I’ve only recent started using Raspberry. I stared with an RPi4 and loaded the HamPi image on it. I also overclocked it as WSJT-X was too slow at decoding until I did.

I was running WSJT-X on W10 however each W10 build update caused me an increased amount of grief with the audio. In the summer of 2020 WSJT-X only recognized the default Windows Audio input and output. That simply doesn’t work because I have two different ICOM HF radios and because the windows bings and bongs play on the default. Transmitting these is against FCC rules, good Amateur Radio practice, and disrupts the entire WSJT-X window.

To use WSJT-X I either needed another Windows PC (or two) or I needed a virtual Linux — or a $100 Raspberry Pi 4 with 8 GB RAM running Raspberry Pi OS (based on Debian).

The simplicity of this got me thinking about running the HOA website on an Raspberry Pi 4. It was fairly easy to setup a Pi4 with WordPress, however, there remained the issue of getting a static IP, having to check if it was running, etc. At the same time I was looking at creating a WordPress site for the radio club and so I created an account on AWS… and that’s where the sites are now.

Fast foreword a year… I now have two Raspberry Pi’s. Both are mounted in an Argon One M.2 drive case. One is connected to the IC-9100 and the other to the IC-7610. I also replaced the OS on one, switching from Buster to Bullseye. I then compiled everything needed for WSJT-X and it runs! Then I tried adding a USB GPS to it so I could have a GPS clock. This project needs to be completed but I’ve got too many other irons in the fire.

Basically I run them headless and I RDP to each one. They log to Log4OM over a UDP port. It works really well except from time to time the Raspberries seem to fail to renew their IP and I have to stick a monitor on them, restart or drop and reconnect the WiFi. Both of them have this problem (one is Bullseye and the other is Buster).

Update Fall 2022: I’ve quit using the Pi’s for radio and switched to something plentiful and cheap! From Amazon, I purchased a refurbished HP EliteDesk 800 G3 Mini Business Desktop and installed Ubuntu. I then installed WSJTX and later FTDX. It’s been working terrific! I had a few Pi compute modules on backorder for most of 2022 and I finally really needed to replace one. These refurbished PC’s are great because they come in a steel case that can be grounded, they have SATA and an M.2 drive, and all that for $200.