Ham radio control software for the Raspberry Pi.

What runs on a Raspberry Pi today

The open-core rigplane Python library is the part that actually lives on the Pi. It is pip install rigplane on Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) or Ubuntu for Pi, runs headless, and exposes a browser-based operator UI on your LAN — so the Pi sits next to the radio, and you operate from a laptop, tablet, or phone elsewhere in the house or at the other end of a VPN.

RigPlane Pro — the packaged desktop client — targets macOS, Linux, and Windows laptops and workstations. On a Pi you typically do not run the Pro desktop locally; you run the open-core engine on the Pi as the always-on server and connect to it from the Pro app (or any browser) on your normal computer.

Hardware target and supported radios

Raspberry Pi 4 (4 GB or 8 GB) and Raspberry Pi 5 are the realistic targets. The Pi 4 is the floor for fluid panadapter and waterfall rendering in the browser UI; a Pi 3B+ can run the headless engine for CAT-only operation, but the spectrum surface is happier with Pi 4 or newer. Use a 64-bit OS image — Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm (64-bit) or Ubuntu Server / Desktop 24.04 on the Pi are the tested targets.

RigPlane talks to your transceiver directly over UDP for IP-connected radios, and over USB / serial where applicable, with no third-party daemon, no vendor app, and no hamlib bridge in the loop. Production-grade backends today include the Icom IC-7610, IC-7300, IC-705, and IC-9700, plus Yaesu FTX-1, Xiegu X6100, and Lab599 TX-500. Profile-based support extends to additional Icom and Yaesu rigs that share the same control surface.

Audio, CW, and digital-mode integration on a Pi

Audio on a Pi is usually ALSA — it is the lightest path and what most Raspberry Pi OS installs ship with. PipeWire works on the Pi too and is fine if your image already runs it, though it is heavier than ALSA. RigPlane uses whichever sound server is present.

• ALSA-first. The open-core engine talks to ALSA directly on a typical Raspberry Pi OS install, which keeps CPU and memory pressure low — important when the Pi is also running a VPN endpoint or other home-shack services.
• USB CW keying. CW is handled over the rig's normal CAT path or via a USB CW interface; GPIO-based hardware keying is not supported today.
• WSJT-X, JS8Call, fldigi. If you run the digital-mode apps on the Pi itself, the engine registers as a normal soundcard and they pick it up the same way as on any Linux box. Most operators run the digital-mode apps on their main computer instead and let the Pi handle just CAT and audio transport.
• Latency. Opus over UDP between the Pi and your operating position, tight buffers, no resampling. Tuned for headphone monitoring and CW operation across a LAN — and acceptable over a sane VPN to your remote site.

Install in 5 minutes

On a fresh Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) image: install Python 3.11+, create a virtual environment, and run pip install rigplane. Point the engine at your radio's IP (or USB device), then open the browser UI on any other device on the network. Setup walk-throughs for each supported backend live in the rigplane.dev guide.

For desktop operation from a laptop, grab the RigPlane Pro client from the downloads page on macOS, Linux, or Windows — the Pro app connects to the Pi-hosted engine over the network the same way the browser UI does.

Why a Pi-based remote-shack node is a compelling architecture

The Raspberry Pi is not just a small Linux box. It is the most boring, lowest-power, lowest-fan-noise computer you can put next to a radio and forget about. That makes it the natural home for the "always-on shack server" role — the box that owns the radio, the antenna switch, and the audio path, and that other computers connect to over the network.

This separation matters in practice. The radio lives in the shack, the operator lives at a laptop on the couch, the rig at the contest QTH lives 500 miles away — and in all three cases, what you actually want is a small, reliable computer sitting next to the radio, doing one job. A Pi 4 with RigPlane fills that role: under 10 W of power draw, no moving parts, MIT-licensed open-core engine, and a UI that any browser can hit. The audio bridge keeps WSJT-X and JS8Call workflows on whichever computer you prefer them on; the Pi just has to keep the link to the radio up.

Most existing Pi-for-ham guides assume a Hamlib + rigctld + Audio-Over-IP-of-your-choice stack assembled by hand. RigPlane collapses that stack into one daemon, with one configuration file, and the browser UI on top. The open-core library is MIT; you can audit it, fork it, and run it on hardware you own.

What to do next

Last reviewed 2026-05-19.