Technical Articles
2024-12-30

10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful

The Raspberry Pi is a microcomputer the size of a credit card, capable of running Linux and Windows 10 operating systems. Despite its small size, the Raspberry Pi is powerful and highly expandable, truly embodying the saying, “Though the sparrow is small, it has all the vital organs.”
However, many friends buy a Raspberry Pi, use it for a few days, and then let it “gather dust” at home. This issue largely arises because users are unaware of how to effectively use the Raspberry Pi. Below are ten amateur radio applications that will get your Raspberry Pi moving, helping you say goodbye to “gathering dust!”
1
Decoding Digital Signals
The Raspberry Pi supports audio input through an external USB sound card to decode digital signals. In fact, you can install FLDigi software on the Raspberry Pi to decode various signal data modes, including RTTY, PSK (Phase Shift Keying), and CW (like the common Morse code), etc. This might be the first project I recommend for those eager to dive into the Raspberry Pi world.
Once you successfully decode the signal, you can send the received signal to the Reverse Beacon Network, which is easily done in the FLDigi configuration.
10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful
2
Software Defined Radio (SDR)
You can build the cheapest (perhaps) SDR receiver using a Raspberry Pi, USB sound card, and RTL adapter (around 200 RMB on Taobao), allowing you to receive signals in the frequency range of 25MHz-1800MHz. If you connect it to a dipole antenna, you’ve got a very powerful signal scanner.
You can use SDR# software on Raspbian to accomplish all of this.
10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful
10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful
More importantly, you can remotely access the Raspberry Pi receiver from your laptop, tablet, or other devices at home. Of course, you need to connect the Raspberry Pi to your home network, which can be done via Wi-Fi or a physical Ethernet cable. I recommend using a physical cable for a more stable connection.
10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful
(SDR receiver sold on Taobao, can be connected to Raspberry Pi)
3
Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR)
One incredible feature of the Raspberry Pi is that you can use the GPIO interface to output RF signals with frequencies ranging from 0-250MHz. Thus, we have a powerful LF/MF/HF/VHF weak signal propagation reporter. The Raspberry Pi has transistors that can achieve this, although calibration is required in the WsprryPi software to ensure accuracy for WSPR.
The Raspberry Pi provides an output power of about 10mW, which is not high RF but sufficient for WSPR applications. It is important to note that the output square wave requires a low-pass filter, and you also need a regulated power supply to ensure frequency stability.
10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful
<Translator’s Note> Simply put, the wireless signals emitted by the Raspberry Pi may not be strong, but WSPR allows you to track in real-time where your signal propagates in the world. Below is a simple device:
10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful
Using WSPR to track signals can even cross the Atlantic:

10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful

4
Amateur Satellite Tracking
This may be the simplest Raspberry Pi project you can master. By installing GPredict (http://gpredict.oz9aec.net/) on your Raspberry Pi, you will have a powerful satellite tracker that allows you to track any imaginable satellite in real-time (though not really = = ).

10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful

You can filter the types of satellites you track, simply select the satellites you are interested in, and you will get their status in real-time. The first thing you need to do is connect the antenna to your Raspberry Pi. (The SDR receiver mentioned above theoretically works as well.)
<Translator’s Note> Here I want to recommend the small satellite LilacSat-2 developed by Harbin Institute of Technology, which not only opens commands for anyone to track its status, but also allows it to take pictures of Earth and send back images. It even provides free radio relay services for amateur radio enthusiasts. Project homepage: http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/
5
Digital Voice (DV) Hotspot

10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful

Programming the Raspberry Pi as a digital voice hotspot is another popular use case, with many expansion components available to turn your Raspberry Pi into a D-STAR, Fusion, or DMR network access point. The Raspberry Pi seamlessly integrates the internet with RF signals without the need for any DV repeaters.
Currently, there are two expansion components available:
  • DVD4Mini USB Dongle
    (http://www.hamradio.co.uk/sdr-software-defined-radio-helitron/helitron/dv4mini-2m-usb-stick-for-d-star-dmr-and-c4fm-fusion-pd-6949.php)
  • DV-Mega Add On Board
    (http://www.dvmega.co.uk/RPI%20Dual%20Radio%20Adapter.html)
6
Automatic Position Reporting System

10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful

You can turn the Raspberry Pi into an APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System) Digipeater to track the locations of amateur radio enthusiasts (including yourself). Once you connect the HT to the Raspberry Pi, you can receive packets from the radio and send them to APRS-IS (internet-based APRS network), and vice versa. A detailed guide can be found here (https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf/blob/master/doc/Raspberry-Pi-SDR-IGate.pdf).
7
ADS-B Flight Tracking
Using PiAware software, you can track flight information transmitted by the ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast) system on airplanes in real-time. This allows you to track the location of planes in your area, which is very cool. I live not far from London Heathrow Airport, so I can track quite a few planes, as you can see in the picture.

10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful

8
Antenna Rotator Controller
There are some experiments online using the Raspberry Pi to control antennas, such as PiRotator (https://jkry.org/ouluhack/PiRotator).
9
Wireless Extender Gateway
The Raspberry Pi can help you extend the coverage of your home wireless network, allowing every corner of your home or office to be covered by the signal, and even creating a separate wireless network for guests. You will need an SD card and USB Wi-Fi dongle to assemble everything, and with a small amount of coding, you can set everything up correctly, and then you will see the MagPi instructions.
10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful
10
Radio Transmitter
Using the Raspberry Pi to create a radio transmitter allows devices like mobile phones to receive signals transmitted by the Raspberry Pi from a short distance:
http://shumeipai.nxez.com/2013/08/29/raspberry-pi-as-the-fm-radio-transmitter.html
10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful
Warm reminder: When using the Raspberry Pi for amateur radio, please comply with relevant national laws and regulations, use amateur radio functions within the legal limits, and take responsibility for your actions!
References:
Top ten Raspberry Pi applications for amateur radio: https://aoaoao.me/1390.html
Raspberry Pi as a radio transmitter:
http://shumeipai.nxez.com/2013/08/29/raspberry-pi-as-the-fm-radio-transmitter.html
10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful
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10 Amateur Radio Applications to Make Your Raspberry Pi Useful

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