CyberSpectrum Melbourne: Building a Cheap FSQ Transceiver with Arduino, Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR

FSQ (Fast Simple QSO) is a relatively new ham band mode for making text QSO’s (contact or exchange of information with another ham) over HF frequencies. It is a low data rate mode similar to PSK31 but with some interesting features like relaying which allows signals to be relayed further via other FSQ stations.

Over at in Melbourne, Australia a Cyberspectrum SDR meetup is held every few weeks. At this weeks meetup @faulteh discusses the FSQ mode and some of it’s interesting features. He also shows how he can transmit FSQ using a Si5351 clock generator and Arduino (with filtering). In the future he hopes to also create a fully automated receive station using a Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR dongle.

The Arduino FSQ code is available on GitHub, and more information is available on his hackaday.io page.