basicft8

basicft8.py is a simple demodulator for the WSJT-X FT8 mode. It misses many possible decodes, but in return it's relatively easy to understand. You can see a detailed explanation of the code at http://www.rtmrtm.org/basicft8/ . Please feel free to copy and modify this code for your own amusement. I've found that writing my own demodulators for FT8, JT65, etc has been very interesting and educational.

The code is written in Python, and will work with either Python 3 or Python 2.7. You'll need a few extra Python packages. Here's how to install them on Ubuntu Linux:

  sudo apt-get install python-numpy
  sudo apt-get install python-pyaudio

If you have a Mac with macports:

  sudo port install py-numpy
  sudo port install py-pyaudio

For Windows:

  pip install numpy
  pip install pyaudio

This repository contains a few sample FT8 .wav files to help test the demodulator. To read one, provide the file name on the command line, like this:

  python basicft8.py samples/170923_082000.wav

When I do this, I see two lines of output corresponding to two decodes:

  1962.5 CQ FK8HA  RG37
  1237.5 ZL1RPL YV5DRN RRR 

There are at least seven more signals that could be decoded, but that would require more sophisticated demodulation algorithms.

To listen to audio from the default sound source (presumably hooked up to a radio set to e.g. 14.074 USB), try this:

  python basicft8.py

Robert, AB1HL