Popular amateur radio projects on GitHub

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I was curious about amateur radio projects in GitHub, so I did a simple search for “amateur radio.” The resulting list is sorted by number of stars received by projects. I’ve arbitrarily pulled some of the listed projects for presentation here. If you’d like to see the whole list, hit this link: https://github.com/topics/amateur-radio

HamPi, formerly known as W3DJS Raspberry Pi for Ham Radio

HamPi, with 570 GitHub stars, is one of the big dogs in this list. According to the HamPi wiki, several categories of programs are included in the package:

• General Ham Radio Applications
  • Main set of general tools.
• Antenna Applications
  • Design and analysis software for Antennas.
• Digital Mode Applications
  • Support for modes like JT65, JT9, T10, FT8, FT4, WSPR.
• Software Defined Radio
  • Support for RTL-SDR, SDRPlay SDR, HackRF SDR
    • https://www.rtl-sdr.com/
    • https://www.sdrplay.com/
    • https://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/
• APRS Applications
  • APRS “Automatic Position Reporting System” is a digital communication system for real-time exchange of digital information.
• FLDigi Application Suite
  • Amateur Radio Digital Modes operation using a PC.
• Logging Applications
  • Logging QSOs and contests.
• Winlink Applications
  • Worldwide radio email.
• Morse code Applications
  • Morse code rig control and training.
• Updates between releases
  • Some package instructions for manual updates

The Raspberry Pi build is based on Debian 11 “Bullseye” so from the operating system perspective, it’s a bit out of date. The individual parts of the HamPi were last updated 2, 3, or more years ago. Still, this collection of amateur radio programs provides many great opportunities for radio amateurs.

HamMessenger

 HamMessenger is a portable, battery powered device that runs on a microcontroller and interfaces with an inexpensive ham radio to send and receive text messages and provide position updates using the APRS protocol. Messages and position updates sent via HamMessenger can be viewed on sites such as aprs.fi. HamMessenger messages are NOT encrypted!

ionosphere

Receive, decode, log, upload APRS packets using low cost RTL-SDR devices. This project is the next-generation successor to PyPacket with a number of enhancements and simplified cross-platform support.

pistar-lastqso

If you’re interested in M17, you’ll want to know that M17 support has been added to this project.

A Tool to Monitor DMR, YSF, D-STAR, NXDN, P25, and M17, on Pi-Star. As of version 3.22, M17 RF support has been added. Users with an M17-capable radio are asked to give this version a good shakedown. This program was written for the official pi-star version 4.1.4 and later only. NO testing has been done, nor will it ever be done, with earlier versions. Likewise, no third-party “enhanced” dashboards or other user assembled hotspot solutions are supported at this time.

Local-APRS

local-aprs is a ‘local’ web server and client for aprs messages. Imagine an event… Now, the event may not have good internet coverage on the cell system, which is to be expected (or perhaps we’re in a “when all else fails” scenario). So we don’t want to count on connections to APRS-IS, or any internet connection. How about if we had a local aprs server that could be setup on-site? The local server would consist of a radio, TNC, a server (like a Raspberry Pi perhaps), and a wifi access point.

Node Red Contesting Dashboard

This program is written in Node Red and displays a real time dashboard for ham radio contesting events. Radio, score, contact and lookup UDP broadcast packets are sent from each contesting computer to the Node Red server. That information is parsed out and displayed in real time for other contesters to follow… This dashboard also allows an operator to stream the dashboard via the internet to engage an on-line audience. The program is also useful during Field Day where other operators or guests can follow along in the contest progress.

K6GTE Field Day logger (GUI)

The logger is written in Python 3, and uses the PyQT5 lib. Qt5 is cross platform so it might work on everything. I have tested it on Linux, Rasperry Pi OS and Windows 10. This code is based off of a logger I had done earlier using Python and the curses library wich can be found here and one written for Winter Field Day here. The log is stored in an sqlite3 database file ‘FieldDay.db’… The logger will generate a cabrillo file ‘YOURCALL.log’ and a ‘Statistics.txt’ file with a band/mode/power breakdown which you can use when you submit your logs to the ARRL online here. An ADIF file will also be generated so you can merge contacts into your normal Log.

APRSWeb

APRSWeb connects to Direwolf (or any AGWPE-compatible server, in theory) and rendered received APRS frames onto a map in your web browser… Unlike other APRS software, APRSWeb’s target is to render into a web browser. You can think of APRSWeb as a self-hosted version of https://aprs.fi, except it can run on hardware as modest as a Raspberry Pi.

SigDigger – The free digital signal analyzer

Got an SDR? This project might be interesting.

SigDigger is a free digital signal analyzer for GNU/Linux and macOS, designed to extract information of unknown radio signals. It supports a variety of SDR devices through SoapySDR, and allows adjustable demodulation of FSK, PSK and ASK signals, decode analog video, analyze bursty signals and listen to analog voice channels (all in real time).

KD5FMU Ham Radio Crusader

I can’t exit this post without calling out the great content provided by “Freddie Mac,” the Ham Radio Crusader. His GitHub page contains some scripts for AllStarLink that he’s written or collected.

AllScan.info by NR9V

David Gleason NR9V is the author of the AllScan “AllStar Favorites Management & Scanning Web App.” His project page on GitHub is helpful if you are considering deploying his app. I use AllScan extensively and find it to be a great addition to AllStar, making it easier and faster for me to use AllStar.

Closing

As you can see, there are some great packages housed on GitHub. I venture to say there is probably something there to interest most any radio amateur. While GitHub focuses on projects (translation: computer code and scripts) there are more resources there than just apps and packages.

If you are feeling adventurous and want to explore a bit, do the search (hit this link: https://github.com/topics/amateur-radio) and see if something sparks some interest.