Open Source Ham Radio hardware

Here’s 2 exciting pieces of hardware worth watching for the project minded amongst us (and that would be all of us Amateurs, right?) – both are open source and both promise to let us do amazing things for a very little cost.

HamShield for Arduino (VHF/UHF Transceiver)

The HamShield project was launched on Kickstarter on June 30th 2015 and raised $117,000 of their $25,000 goal! From their Kickstarter webpage, here’s a brief overview of what their hardware will do:

HamShield lets your Arduino talk to far away people and things using powerful amateur radio bands! Best of all, the hardware and software is open source!

With the power of Arduino, you can use the HamShield to build and invent amazing things in minutes! Here are some examples, right out of our sketch toolbox:

Packet Radio
Long range mesh networks
Emergency communication networks
High altitude ballooning
Talk to repeaters
Tracking devices (APRS)
Interface the HamShield to your computer!
Beacons
Weather stations
Repeaters
Remote controlled robots
Automated satellite tracking and reception
Weather satellites
Scanning police, fire, business, FRS, GMRS, and MURS frequencies
Logging and recording radio traffic
Touchscreen handhelds
Bulletin board systems
New inventions!

The HamShield supports a wide range of VHF and UHF frequencies, covering 3 amateur bands. This includes the 1.25 meter or “220” band (220 MHz to 225 MHz), which is notoriously hard to find equipment for! It also can transmit on MARS bands.

The HamShield supports both voice and packet radio modes. You could even invent your own digital modes with enough skill. It is compact, lightweight, and works great with any Arduino or Arduino compatible that supports Uno-style shields.

With the HamShield, you no longer need a dedicated radio or piece of equipment for each type of operating mode. There is also no need for complicated radio interface cables. The radio is now under your complete control!

Practically no experience is needed to use the HamShield. Unlike other complicated, software defined radio boards, the transceiver core is a proven, commercial grade radio transceiver. There are a growing number of ready-to-use Arduino sketches we are actively developing. They are all ready to be uploaded to your Arduino!

Read more about the device here, including its full specs and more videos on how to use the device.

MMDVM – Multi-Mode Digital Voice Modem

Jonathan Naylor G4KLX needs no introduction to many people thanks to his fantastic and ever popular software packages for running Analog and Digital repeater systems and hotspots.

Jonathan’s latest project began in December 2015 and aims to create an open source modem that will (initially) support D-STAR, System Fusion, DMR and P25 via the Arduino Due.

MMDVM Whilst the project doesn’t include an integrated transceiver like the HamShield, the fact that it will (presumably) be natively supported by Jonathan’s software makes this project very enticing to the repeater and hotspot communities who would currently be using single mode devices such as the DV-RPTR.

At the time of writing Jonathan is working on getting the various supported modes functioning with the hardware. Technical information on the modem and project progress is available on the MMDVM blog here, and Jonathan tweets updates regularly here.