Important – please see the UPDATE section near the bottom of this article.
If you are even remotely interested in setting up/using a Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer (SBC) with your Amateur Radio – you have *GOT* to take a look at the extensive work being done by Jason, KM4ACK, on his YouTube channel – (opens in a separate incident/web page to his full list of videos in reverse chronological order) – the information he is providing elsewhere on the Internet, and in particular on his GitHub account. Jason has jumped on this arena and is taking it far, far beyond anything I have done… Truthfully, I have become a “fan” of his work and that he is focused on sharing it with the rest of us.
Jason going to be totally changing his “build-a-Pi” project as we have known it, and which has grown quite popular, (dare I say “Famous”?) in Version 2.0, however, he is continuing work in that arena and there are indications he may have a Version 3.0 in the near future. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend using the near fully-automated script for most HAMS, (at least at this point) – better to follow along, follow instructions, install individual packages and learn more in the process by doing so. Take your time, and learn what you are about rather than have the script do it for you.
One caution that Jason has provided and similar to my own findings last year is that it is impossible for any of us to provide detailed instructions for configuring each application for your specific radio/sound card setup. His tutorials are meant to get the base built and applications installed. To find answers to questions concerning configuration for radio X or sound card Y the best place to search for answers is in the forums run by the author(s) of the particular application. Links to many of these can be found in the “Available Apps to Install section below on this page. Once you have the app installed and running, bet to go to the original author or his/her forums to overcome specific rig configuration problems.
Here is a list, found on Jason’s GitHub account, (see link above), that gives you an idea of just how far he has delved into the packages available for Raspian and the Raspberry Pi – he provides source links where available for most, and you can nose around in his GitHub for his own takes, menus, toolboxes, etc. (Please note – in our ever changing world, some links may be out-dated before the end of this week, but it *does* give your an idea of what is available, and there are video’s on Jason’s YouTube channel on virtually *all* of it):
Available Apps to Install
RTC | Real Time Clock
Software for DS3231 real time clock
HOTSPOT:
Hotspot is used to generate a wifi hotspot that you can connect to with other wireless devices. This is useful when in the field so you can connect to and control the pi from a wireless device. Note: Jason has also developed a very nice set of “HotSpot Tools” to help with managing this arena – see his GitHub Account – “hstools”.
GPS:
This will install the needed utilities to get a GPS device configured as a time source on the pi. Helpful when you are not connected to the internet since the pi doesn’t have a real time clock and therefore will NOT keep accurate time when powered off. Confirmed to work with this GPS https://amzn.to/2R9Muup Other GPS units may work but have not been tested.
FLRIG:
Rig contol graphical interface. http://www.w1hkj.com/
FLDIGI:
Digital Mode Software http://www.w1hkj.com/
FLMSG:
Forms manager for FLDIGI http://www.w1hkj.com/
FLAMP:
Amateur Multicast Protocol – file transfer program http://www.w1hkj.com/
PAT:
Winlink client for Raspberry Pi https://getpat.io/
ARDOPC:
HF modem for Pat. Recommended if installing Pat https://www.cantab.net/users/john.wiseman/Documents/ARDOPC.html
ARDOPGUI:
GUI interface for ARDOPC. Recommended if installing Pat
PATMENU:
Menu for configuring Pat. Recommended if installing Pat. https://github.com/km4ack/patmenu
DIREWOLF:
Software TNC. In this setup, direwolf is used for 2M packet connection with Pat and can be used for APRS connection with Xastir. Recommended if installing Pat or Xastir https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf/tree/master/doc
AX25:
AX25 tools for Direwolf & Pat. Recommended if installing Pat.
HAMLIB:
Rig contol software. https://sourceforge.net/projects/hamlib/
PULSE:
Pulse audio. Provides a way to configure virtual sound cards. REQUIRED for AMRRON ops.
JS8:
JS8Call digital software https://js8call.com
M0IAX:
Tools for working with JS8Call. Recommended if installing JS8Call https://github.com/m0iax/
WSJTX:
FT8 & WISPR software suite. https://sourceforge.net/projects/wsjt/
CHIRP:
Software to program radios. https://chirp.danplanet.com
XASTIR:
GUI interface useful when configuring APRS nodes. https://sourceforge.net/projects/xastir/
YAAC:
Yet Another APRS Client GUI interface useful when configuring APRS nodes. https://www.ka2ddo.org/ka2ddo/YAAC.html
PYQSO:
Logging software https://github.com/ctjacobs/pyqso
GPREDICT:
Satellite Tracking http://gpredict.oz9aec.net/
CQRLOG:
Loggin Software https://www.cqrlog.com/
QSSTV:
Slow scan tv http://users.telenet.be/on4qz/qsstv/index.html
Gridtracker
https://tagloomis.com/
Propagation (VOACAP)
Propagation Prediction Software https://www.qsl.net/hz1jw/voacapl/index.html
Emergency Email Server (EES):
My, (Jason’s), personal EES. Requires hotspot to be installed. https://youtu.be/XC9vdAnolO0
To access the EES, connect to the pi’s hotspot, open a web browser, and navigate to email.com
or open a web browser and navigate to the pi’s ip address on your local network.
Admin credentials are admin/admin by default but can be changed in the file found at
/var/www/html/config.php
For more configuration options – https://youtu.be/KaEeCq50Mno
The above list is incomplete – but again gives you an idea of just how extensively Jason has taken on this arena of the HAM hobby. Wonderful work and sharing in my opinion. <Two Thumbs Up!>
UPDATE: As I was updating/correcting this page today, May 19, 2020, I noted Jason has put out yet another new video on his YouTube channel, this one on the latest version of his *very* good Pat Menu for Raspberry Pi:
Then on May, 26, 2020:
On May 29, 2020 Jason explains:
and finally, when raspberrypi.org came out with a new version now named “Raspberry Pi OS”, they created some important sound card issues that needed to be fixed, and Jason came up with them on June 2, 2020:
Buster Sound Card Issues Resolved
Needless to say, this young man is an active Ham and giving a lot to those of us interested in exploiting the Raspberry Pi for our hobby.