Awesome Ham Radio

A curated list of useful amateur / ham radio resources — licensing & societies, band plans, SDR, digital modes, logging, antennas, contests, satellites, APRS, and the Japan (JARL) scene. Prefer durable official / project URLs. ⭐ badges show live GitHub star counts (via shields.io).

Organizations & licensing

National and international bodies; start here for rules, exams, and advocacy.

International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) - Worldwide voice of amateur radio; spectrum advocacy and Region coordination.
IARU Region 1 - Europe, Africa, Middle East, northern Asia.
IARU Region 2 - The Americas.
IARU Region 3 - Asia-Pacific (includes Japan).
ARRL - US national association; licensing study, LoTW, contests, QST.
JARL (Japan Amateur Radio League) - Japan’s national society (English).
ITU Amateur Service - International Radio Regulations context for the amateur service.

Band plans & spectrum

IARU Region 1 band plan - HF / VHF / UHF band-plan documents for Region 1.
IARU Region 2 band plan - Band-plan resources for the Americas.
ARRL band plan / frequency allocations - US amateur allocations and notes.
JARL band plan (Japanese) - Japan amateur band plan (current edition effective 2025-07-17, PDF).

Software-defined radio (SDR)

Receive (and often transmit) software and hardware ecosystems.

GNU Radio - Free & open-source toolkit of signal-processing blocks for software radios. (GitHub)
SDRangel - Multi-platform Rx/Tx SDR application (Airspy, BladeRF, HackRF, LimeSDR, PlutoSDR, RTL-SDR, and more). (GitHub)
SDR++ - Lightweight, cross-platform open-source SDR receiver with broad hardware support. (GitHub)
Gqrx - Open-source SDR receiver powered by GNU Radio and Qt. (GitHub)
CubicSDR - Cross-platform SDR application. (GitHub)
OpenWebRX+ - Extended fork of OpenWebRX: browser-based multi-user SDR receiver with many built-in decoders. (GitHub)
SoapySDR - Vendor- and platform-neutral SDR support library (hardware abstraction).
RTL-SDR Blog - News, tutorials, and drivers around low-cost RTL2832U dongles.
Osmocom rtl-sdr - Classic open-source RTL2832U SDR stack.

Digital modes

Weak-signal and keyboard modes popular on HF and VHF.

WSJT-X - Official home of FT8, FT4, WSPR, JT65, Q65, MSK144, and related modes (K1JT / WSJT Development Team); 3.x series (since 2026) adds parallel FT8 decoding and full-duplex operation. (Downloads) · (GitHub)
FT4 / FT8 protocol paper (QEX) - Design notes for FT4 and FT8.
JS8Call - Keyboard messaging built on a robust FSK layer inspired by FT8; now developed by the JS8Call-Improved team (original repo archived), 3.x series. (GitHub)
fldigi - Multi-mode digital modem suite (PSK, RTTY, Olivia, CW, and more) by W1HKJ.
FreeDV - Open-source HF digital voice over ordinary SSB rigs, including the ML-based RADE mode. (GitHub)
GridTracker - Companion map, alerts, and logging bridge for WSJT-X / JTDX style apps. (Docs)
M17 Project - Open-source digital radio protocol for VHF/UHF voice and data (Codec 2), with open hardware and gateway software.
ft8_lib - Lightweight C library for FT8 encoding/decoding.
Morse Code World - Browser-based Morse encoder/decoder (text, audio, photos).

Logging, QSL & awards

Station logs, electronic QSL, and award tracking.

Logbook of The World (LoTW) - ARRL’s electronic QSO confirmation system (TQSL certificates; DXCC / WAS credit).
Club Log - Log analysis, DXCC tracking, and LoTW Trusted Partner uploads.
Wavelog - Modern open-source web logbook (Cloudlog lineage); LoTW / eQSL sync, club stations, contest logger. (GitHub)
Cloudlog - Original PHP web logbook (still maintained); Wavelog is its community fork.
QLog - Open-source cross-platform desktop logger (Qt) with Hamlib rig control, LoTW / eQSL / Club Log sync, and WSJT-X integration.
Ham2K Portable Logger (PoLo) - Free mobile logger for POTA / SOTA / WWFF and portable operation (iOS / Android). (GitHub)
Swisslog - Feature-rich Windows logging suite.
zLog - Popular Japanese contest / general logger for Windows (JR8PPG lineage).
eQSL.cc - Electronic QSL card exchange.
QRZ.com - Callsign lookup, bio pages, and logbook features.

Radio control & CAT

Hamlib - Portable radio-control library and rigctl / rigctld daemons used by many apps. (GitHub)
flrig - Rig-control companion to fldigi (XML-RPC / CAT).

APRS & packet

Automatic Packet Reporting System and related TNCs.

aprs.fi - Classic APRS-IS tracking map (OH7LZB).
aprs.world - Live worldwide APRS map with messaging and multi-language UI.
Dire Wolf - Software TNC, APRS digipeater, and iGate.
Pat - Cross-platform Winlink email client (Go) with web UI; supports AX.25 packet, ARDOP, VARA, and PACTOR; reached v1.0 in 2026. (GitHub)
APRSdroid - APRS client for Android.
APRS Track Direct - Tools to run your own APRS website.

Satellites

AMSAT - Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation — news, status, and educational resources.
SatNOGS - Open global network of ground stations for observing satellites. (Wiki)
Gpredict - Real-time satellite tracking and orbit prediction with Hamlib radio / rotator control (Doppler correction).
SatDump - Generic satellite data processing software: live SDR reception and decoding of weather and other satellites (NOAA APT, Meteor LRPT, GOES, and more); 2.0 in development. (GitHub)
IARU satellite frequency coordination - How amateur satellite frequencies are coordinated.
JARL — Fuji / amateur satellites (English) - Japan amateur-satellite notes via JARL.

Antennas & propagation

ARRL Antenna Book (shop / overview) - Long-running reference series on antenna theory and practice (editions sold via ARRL).
4nec2 - Free NEC-2 based antenna modeler / optimizer for Windows.
EZNEC - Graphical NEC antenna modeling; now a free download (EZNEC Pro/2 v6), no longer sold or supported since W7EL retired.
PSK Reporter - Near-real-time digimode reception reports — great for checking antennas and propagation.
VOACAP Online - HF propagation prediction (Point-to-Point and coverage tools).
NOAA SWPC - Official space-weather forecasts, alerts, and solar / geomagnetic indices relevant to HF.

Contests

ARRL Contest Calendar - Official ARRL contest dates and links.
WA7BNM Contest Calendar - Comprehensive worldwide contest calendar.
IARU HF World Championship - Annual IARU HF event (often hosted via ARRL pages).
CQ World Wide DX Contest - Major DX contest series (CW / SSB / RTTY).
N1MM Logger+ - Widely used free Windows contest logger for CW, phone, and digital modes.
JARL contests (Japanese) - National contest calendar and rules via JARL.

Spotting & alerts

HamAlert - Configurable alerts from DX cluster, RBN, SOTA/POTA, WWFF, PSK Reporter, and more.
DX Summit - Popular web DX cluster.
Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) - Skimmer-based CW / RTTY spotting network.
SOTAWatch - Summits on the Air spotting.
Parks on the Air (POTA) - Parks activation program and spotting tools.

DSP & developer libraries

Useful when building your own demodulators, SDR apps, or audio tools.

liquid-dsp - Digital signal processing library aimed at SDRs. (GitHub)
FFTW - Fast Fourier Transform library. (GitHub)
Kiss FFT - Small, simple FFT implementation.
RtAudio - Cross-platform realtime audio I/O API. (GitHub)

Japan

Licensing, society, logging, and local software of particular interest to JA operators.

Licensing & administration

総務省電波利用ポータル — アマチュア無線 - Official MIC portal for amateur radio.
アマチュア局の申請・届出 - Application / notification forms for amateur stations.
電波利用電子申請 - Electronic radio-station application system.

Society & events

JARL - 日本アマチュア無線連盟（ハムフェア、コンテスト、アワードなど）.
JARL English - English menu for international visitors.

Software & community (JA)

zLog - Contest / general logger popular in Japan.
nextzlog - Related Japanese logging / contest tooling.
jr8ppg · StudioZaigo · ji1udd - Active Japanese amateur-radio developers on GitHub.

ACARS & aviation data (JA references)

acarsdec - Multi-channel ACARS decoder (original repo archived; actively maintained fork: f00b4r0/acarsdec ).
JAERO - Aero satcom / ACARS related decoder.
Avicom — ACARS overview (Japanese) - Industry notes on ACARS data-link use in Japan.

Radio-specific tooling

FT-991A interoperability tools - Unofficial docs and tools for Yaesu FT-991A.
RALF FT-991A ExMenu Utils - Backup & restore for FT-991A extended menu.

Related lists

sindresorhus/awesome - The Awesome meta-list.
kyleterry/awesome-radio - Broader radio / SDR awesome list.
Awesome Search - Quick search across Awesome lists.

Contributing

Contributions welcome — open a pull request to add a resource, fix a broken link, or suggest a category.

Prefer durable official / docs URLs, short blurbs, and actively maintained projects. Keep product and organization names; mark language or region when helpful. Update both README.md and README.ja.md when you can.