Operate an HF station from another room, or another country. A small always-on host sits at the radio doing CAT control and audio; a desktop client shows the panel and keys the transmitter.
Built for and tested against a Yaesu FTDX-101MP. Other Yaesu CAT radios are likely close, but nothing else has been on the air with it — see What is actually tested.
Installers for every platform are on the latest release.
| Windows | HamDeck-win-Setup.exe — client and the Wavelog pusher, one installer, updated together |
| Windows, client only | HamDeckRemote-win-Setup.exe — just the radio panel, no auto-update |
| macOS | HamDeckRemote-macOS.dmg — signed, notarised and stapled; drag to Applications |
| Linux | hamdeck-client_<version>_amd64.deb / _arm64.deb |
Everything is code-signed. On Windows the publisher reads Henry Wussler; SmartScreen may still warn, because it asks "have I seen this file before?" rather than "is this safe?", and a new release from a small publisher always starts at no.
radio ──USB──┤ host ├── CAT + audio ──── HTTP / WebSocket ────┤ client │
(CAT + (any always-on Linux box; (Windows, macOS,
USB audio) a Raspberry Pi is the target) Linux)
The host is the authority. The client is a display that asks. Every limit that matters lives at the radio, because a client can be closed, crashed, or run from a laptop that goes to sleep mid-transmission:
- a transmit watchdog drops PTT after a timeout and confirms with the radio that it actually stopped
- power returns to the local cap when a remote client disconnects, so nobody walks up to a radio and drives an amplifier with twice the power they expect
- RX is muted while you are keyed — hearing your own voice back at ~220 ms is delayed auditory feedback, and it makes people slur and stutter
- Full panel: twin VFO, band and mode, S-meter, filters, RIT/XIT, AGC, attenuator, preamp, noise blanker and reduction, antenna selection
- Receive audio streamed to the client, and transmit audio back to the rig
- PTT by hotkey or on-screen, with the watchdog above behind it
- Recording — continuous, plus a pre-trigger replay buffer that saves what happened before you pressed anything. Every recording writes a JSON sidecar with UTC times, frequency and mode, so it can be matched to a log later
- Wavelog integration on Windows: the log follows the radio
- A local REST API on loopback, so Stream Deck buttons work
Being straight about this, because a remote transmitter is not a good place for optimism:
| Radio | Yaesu FTDX-101MP, over its USB CAT + audio codec |
| Host | Ubuntu 24.04, x86-64. ARM64 builds; a Pi is the intended home but has not run a station yet |
| Client | Windows x64, macOS (universal), Linux x64/ARM64 |
| Not implemented | CW keyer, voice memories, RX antenna switching — those buttons say so rather than failing silently |
| Not built | Windows on ARM native (x64 runs under emulation) |
# host (Linux)
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release && cmake --build build
# client (Windows, macOS, Linux) — needs Qt 6.8+
cmake -S client -B client/build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release && cmake --build client/build
ctest --test-dir client/buildRead SECURITY.md. The short version: the API port is meant for loopback, the dashboard needs a session, and anything reachable from outside your LAN belongs behind a tunnel or a reverse proxy that terminates TLS.
Remote operation does not change whose callsign is on the air. Control of the transmitter, and the obligation to identify and stay in band, stay with the operator.
MIT — see LICENSE. Qt is LGPL-3.0 and is linked dynamically, with its licence text shipped alongside every binary.