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What Debian Offers for Amateur Radio in APT
I recently sat down at the shack with a Debian testing installed—more out of curiosity than anything—and decided to dig around to see what kind of amateur radio software is available directly from the APT repositories. No PPAs, no compiling from scratch. Just plain old apt.
And honestly? There’s a lot in there.
Getting Started
If you’re running Debian (or something based on it—like Ubuntu), pop open your terminal and try this:
apt-cache search amateur radio
The list is long. I figured I’d share some of the highlights that caught my eye, in case you’re thinking of setting up a ham radio workstation with Linux.
📡 APRS & Packet Stuff
Want to run your own APRS iGate or digipeater? You’re covered.
aprx: This one’s solid for setting up a receive-only or full iGate.aprsdigi: A simpler digipeater option.soundmodem: Emulates a TNC using just your sound card. Works well with 1200 baud packet.
Also stumbled on a2d—apparently it bridges APRS to DAPNET for DMR pagers.
🎙️ Digital Modes
Of course, WSJT-X and friends are there:
wsjtx,jtdx: Your go-to for FT8, FT4, WSPR, etc.js8call: A personal favorite for low-band chatting with more flexibility than FT8.flamp,flmsg,flwrap: For sending structured messages and files over HF.
If you’re into Winlink, there’s pat—a decent cross-platform client. Easy to run headless too.
📚 Exams & Learning
Even tools to help study:
hamexam: Practice tests for US licenses.canadian-ham-exam: Same idea, for our friends in Canada.
🎛️ Rig Control
No need for proprietary tools here.
hamlib: Core library for rig control (also has CLI tools).libhamlib-utils: Helpful for scripting or testing.- There are bindings for Python, Perl, Lua, and even Tcl if you’re into that kind of thing.
You can even drive your transceiver from a Python script with python3-hamlib and pyhamtools.
📡 Satellites & Propagation
Playing with propagation tools?
gr-satellites: GNU Radio-based decoders for satellite telemetry.voacapl+pythonprop: Good ol’ HF propagation prediction, straight from the VOACAP engine.
🌐 EchoLink & Remote Ops
Some of us love working remote—or just can’t be at the shack all day.
qtel: EchoLink client with a basic but functional GUI.svxlink-server: A full-featured voice-over-IP server for ham ops.remotetrx: For controlling radios remotely.
Also found svxreflector and GPIO tools for hardware control—perfect if you’re building a repeater or node.
📓 Logging & Contesting
xlog: A solid GTK+ logger. Lightweight, gets the job done.pyqso: Python-based, good for scripting or minimalist use.tlf: Console-based contest logger—perfect if you like living in the terminal.
One Command to Grab Everything
If you just want to explore, Debian offers a meta-package:
sudo apt install task-hamradio-blend
That’ll pull in a bunch of packages related to amateur radio, SDR, and digital comms. Saves a lot of time.
Final Thoughts
Running amateur radio on Linux used to feel like a hacky workaround. Today? It’s actually pretty smooth—at least on Debian. The tools are all right there in the official repos, and most are maintained well enough to be usable out of the box.
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