other about DX stations in realtime.
  • Instructions at the link above.

fccexam - Study tool for USA FCC commercial radio license exams

  • from: https://www.qrz.com/db/AC6SL
  • An interactive study guide for USA FCC commercial radio exams.
  • Question pool choices:
    • T1 First Class Radiotelegraph: elements 1, 5, 6.
    • T2 Second Class Radiotelegraph: elements 1, 5, 6.
    • T3 Third Class Radiotelegraph: elements 1, 5.
    • GROL General Radiotelephone Operator License: elements 1, 3.
    • GROL+ General Radiotelephone Operator License + Radar: elements 1, 3, 8.
    • MROP Marine Radio Operator Permit: element 1.
    • GMDSS Global Maritime Distress Safety System Radio Operator: elements 1, 7.
    • GMDSS+ GMDSS Radio Maintainer + Radar: elements 1, 7, 8, 9.
    • RGMDSS Restricted GMDSS Radio Operator: elements 1, 7R.
    • Questions are chosen randomly from the selected pool.
    • Incorrect answers cause the question to be asked again later.
    • Licenses are issued by the FCC, but exams are conducted by COLEM Examiners.
    • For more information about FCC commercial radio licensing:

gnuais / gnuaisgui - GNU Automatic Identification System receiver

HamClock - display worldwide propogation etc

CQRPROP - shows propagation data from N0NBH website

hamexam - Study guide for USA FCC amateur radio license examinations

  • from: https://www.qrz.com/db/AC6SL
  • Hamexam is an interactive study tool for the 3 USA FCC amateur radio (ham radio) question pools.
  • The 3 question pools are:
    • t element 2, Technician Class (entry level),
    • g element 3, General Class (also requires element 2),
    • e element 4, Extra Class (also requires elements 2 and 3).
  • Questions are chosen randomly from the selected pool.
  • Incorrect answers cause the question to be asked again later.
  • Licenses are issued by the FCC, but exams are conducted by Volunteer Examiners.
  • For more information about USA amateur radio licensing:

hamfax - Qt based shortwave fax

  • from: http://hamfax.sourceforge.net/
  • An application for sending and receiving facsimiles in amateur radio and for receiving public facsimile broadcasts like weather maps.
  • Features:
    • Receiving FM (frequency modulated) transmissions on shortwave.
    • Transmitting shortwave facsimiles.
    • Receiving of satellite broadcast (untested).

inspectrum - tool for visualising captured radio signals

  • from: https://github.com/miek/inspectrum
  • Tool for analysing captured signals, primarily from software-defined radio receivers.
  • Features:
    • Large (100GB+) file support,
    • Spectrogram with zoom/pan,
    • Plots of amplitude, frequency, phase and IQ samples,
    • Cursors for measuring period, symbol rate and extracting symbols,
    • Export of selected time period, filtered samples and demodulated data.

predict-gsat - Graphical Predict client

splat - analyze point-to-point terrestrial RF communication links

  • from: http://www.qsl.net/kd2bd/splat.html
  • An RF Signal Propagation, Loss, And Terrain analysis tool for the electromagnetic spectrum between 20 MHz and 20 GHz.
  • Provides site engineering data such as the great circle distances and bearings between sites,
    • antenna elevation angles (uptilt), depression angles (downtilt),
    • antenna height above mean sea level, antenna height above average terrain,
    • bearings and distances to known obstructions based on map and SSRTM elevation data,
    • path loss and field strength and Irregular Terrain With Obstructions (ITWOM v3.0) model,
    • minimum antenna height requirements needed to establish line-of-sight communication paths.
  • Produces:
    • reports, graphs, highly detailed and carefully annotated topographic maps
    • showing line-of-sight paths, path loss, field strength, and expected coverage areas of transmitters and repeater systems.
  • Interoperates with Xastir.

PyBombs - (Python Bundles Overlay Managed Build System)

  • from:
  • A meta-package manager that can install packages from source or using the local package manager(s).
  • Designed for use by users of the GNU Radio project, which is extended by a large number of out-of-tree modules (OOTs).
  • PyBOMBS is a recipe-based system and can easily mix and match installations from different sources.
  • Cross-compilation works transparently.

wwl - Calculates distance and azimuth between two Maidenhead locators

Universal Ham Radio Remote (UHRR) - setup/use an amateur radio station remotely using a web browser

  • from: https://github.com/F4HTB/Universal_HamRadio_Remote_HTML5
  • Python server and HTML5 frontend provide a web interface to use your Transceiver for both RX and TX.
  • Can use voice and CW plus some advanced functions of your radio.
  • Use the speaker and microphone of your computer to communicate.
  • Intended for remote use, it is not designed for use on the same computer as an interface even though it will likely work.
  • You need:
    • a radio station compatible with Hamlib.
    • a cat interface.
    • a circuit making it possible to adapt the audio levels between the microphone input, the speaker output and the sound card (see url for diagrams)

QDMR - program DMR radios

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