1. technology and computing
2. software

Amateur Radio Software
Distributed with
(X)Ubuntu LTS
Serge Stroobandt, ON4AA
Copyright 2014–2015, licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
This page is still under construction.
Introduction
Amateur radio (also called “ham radio”), is a technical hobby Many ham radio
stations are highly integrated with computers. Radios are interfaced with computers to aid with contact logging, propagation prediction, station spotting,
antenna steering, signal (de)modulation and filtering.
For many years, amateur radio software has been a bastion of Windows™ applications developed by However, with the advent of the Rasperry Pi, amateur
radio hobbyists are slowly but surely discovering GNU/Linux.
Most of the software for GNU/Linux is available through package repositories. Such package repositories come by default with the GNU/Linux distribution of your choice. Package management systems offer many benefits in the form
of security (you know what you are getting from whom) and ease-of-use (packages are
upgraded automatically). No longer does one need to wander the back corners
of the internet to find new or updated software, exposing oneself to the risk of
catching a computer virus.
A number of GNU/Linux distributions offer freely installable ham-related
packages under the “Amateur Radio” section of their main repository. The
largest collection of ham radio packages is offered by OpenSuse and Debian-derived
distributions like Xubuntu LTS and Linux Mint, to name but a few. Arch may also
have whole bunch of ham related software in [AUR].
Synaptic
One way to find and install ham radio packages on Debian-derived distros
is by using the Synaptic graphical package manager (see Figure 1). However,
searching the vast Synaptic package database may become rapidly overwhelm-
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ing at times. This is why for this article, another technique was employed;
namely, shamelessly exploiting aptitude command-line arguments.
Figure 1: The Synaptic graphical package manager partially showing the “Amateur Radio” section of the Xubuntu LTS repository.
Hamradio
The entire default ham radio package list of no less than 78 packages is printed
below. Lazy as I am, the Markdown table was created from the command line
and included by reference into the surprisingly short Markdown source of
this page. Below command prints a Markdown pipe table with the package
name and description of all packages belonging to the hamradio section of the
native architecture. If you want to find out more about how this works, here
are aptitude ’s package list customisation escape codes and search patterns.
$ aptitude -F'%p' search '~r native ~s hamradio' \
|xargs apt-cache show \
|awk '/^Package/{name=$2} \
/^Description-en/{$1="";sub(FS,"");description=$0} \
/^Homepage/{url=$2} \
/^$/{if(url) {printf("|["name"]("url")|"description"|\n");
url=""} \
else {printf("|"name"|"description"|\n")}}' \
|sed -e '/.*-common/d' -e '/.*-core/d' \
-e '/.*-data/d' -e '/.*-dev/d' -e '/.*-doc.*/d' \
-e '/^|lib.*/d' -e '/^|\[lib.*/d' \
> ../doc/hamradio.tmp
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Ofcourse, my indolence is such that I counted the packages with |wc -l .
Table 1: Amateur radio packages distributed with Xubuntu LTS
name
package description
acfax
Receive faxes using your radio and sound card
aldo
Morse code training program
antennavis
antenna radiation pattern visualization software
aprsd
Internet Gateway for the Automatic Position Reporting System
aprsdigi
digipeater for APRS
ax25-apps
AX.25 ham radio applications
ax25-node
Amateur Packet Radio Node program
ax25-tools
tools for AX.25 interface configuration
ax25-xtools
tools for AX.25 interface configuration – X11-based
ax25mail-utils hamradio utilities for fbb
baycomepp
Drivers for the HB9JNX packet radio epp modem
baycomusb
Drivers for the HB9JNX packet radio usb modem
chirp
Configuration tool for amateur radios
colrconv
Convers client with curses color support
cqrlog
Advanced logging program for hamradio operators
cutesdr
simple demodulation and spectrum display program
cw
Morse code tutor - command line user interface
cwcp
Morse code tutor - text user interface
cwdaemon
morse daemon for the parallel or serial port
cwirc
X-Chat morse plugin
d-rats
Communications tool for D-STAR amateur radio
ebook2cw
convert ebooks to Morse MP3s/OGGs
ebook2cwgui GUI for ebook2cw
fbb
Packet radio mailbox and utilities
fccexam
Study tool for USA FCC commercial radio license exams.
fldigi
digital modem program for hamradio operators
flmsg
amateur radio forms management editor
flwrap
amateur radio file encapsulation/compression utility
gcb
Utility to calculate long and short path to a location
glfer
program for reception and transmission of QRSS/DFCW signals
gmfsk
MFSK, RTTY and other digital mode terminal for HF/amateur radio
gpredict
Satellite tracking program
gpsk31
GTK-based psk31
gqrx-sdr
Software defined radio receiver
grig
graphical user interface to the Ham Radio Control Libraries
gsmc
Smith Chart calculator for impedance matching
hamexam
Study tool for USA FCC amateur radio (ham) exams.
hamfax
Receive/send radio facsimile transmissions with Soundcard/PTC-II
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name
package description
icom
Software control for ICOM radios with CI-V interface
klog
KDE ham radio logging program
linpsk
program for operating PSK31/RTTY modes with X GUI
morse
training program about morse-code for aspiring radio hams
morse-x
morse “practicing” tool for X
morse2ascii
tool for decoding the morse codes from a PCM WAV file
multimon
Linux Radio Transmission Decoder
nec
NEC2 Antenna Modelling System
nec2c
translation of the NEC2 FORTRAN source code to the C language
node
Amateur Packet Radio Node program (transitional package)
owx
utility to program Wouxun dual-band handheld radios
p10cfgd
Remote configuration daemon for Gracilis Packeten
predict
Satellite Tracking Program with Optional Voice Output
predict-gsat
Graphical Satellite Tracking Client Program
qantenna
Qt based program for viewing antennas as described by NEC files
qrq
high speed morse trainer, similar to DL4MM’s Rufz
qsstv
Qt-based slow-scan TV and fax
quisk
Software Defined Radio (SDR)
soundmodem Sound Card Amateur Packet Radio Modems
splat
analyze point-to-point terrestrial RF communication links
tk2
Tk GUI for the ICOM IC-R2 receiver
tk5
Experimental Software for the ICOM IC-R5 Receiver
tlf
console based ham radio contest logger
trustedqsl
QSL log signing for the Logbook of the World (LoTW)
tucnak2
VHF/UHF/SHF Hamradio contest log version 2
twclock
World clock for ham radio operators
twpsk
Soundcard-based X program for operating PSK31
wsjt
weak-signal amateur radio communications
wsjtx
weak-signal amateur radio communications
wwl
Calculates distance and azimuth between two Maidenhead locators
xastir
X Amateur Station Tracking and Information Reporting
xcwcp
Morse code tutor - graphical user interface
xdemorse
GTK+ Morse Code Decoding Software
xdx
DX-cluster tcp/ip client for amateur radio
xlog
GTK+ Logging program for Hamradio Operators
xnec2c
calculate and display radio antenna properties
xnecview
NEC structure and gain pattern viewer
xsmc-calc
Smith Chart calculator for X
yagiuda
software to analyse performance of Yagi-Uda antennas
z8530-utils2
Utilities for Z8530 based HDLC cards for AX.25
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Electronics
But wait, there is more! … The vast array of electronics packages should not
be overlooked.
$ ( aptitude -F'%p' search '~r native ~s electronics'
aptitude -F'%p' search '~r native ~Rrecommends: science-electronics'
aptitude -F'%p' search '~r native ~Rsuggests: science-electronics' ) \
|xargs apt-cache show \
|awk '/^Package/{name=$2} \
/^Description-en/{$1="";sub(FS,"");description=$0} \
/^Homepage/{url=$2} \
/^$/{if(url) {printf("|["name"]("url")|"description"|\n");
url=""} \
else {printf("|"name"|"description"|\n")}}' \
|sed -e '/.*-common/d' -e '/.*-core/d' \
-e '/.*-data/d' -e '/.*-dev/d' -e '/.*-doc.*/d' \
-e '/^|lib.*/d' -e '/^|\[lib.*/d' \
|sort -u > ../doc/electronics.tmp
Table 2: Electronics packages distributed with Xubuntu LTS
name
package description
alliance
VLSI CAD Tools
altos
Altus Metrum firmware and utilities
arduino
AVR development board IDE and built-in libraries
arduinomighty-1284p
Platform files for Arduino to run on ATmega1284P
arduino-mk
Program your Arduino from the command line
atlc
Arbitrary Transmission Line Calculator
atlc-examples
Examples for Arbitrary Transmission Line Calculator
avarice
use GDB with Atmel’s JTAG ICE for the AVR
avra
assembler for Atmel AVR microcontrollers
avrdude
software for programming Atmel AVR microcontrollers
avrp
Programmer for Atmel AVR microcontrollers
avrprog
Programmer for Atmel AVR microcontrollers
bossa-cli
Atmel SAM ARM microcontroller flash programming utility
bossa
Atmel SAM ARM microcontroller flash programming GUI
bottlerocket
Utility to control X10 Firecracker devices for home automation
cc1111
C Compiler for TI/Chipcon 8051-based RF SOCs
confluence
language for synchronous reactive hardware system design
covered
Verilog code coverage analysis tool
cycfx2prog
Cypress EZ-USB FX2 (LP) programmer
dfu-util
Device firmware update (DFU 1.0) USB programmer
5
name
package description
digitemp
read temperature sensors in a 1-Wire net
drawtiming
tool for documenting hardware designs through timing diagrams
easyspice
A graphical frontend to the Spice simulator
eep24c
read and write serial I2C eeprom devices
electric
electrical CAD system
flashrom
Identify, read, write, erase, and verify BIOS/ROM/flash chips
flexloader
utility to configure SRAM based ALTERA devices
fped
Footprint editor
freehdl
VHDL simulator for Linux
fritzing
Easy-to-use electronic design software
gcc-avr
The GNU C compiler (cross compiler for avr)
geda-examples
GPL EDA – Electronics design software (example designs)
geda-gattrib
GPL EDA – Electronics design software (attribute editor)
geda-gnetlist
GPL EDA – Electronics design software (netlister)
geda-gschem
GPL EDA – Electronics design software (schematic editor)
geda-gsymcheck
GPL EDA – Electronics design software (symbol checker)
geda
GPL EDA – Electronics design software (metapackage)
geda-symbols
GPL EDA – Electronics design software (symbols library)
geda-utils
GPL EDA – Electronics design software (utilities)
geda-xgsch2pcb
GPL EDA – Electronics design software – gschem -> PCB workflow
GUI
gerbv
Gerber file viewer for PCB design
glogic
graphical logic circuit simulator
gnucap
GNU Circuit Analysis package
gnusim8085
Graphical Intel 8085 simulator, assembler and debugger
gplcver
Verilog simulator
gpsim
Simulator for Microchip’s PIC microcontrollers
gputils
GNU PIC utilities
gresistor
resistor color code calculator
gspiceui
Graphical user interface for gnucap and ngspice
gtkwave
VCD (Value Change Dump) file waveform viewer
gwave
waveform viewer eg for spice simulators
irsim
switch-level simulator
iverilog
Icarus verilog compiler
kicad
Electronic schematic and PCB design software
langford-utils
Control programs for the Per Vices Noctar IQ demodulator board
linsmith
tool to generate Smith Charts
m16c-flash
Flash programmer for Renesas M16C and R8C microcontrollers
magic
VLSI layout tool
mcu8051ide
Graphical Integrated Development Environment for 8051
mspdebug
debugging tool for MSP430 microcontrollers
6
name
package description
nbc
Compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks
ngspice
Spice circuit simulator
nitpic
simulator for the Microchip PIC16C84 microcontroller
oregano
tool for schematical capture of electronic circuits
owfs-fuse
1-Wire filesystem
owfs
Dallas 1-wire support
owftpd
FTP daemon providing access to 1-Wire networks
owhttpd
HTTP daemon providing access to 1-Wire networks
owserver
Backend server for 1-Wire control
ow-shell
shell utilities to talk to an 1-Wire owserver
pcb2gcode
command-line tool for engraving PCBs using CNCs
pcb-gtk
printed circuit board (pcb) design program - GTK+ interface
pcb
printed circuit board (pcb) design program - meta-package
pcb-lesstif
printed circuit board (pcb) design program - LessTif interface
picprog
Microchip PIC serial programmer software
pyrocket
control Striker II and Dream Cheeky USB Missile Launchers
pyvisa
Python bindings for Virtual Instrument Software Architecture
qelectrotech
Electric schematic editor
qsapecng
symbolic analyzer and solver of linear analog circuits
rfdump
tool to decode RFID tag data
s51dude
In-System Programmer for 8051 MCUs using usbtiny
scantool
OBD-II vehicle diagnostic scanner
sdcc
Small Device C Compiler
sdcc-libraries
Small Device C Compiler (libraries)
sdcc-ucsim
Micro-controller simulator for SDCC
sigrok-cli
command-line frontend for the sigrok logic analyzer software
sigrok
Logic analyzer and protocol decoder software suite (metapackage)
simulavr
Atmel AVR simulator
simulpic
simulator for Microchip PIC16F84 microcontroller
spectools
Utilities for using the Wi-Spy USB spectrum analyzer hardware
spim
MIPS R2000/R3000 emulator
t2n
Simple command-line tool for Lego NXT
tclspice
NGspice library for Tcl
texlive-latex-extra
TeX Live: LaTeX additional packages
tkgate
Tcl/Tk based digital circuit editor and simulator
uisp
Micro In-System Programmer for Atmel’s AVR MCUs
verilator
fast free Verilog simulator
verilog
Icarus verilog compiler (transitional package)
vish
Commandline interface for Virtual Instrument Software
Architecture
visolate
tool for engraving PCBs using CNCs
7
name
package description
xcircuit
Draw circuit schematics or almost anything
xsmc-calc
Smith Chart calculator for X
Engineering
Every home-brewed ham project involves some amount of engineering…
$ ( aptitude -F'%p' search '~r native ~Rrecommends: science-engineering'
aptitude -F'%p' search '~r native ~Rsuggests: science-engineering' ) \
|xargs apt-cache show \
|awk '/^Package/{name=$2} \
/^Description-en/{$1="";sub(FS,"");description=$0} \
/^Homepage/{url=$2} \
/^$/{if(url) {printf("|["name"]("url")|"description"|\n");
url=""} \
else {printf("|"name"|"description"|\n")}}' \
|sed -e '/.*-common/d' -e '/.*-core/d' \
-e '/.*-data/d' -e '/.*-dev/d' -e '/.*-doc.*/d' \
-e '/^|lib.*/d' -e '/^|\[lib.*/d' \
|sort -u > ../doc/engineering.tmp
Table 3: Engineering packages distributed with Xubuntu LTS
name
package description
cba
Continuous Beam Analysis
cgns-convert
CFD General Notation System - Conversion tools
code-aster-gui
Graphical user interface for Code_Aster - client
code-saturne
General purpose Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software
freecad
Extensible Open Source CAx program (alpha)
freefoam
programs for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
gerris
Gerris Flow Solver
getdp
general environment for the treatment of discrete problems
gmsh
Three-dimensional finite element mesh generator
hdfview
Java HDF Object viewer
netgen
Automatic 3d tetrahedral mesh generator
pythoncad
Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) program
python-fiat
tabulation of finite element function spaces
python-netcdf
netCDF interface for Python
python-openturns Python front-end of OpenTURNS (aka TUI)
python-silo
Python interface to the SILO Scientific I/O library
r-cran-spc
GNU R Statistical Process Control
sailcut
A sail design and plotting software
sfc
SyFi Form Compiler
syrthes
Transient thermal simulations in complex solid geometries
8
name
package description
z88
Finite Element Analysis Program - runtime
Astronomy
Amateur radio is just a diverse hobby If you track satellites, or like to chase
alien signals with SETI, you cannot do away with some of below packages.
$ ( aptitude -F'%p' search '~r native ~Rrecommends: science-astronomy'
aptitude -F'%p' search '~r native ~Rsuggests: science-astronomy' ) \
|xargs apt-cache show \
|awk '/^Package/{name=$2} \
/^Description-en/{$1="";sub(FS,"");description=$0} \
/^Homepage/{url=$2} \
/^$/{if(url) {printf("|["name"]("url")|"description"|\n");
url=""} \
else {printf("|"name"|"description"|\n")}}' \
|sed -e '/.*-common/d' -e '/.*-core/d' \
-e '/.*-data/d' -e '/.*-dev/d' -e '/.*-doc.*/d' \
-e '/^|lib.*/d' -e '/^|\[lib.*/d' \
|sort -u > ../doc/astronomy.tmp
Table 4: Astronomy packages distributed with Xubuntu LTS
name
package description
astronomicalalmanac
astronomical almanac - calculate planet and star positions
boinc-app-milkyway
Milkyway@home application for the BOINC client
boinc-app-seti
SETI@home application for the BOINC client
esorex
Execution Tool for European Southern Observatory pipelines
ftools-fv
Tool for viewing and editing FITS format files
funtools
Minimal buy-in FITS utility package
gcx
astronomical image processing and photometry gtk+ application
gliese
stellar data set from the Third Catalogue of Nearby Stars
gpredict
Satellite tracking program
gyoto
General relativistic ray-tracing
lightspeed
Shows how objects moving at relativistic speeds look like
lynkeos.app
Tool to process planetary astronomical images for GNUstep
openuniverse
3D Universe Simulator
pdl
perl data language: Perl extensions for numerics
pgplot5
large subroutine library for plotting scientific data
predict
Satellite Tracking Program with Optional Voice Output
python-cpl
Control pipeline recipes from the European Southern
Observatory
python-pyfits
Python module for reading, writing, and manipulating FITS files
python-pywcs
Set of routines for handling the FITS WCS standard
9
name
package description
python-scientific
Python modules useful for scientific computing
qfits-tools
FITS manipulation tools
saods9
Image display tool for astronomy
savi
satellite constellation visualisation
scilab-celestlab
Library of space flight dynamics functions based on Scilab.
sextractor
Source extractor for astronomical images
slang-cfitsio
read and write FITS files from S-Lang
stellarium
real-time photo-realistic sky generator
sunclock
fancy clock showing time and geographical data
wcslib-tools
Command line tools utilizing wcslib
wcstools
Handle the WCS of a FITS image
xplanet
planetary body renderer
xtide
provides tide and current predictions
yale
stellar data set from the Yale Bright Star Catalogue
yorick-cubeview
3D FITS data viewer specialized in spectro-imaging
yorick-full
full installation of the Yorick interpreter and add-ons
yorick-mira
optical interferometry image reconstruction within Yorick
yorick-spydr
FITS image display and simple analysis
yorick-yao
Yorick-based adaptive optics system simulator
Other science
In the section universe/science , there are more packages of interest to the
amateur radio operator. The reason why these packages did not show up before is in part due to poor package classification.
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$ aptitude -F'%p' search '~r native ~s universe/science' \
|xargs apt-cache show \
|awk '/^Package/{name=$2} \
/^Description-en/{$1="";sub(FS,"");description=$0} \
/^Homepage/{url=$2} \
/^$/{if(url) {printf("|["name"]("url")|"description"|\n");
url=""} \
else {printf("|"name"|"description"|\n")}}' \
|sed -e '/.*-common/d' -e '/.*-core/d' \
-e '/.*-data/d' -e '/.*-dev/d' -e '/.*-doc.*/d' \
-e '/^|lib.*/d' -e '/^|\[lib.*/d' \
> ../doc/science.tmp
$ cat ../doc/science.tmp \
|grep -e astronomical-almanac -e aweather -e elmer -e fcd- -e wfrog \
> ../doc/science.selection.tmp
Table 5: Other science packages of interest distributed with Xubuntu LTS
name
package description
astronomical-almanac astronomical almanac - calculate planet and star positions
aweather
Advanced Weather Monitoring Program
elmer
finite element multiphysics suite - binaries
qthid-fcd-controller
Funcube Dongle controller
wfrog
Web-based customizable weather station software
Even more
Check out Hamsoft, for even more ham software which perhaps
is not distributed with (X)Ubuntu. Also, —if your really need
to— much Windows™-only software will run flawlessly on
GNU/Linux by using tools such as PlayOnLinux. In another article, you can read about my experience running closed source
ham radio software on GNU/Linux.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Other licensing available on request.
Unattended CSS typesetting with
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This work is published at
http://hamwaves.com/linux.ham.packages/en/.
Last update: Thursday, May 28, 2015.
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