Amateur Radio SoftwareDistributed with(X)Ubuntu LTS

Serge Stroobandt, ON4AA

Copyright 2014–2018, licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

IntroductionAmateur radio (also called “ham radio”), is a technical hobby Many ham radiostations are highly integrated with computers. Radios are interfaced with com-puters 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™ ap-plications developed by However, with the advent of the Rasperry Pi, amateurradio hobbyists are slowly but surely discovering GNU/Linux.

Most of the software for GNU/Linux is available through package reposito-ries. Such package repositories come by default with the GNU/Linux distri-bution of your choice. Package management systems offer many benefits inthe 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 wan-der the back corners of the internet to find new or updated software, exposingoneself to the risk of catching a computer virus.

A number of GNU/Linux distributions offer freely installable ham-relatedpackages under the “Amateur Radio” section of their main repository.The largest collection of ham radio packages is offered by OpenSuse and De-bian-derived distributions like Xubuntu LTS and Linux Mint, to name buta few. Arch Linux may also have whole bunch of ham related software inthe Arch User Repository (AUR).

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SynapticOne way to find and install ham radio packages on Debian-derived distrosis by using the Synaptic graphical package manager (see Figure 1). However,searching the vast Synaptic package database may become rapidly over-whelming at times. This is why for this article, another technique was em-ployed; namely, shamelessly exploiting aptitude command-line arguments.

Figure 1: The Synaptic graphical package manager partially showing the “Amateur Ra-dio” section of the Xubuntu LTS repository.

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HamradioThe entire default ham radio package list is printed below. Lazy as I am,the Markdown table was created from the command line and included by ref-erence into the surprisingly short Markdown source of this page. Below com-mand prints a Markdown pipe table with the package name and descriptionof 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 pack-age 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' \

|sort -u \> ../doc/hamradio.tmp

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Table 1: Amateur radio packages distributed with Xubuntu LTS

name package description

acfax Receive faxes using your radio and sound cardaldo Morse code training programampr-ripd Routing daemon for AMPRnet gateway announcementsantennavis antenna radiation pattern visualization softwareaprsdigi digipeater for APRSaprx APRS Digipeater and iGateax25-apps AX.25 ham radio applicationsax25mail-utils hamradio packet utilities for fbbax25-tools tools for AX.25 interface configurationax25-xtools tools for AX.25 interface configuration – X11-basedaxmail Mail user agent for ax.25 users, accessed via a node frontendbaycomepp Drivers for the HB9JNX packet radio epp modembaycomusb Drivers for the HB9JNX packet radio usb modemchirp Configuration tool for amateur radioscomptext Gui based tool to compare two text streamscomptty GUI based tool to compare two RTTY streamscqrlog Advanced logging program for hamradio operatorscubicsdr Software Defined Radio receivercutesdr simple demodulation and spectrum display programcwcp Morse code tutor - text user interfacecwdaemon morse daemon for the parallel or serial portcw Morse code tutor - command line user interfacedablin CLI and GTK GUI DAB & DAB+ receiver clientdirewolf Soundcard TNC for APRSd-rats Communications tool for D-STAR amateur radioebook2cwgui GUI for ebook2cwebook2cw convert ebooks to Morse MP3s/OGGsfbb Packet radio mailbox and utilitiesfccexam Study tool for USA FCC commercial radio license exams.flamp ham radio Amateur Multicast Protocol applicationfldigi digital modem program for hamradio operatorsflmsg amateur radio forms management editorflrig ham radio transceiver control programflwrap amateur radio file encapsulation/compression utilityfreedv digital voice mode for HF radio

glfer program for reception and transmission of QRSS/DFCWsignals

gnss-sdr Global navigation satellite systems software defined receivergnuaisgui OpenStreetMap GUI for gnuais

gnuais AIS receiver which uses the discriminator output of VHFreceivers

gpredict Satellite tracking program

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name package description

gqrx-sdr Software defined radio receivergrig graphical user interface to the Ham Radio Control Librariesgsmc Smith Chart calculator for impedance matchinghamexam Study tool for USA FCC amateur radio (ham) exams.

hamfax Receive/send radio facsimile transmissions withSoundcard/PTC-II

icom Software control for ICOM radios with CI-V interfaceinspectrum tool for visualising captured radio signalsklog Multiplatform ham radio logging program

limesuite tools to test, control and update LMS7 transceiver basedhardware

linpac terminal for packet radio with mail clientlinpsk program for operating PSK31/RTTY modes with X GUIlysdr Simple software-defined radiomorse2ascii tool for decoding the morse codes from a PCM WAV filemorse training program about morse-code for aspiring radio hamsmorse-x morse “practicing” tool for Xmultimon Linux Radio Transmission Decoder

nec2c Translation of the NEC2 FORTRAN source code to the Clanguage

owx utility to program Wouxun dual-band handheld radiosp10cfgd Remote configuration daemon for Gracilis Packetenpredict-gsat Graphical Satellite Tracking Client Programpredict Satellite Tracking Program with Optional Voice Outputpsk31lx PSK31 terminal application with text-based user interfacepydxcluster HAM Dx Cluster for Linux userspyqso logging tool for amateur radio operatorsqrq high speed morse trainer, similar to DL4MM’s Rufzqsstv Qt-based slow-scan TV and faxqtel Graphical client for the EchoLink® protocolqtel-icons Icons for graphical client for the EchoLink® protocolquisk Software Defined Radio (SDR)remotetrx Remote controller for radio transceiverssoapyremote-server Use SoapySDR devices over network (server)soapysdr0.6-module-airspy Airspy device support for SoapySDR

soapysdr0.6-module-all All device support for SoapySDR (metapackage)soapysdr0.6-module-audio Audio device support for SoapySDR

soapysdr0.6-module-bladerf bladeRF device support for SoapySDR

soapysdr0.6-module-hackrf HackRF device support for SoapySDR

soapysdr0.6-module-lms7 Lime Microsystems LMS7 device support for SoapySDR

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name package description

soapysdr0.6-module-mirisdr Mirics SDR device support for SoapySDR

soapysdr0.6-module-osmosdr OsmoSDR device support for SoapySDR

soapysdr0.6-module-redpitaya RedPitaya device support for SoapySDR

soapysdr0.6-module-remote Use SoapySDR devices over network (client module)

soapysdr0.6-module-rfspace RFSpace device support for SoapySDR

soapysdr0.6-module-rtlsdr RTL-SDR device support for SoapySDR

soapysdr0.6-module-uhd UHD device support for SoapySDRsoapysdr-module-airspy Airspy device support for SoapySDR (default version)

soapysdr-module-all All device support for default version of SoapySDR(metapackage)

soapysdr-module-audio Audio device support for SoapySDR (default version)soapysdr-module-bladerf bladeRF device support for SoapySDR (default version)soapysdr-module-hackrf HackRF device support for SoapySDR (default version)

soapysdr-module-lms7 Lime Microsystems LMS7 device support for SoapySDR(default version)

soapysdr-module-mirisdr Mirics SDR device support for SoapySDR (default version)

soapysdr-module-osmosdr OsmoSDR device support for SoapySDR (default version)

soapysdr-module-redpitaya RedPitaya device support for SoapySDR (default version)

soapysdr-module-remote Use SoapySDR devices over network (default client module)soapysdr-module-rfspace RFSpace device support for SoapySDR (default version)soapysdr-module-rtlsdr RTL-SDR device support for SoapySDR (default version)soapysdr-module-uhd UHD device support for SoapySDR (default version)soapysdr-tools software defined radio interface library toolssoundmodem Sound Card Amateur Packet Radio Modemssplat analyze point-to-point terrestrial RF communication linkssvxlink-calibration-tools Calibration tools for SvxLink amateur radio suitesvxlink-gpio GPIO control scripts SvxLink amateur radio serversvxlink-server Voice-over-IP server for ham radio operatorssvxreflector Conference server for SvxLink amateur radio serverstk2 Tk GUI for the ICOM IC-R2 receivertk5 Experimental Software for the ICOM IC-R5 Receivertlf console based ham radio contest loggertrustedqsl QSL log signing for the Logbook of the World (LoTW)tucnak VHF/UHF/SHF Hamradio contest logging programtwclock World clock for ham radio operatorstwpsk Soundcard-based X program for operating PSK31uhd-soapysdr SoapySDR device support for libuhduronode Node front end for AX.25, NET/ROM, Rose and TCP

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name package description

wsjtx weak-signal amateur radio communications

wwl Calculates distance and azimuth between two Maidenheadlocators

xastir X Amateur Station Tracking and Information Reportingxcwcp Morse code tutor - graphical user interfacexdemorse decode Morse signals to textxdx DX-cluster tcp/ip client for amateur radioxlog GTK+ Logging program for Hamradio Operatorsxnec2c calculate and display radio antenna propertiesxnecview NEC structure and gain pattern vieweryagiuda software to analyse performance of Yagi-Uda antennasz8530-utils2 Utilities for Z8530 based HDLC cards for AX.25

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ElectronicsBut wait, there is more! … The vast array of electronics packages should notbe 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

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Table 2: Electronics packages distributed with Xubuntu LTS

name package description

alliance VLSI CAD Toolsaltos Altus Metrum firmware and utilitiesarachne-pnr-chipdb Chip db files for arachne-pnrarachne-pnr Place and route tool for iCE40 family FPGAsarduino AVR development board IDE and built-in librariesarduino-mighty-1284p Platform files for Arduino to run on ATmega1284P

arduino-mk Program your Arduino from the command lineatlc Arbitrary Transmission Line Calculatoratlc-examples Examples for Arbitrary Transmission Line Calculatoravarice use GDB with Atmel AVR debuggersavra assembler for Atmel AVR microcontrollersavrdude software for programming Atmel AVR microcontrollersavrp Programmer for Atmel AVR microcontrollersberkeley-abc ABC - A System for Sequential Synthesis and Verificationbossa-cli Atmel SAM ARM microcontroller flash programming utilitybossa Atmel SAM ARM microcontroller flash programming GUIbottlerocket Utility to control X10 Firecracker devices for home automation

caneda Electronic Design Automation software focused on easy of useand portability

canmatrix-utils Handle CAN (Controller Area Network) descriptions - cmdlineutilities

cc1111 C Compiler for TI/Chipcon 8051-based RF SOCscovered Verilog code coverage analysis toolcycfx2prog Cypress EZ-USB FX2 (LP) programmerdfcgen-gtk Digital Filter Coefficients Generator (DFCGen) GTK+dfu-util Device firmware update (DFU) USB programmerdigitemp read temperature sensors in a 1-Wire netdrawtiming tool for documenting hardware designs through timing diagramseasyspice A graphical frontend to the Spice simulatorelectric electrical CAD systemesptool create and flash firmware files to ESP8266 and ESP32 chipsflashrom Identify, read, write, erase, and verify BIOS/ROM/flash chipsflexloader utility to configure SRAM based ALTERA devicesfped Footprint editorfpga-icestorm-chipdb Chip database files for fpga-icestorm

fpga-icestorm Tools to handle the bitstream format of Lattice iCE40 FPGAsfreehdl VHDL simulator for Linuxfritzing Easy-to-use electronic design softwarefritzing-parts Easy-to-use electronic design software (parts files)gcc-avr GNU C compiler (cross compiler for avr)geda-examples GPL EDA – Electronics design software (example designs)

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name package description

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 -> PCBworkflow GUI

gerbv Gerber file viewer for PCB designglogic graphical logic circuit simulatorgnucap GNU Circuit Analysis packagegnusim8085 Graphical Intel 8085 simulator, assembler and debuggergplcver Verilog simulatorgpsim Simulator for Microchip’s PIC microcontrollersgputils GNU PIC utilitiesgraywolf Placement for digital VLSI designgresistor resistor color code calculatorgspiceui Graphical user interface for gnucap and ngspicegtkwave VCD (Value Change Dump) file waveform viewergwave waveform viewer eg for spice simulatorsimx-usb-loader imx_loader - i.MX/Vybrid recovery utilityirsim switch-level simulatoriverilog Icarus verilog compilerkicad Electronic schematic and PCB design softwarelangford-utils Control programs for the Per Vices Noctar IQ demodulator boardlinsmith tool to generate Smith Chartslpctools interface to NXP LPC Microcontrollers ISP serial interfacem16c-flash Flash programmer for Renesas M16C and R8C microcontrollersmagic VLSI layout toolmcu8051ide Graphical Integrated Development Environment for 8051mspdebug debugging tool for MSP430 microcontrollersnbc C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricksngspice Spice circuit simulatornitpic simulator for the Microchip PIC16C84 microcontrollernxt-firmware Improved firmware for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricksola Open Lighting Architectureoregano tool for schematical capture of electronic circuitsowfs-fuse 1-Wire filesystemowfs Dallas 1-wire supportowftpd FTP daemon providing access to 1-Wire networksowhttpd HTTP daemon providing access to 1-Wire networksowserver Backend server for 1-Wire control

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name package description

ow-shell shell utilities to talk to an 1-Wire owserverow-tools tools to monitor or inspect a ow-server linkpcb2gcode command-line tool for engraving PCBs using CNCspcb-gtk printed circuit board (pcb) design program - GTK+ interfacepcb printed circuit board (pcb) design program - metapackagepcb-lesstif printed circuit board (pcb) design program - LessTif interfacepcb-rnd Modular Printed Circuit Board layout toolpd-pduino interfacing with the Arduino from within Pure Data (Pd)pd-xbee interfacing with your XBee from within Pure Data (Pd)picprog Microchip PIC serial programmer softwarepulseview sigrok logic analyzer, oscilloscope, and MSO GUIpyvisa Transitional dummy package for python-pyvisaqelectrotech Electric schematic editorqflow Open-Source Digital Synthesis Flowqflow-tech-osu018 Technology files needed for qflow for osu018qflow-tech-osu035 Technology files needed for qflow for osu035qflow-tech-osu050 Technology files needed for qflow for osu050qrouter Multi-level, over-the-cell maze routerqsapecng symbolic analyzer and solver of linear analog circuitsrfdump tool to decode RFID tag datas51dude In-System Programmer for 8051 MCUs using usbtinyscantool OBD-II vehicle diagnostic scannersdcc Small Device C Compilersdcc-libraries Small Device C Compiler (libraries)sdcc-ucsim Micro-controller simulator for SDCCsigrok-cli command-line frontend for the sigrok softwaresigrok-firmware-fx2lafw Firmware for Cypress FX2(LP) based logic analyzers

sigrok Logic analyzer and protocol decoder software suite (metapackage)simavr lean and mean AVR simulatorsimulavr Atmel AVR simulatorsimulpic simulator for Microchip PIC16F84 microcontrollerspectools Utilities for using the Wi-Spy USB spectrum analyzer hardwarespim MIPS R2000/R3000 emulatorstm32flash STM32 chip flashing utility using a serial bootloadert2n Simple command-line tool for LEGO Mindstorms NXTtclspice NGspice library for Tcltexlive-latex-extra TeX Live: LaTeX additional packagestkgate Tcl/Tk based digital circuit editor and simulatoruisp Micro In-System Programmer for Atmel’s AVR MCUsusbrelay USB HID relay driververilator fast free Verilog simulatorverilog Icarus verilog compiler (transitional package)

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name package description

vish Commandline interface for Virtual Instrument SoftwareArchitecture

visolate tool for engraving PCBs using CNCsw1retap Data logger for 1-Wire weather sensorsw1retap-mongo Data logger for 1-Wire weather sensors (MongoDB plugin)w1retap-mysql Data logger for 1-Wire weather sensors (MySQL plugin)w1retap-odbc Data logger for 1-Wire weather sensors (ODBC plugin)w1retap-pgsql Data logger for 1-Wire weather sensors (PostgreSQL plugin)w1retap-sqlite Data logger for 1-Wire weather sensors (SQLite plugin)xcircuit Draw circuit schematics or almost anythingyosys Framework for Verilog RTL synthesis

EngineeringEvery 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

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Table 3: Engineering packages distributed with Xubuntu LTS

name package description

ann-tools Approximate Nearest Neighbor Searching library (tools)calculix-ccx Three-Dimensional Structural Finite Element Program

calculix-ccx-test Three-Dimensional Structural Finite Element Program(documentation files)

calculix-cgx-examples Example files for Calculix GraphiX

calculix-cgx Calculix cgx is a 3-dimensional pre- and post-processor for femcba Continuous Beam Analysiscgns-convert CFD General Notation System - Conversion toolscode-aster-gui Graphical user interface for Code_Aster - client

code-saturne-bin General purpose Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software -binaries

code-saturne General purpose Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) softwarecode-saturne-include

General purpose Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software -includes

dime DXF Import, Manipulation, and Export programseficas Graphical editor for Code Aster command filesfenics Automated Solution of Differential Equationsfreecad Extensible Open Source CAx programgerris Fluid Flow Solvergetdp general environment for the treatment of discrete problemsgmsh Three-dimensional finite element mesh generatorhdfview Java HDF Object viewerlogcentral Logging service for distributed applicationslogcentral-tools Logging service for distributed applicationsmetis-edf Family of Multilevel Partitioning Algorithmsoce-draw OpenCASCADE Community Edition CAE platform shared libraryopenfoam Set of programs for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Binariesopenturns-examples examples of OpenTURNS functionalities

python3-admesh Python bindings for the ADMesh (Python 3)python3-escript Escript/Finley finite elements Python3 system (with OpenMP)python3-escript-mpi Escript/Finley finite elements Python3 system (OpenMP + MPI)

python3-pynfft Python bindings for the NFFT3 library - Python 3python-admesh Python bindings for the ADMesh (Python 2)pythoncad Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) programpython-collada Python module for creating, editing and loading COLLADApython-dolfin Python interface for DOLFIN (Python 2)python-escript Escript/Finley finite elements Python2 system (with OpenMP)python-escript-mpi Escript/Finley finite elements Python2 system (OpenMP + MPI)python-fiat tabulation of finite element function spaces (Python 2)python-openturns Python front-end of OpenTURNS (aka TUI)python-pynfft Python bindings for the NFFT3 library - Python 2

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name package description

python-silo Python interface to the SILO Scientific I/O libraryr-cran-rnetcdf GNU R package that provides an R interface to NetCDF datasetsr-cran-spc GNU R Statistical Process Controlsailcut Sail design and plotting softwarescram Probabilistic Risk Analysis Toolsolvespace Parametric 2d/3d CADsyrthes Transient thermal simulations in complex solid geometriestetgen Quality Tetrahedral Mesh Generatorz88 Finite Element Analysis Program - runtime

ScienceIn the section universe/science , there are more packages of interest tothe amateur radio operator. The reason why these packages did not show upbefore is in part due to poor package classification.

$ aptitude -F'%p' search '~r native ~s universe/science' \|grep -e astronomical-almanac -e aweather -e fcd- -e openuniverse -e

savi -e seti -e stellarium -e wfrog -e xtide \|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/science.tmp

Table 4: Science packages of interest distributed with Xubuntu LTS

name package description

astronomical-almanac astronomical almanac - calculate planet and star positionsaweather Advanced Weather Monitoring Programboinc-app-seti-graphics SETI@home application for the BOINC client (with graphics)boinc-app-seti SETI@home application for the BOINC clientopenuniverse 3D Universe Simulatorqthid-fcd-controller Funcube Dongle controllersavi satellite constellation visualisationstellarium real-time photo-realistic sky generatorwfrog Web-based customizable weather station softwarextide-coastline coastline data for xtidextide provides tide and current predictions

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Even moreCheck out Hamsoft, for even more ham software which perhapsis not distributed with (X)Ubuntu. Also, —if your really needto— much Windows™-only software will run flawlessly onGNU/Linux by using tools such as PlayOnLinux. In another ar-

ticle, you can read about my experience running closed source ham radio soft-ware on GNU/Linux.

Telnet into a DX-ClusterHere is another little trick if you like to connect to a DX-cluster with telnetin the command line. Preceed the telnet command with a rlwrap command.Doing so, will provide command history via the up ↑ and down ↓ arrows,which is quite handy.

$ rlwrap telnet nolcluster.on8ar.eu 7300

Obviously, (X)Ubuntu also has DX-cluster clients with a graphical user inter-face (GUI) and computer aided tuning (CAT) on offer. One such program isxdx and comes with the standard repository.

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This work is published athttps://hamwaves.com/linux.ham.packages/en/.

Last update: Monday, March 30, 2020.

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