For anybody new to the world of ham radio, one of many issues that takes slightly getting used to is visiting the web sites of authoritative specialists in varied fields and feeling such as you’ve traveled again to the Web of 1999. As a passion that lends itself to extraordinarily utilitarian amateurs, the software program facet can really feel slightly left behind like that. [Andy] aka [KB1OIQ], alternatively, can be a Linux fanatic and has been placing collectively a whole Linux distribution with every little thing wanted to function a radio within the trendy period.

Whereas most ham radio software program appears to be developed for Home windows, there’s a lot obtainable for Linux. It simply takes a little bit of tinkering and experimentation to get every little thing configured good. Andy’s Ham Radio Linux, or AHRL, takes a whole lot of the guesswork out of this. The distribution contains every little thing from contact logging software program to antenna modeling, propagation forecasting, and digital design. Whereas instruments like this are largely elective for working radios themselves, there are additionally instruments included to permit the consumer to function varied digital modes as properly, which require some type of laptop interface to make use of.

The opposite design consideration [Andy] made was one thing that almost all hams take into account when selecting software program, which is that it ought to be capable of run on extraordinarily modest {hardware}. To that finish, the distribution is predicated round Xubuntu and may run on ten-year-old machines with as little as 2 GB of RAM. And, for these extra in software-defined radio particularly, there may be one other Debian-based Linux distribution known as DragonOS that we’ve featured just a few different occasions as properly which can be price trying out.