Digirig is an open-source integrated digital modes interface for amateur radio. Yes, another one, but bear with me for a moment.
Hi, I’m Denis Grisak; amateur radio call sign K0TX.
Shortly after starting my ham journey in July 2020 I was logging my first FT8 QSOs while dealing with the rats nest of cables, breakout boards, dongles and ferrite beads between my radio and computer. That was especially messy while trying to operate mobile with rig cords sticking out of both sides of the laptop and wires tangled all over the place.
Here comes the informercials’ favorite cliché “there’s gotta be a better way!”. My market research yielded the list of overpriced bulky boxes with limited functionality. The leading product only supported a VOX based PTT and dated itself by its Netscape Communicator’s worthy web property boasting surface mount construction as “State Of The Art” and corporate trademark abandoned since early 90’s.
Electric engineer’s gears started to turn… Welcome to Digirig!
Integrated Interface
As a differentiating feature, Digirig only requires a single USB connection to the computer with all the digital goodness packed in a single small enclosure. The internals include a USB hub, audio codec, a fully featured serial CAT (Computer Aided Transceiver) interface, and potentially other modules such as GPS receiver for time synchronization.
Open Source
Digirig is an open-source because amateur radio is a hobby, and it’s a hobby which encourages learning, experimentation and collaboration. I hope that the project is shaped by your participation in the form of comments, requests and tester feedback. All of the specs, drawings and other materials are publicly available on Github.
If you would like to receive updates about Digirig or generally interested in topic of amateur radio and digital modes then get on board and follow along!
