/QO-100-FT8-Detector

A program to detect if FT8 is active on QO-100 in real-time.

Primary LanguagePython

QO-100-FT8-Monitor

A program to detect if FT8 is active on QO-100 in real-time.

A secondary purpose is to eliminate the need for a QO-100 RX chain ;)

Requirements

Only a PC (or Raspberry Pi) running Linux (Ubuntu / Debian / Raspberry Pi OS) with an internet connection is required.

No special hardware is needed.

Setup

Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

sudo apt install build-essentials -y

mkdir -p ~/repos
cd ~/repos
git clone https://github.com/kgoba/ft8_lib.git
cd ~/repos/ft8_lib
make -j8

Next, execute the following command:

pacmd load-module module-null-sink sink_name=Virtual0
pacmd update-sink-proplist Virtual0 device.description=Virtual0
pacmd update-source-proplist Virtual0.monitor device.description=Virtual0

Next, use pavucontrol to redirect the audio output of the browser process to Virtual0 stream.

DEMO 1

Also, connect the input audio stream of this program to Virtual0 using pavucontrol.

DEMO 2

[OPTIONAL] You may also connect WSJT-X to the Virtual0 stream for parallel FT8 decoding, and spotting.

DEMO 3

Usage

Modify file paths in monitor.py to suit your environment.

$ python monitor.py
[10:49:46.030321] FT8 is active on QO-100 satellite!
[10:50:16.047004] FT8 is active on QO-100 satellite!
[10:50:31.012215] FT8 is active on QO-100 satellite!
[10:50:46.015887] FT8 is active on QO-100 satellite!

Ideas

  • Integrate with python-telegram-bot for getting real-time FT8 activity alerts on mobile phones.

  • Do the same thing (i.e. FT8 traffic detection) without using ft8_lib (hard dsp problem?)

  • This program can also be used as a decent QO-100 FT8 receiver. We only need the QO-100 TX chain now to have satellite QSO(s)!