Introduction

Ham Cockpit is a universal, plugin-based software for Radio Amateurs. The functions available in the program depend entirely on the set of installed plugins. Some standard plugins come with the software, a wide variety of optional and third party plugins is (or will be) available on the Internet.

The standard plugins make Ham Cockpit an SDR client that interfaces with SDR radios, processes the I/Q and audio streams, and outputs processed audio to a sound card. A waterfall display plugin also comes as standard.

Third party developers can create all kinds of plugins - freeware, shareware, commercial, open source, - limited only by the imagination, including:

• plugins that replace the standard plugins, with more functions or better characteristics,

• plugins that add new signal processing functions, such as denoising, notch filters, diversity combining algorithms, demodulators for new modes, decoders for the digital modes, skimmers, and interfaces to the new types of SDR radios;

• all kinds of non-DSP plugins for QSO logging, cluster monitoring, award tracking, propagation prediction, contesting, SO2R operation, pileup management, etc.

By selecting the proper plugins, the end user will be able to build a system optimized for his or her particular needs, and have all functions, previously spread across multiple programs, in one integrated environment.