Desktop & hardwareAmateur radio software
HamStream
A commercial desktop application for amateur radio operators, with a licensing system, release channels and a marketing site that sells and delivers it.
Case study hamstream.co.uk
Desktop & hardwareRadio & instrumentation2026
RamdySDR
A native software-defined radio client speaking a hardware UDP protocol directly, with multiple receivers and a touch-first interface.
The brief
What we were asked for
Build a native client for software-defined radio hardware: raw protocol communication, several simultaneous receivers, continuous spectrum and waterfall rendering, and an interface that works under a finger on a touch screen.
The challenge
What made it difficult
The constraints that shaped every decision after them.
- The hardware streams continuously over UDP; dropped or late packets are audible immediately.
- Spectrum and waterfall rendering must stay smooth while signal processing runs at full rate.
- Operators reconfigure their layout constantly, so the interface had to be theirs to arrange.
What we built
How we solved it
The decisions that mattered, and why we made them.
01
Protocol-level integration
Direct implementation of the hardware’s UDP protocol rather than a wrapper, so timing and buffering are ours to control.
02
Processing off the interface thread
Signal processing and rendering are separated so heavy DSP never stalls the display.
03
Multiple receivers at once
Several independent receivers running concurrently from one hardware stream.
04
A layout operators own
Panels can be arranged, resized and saved, with configuration held outside the application so upgrades never lose it.
The outcome
Where it got to
- A responsive native client where a browser-based approach was never viable.
- Real-time displays that hold their frame rate under full processing load.
- A codebase that has since been forked for a commercial variant.
Built with
Technology stack
- C++20
- Qt 6
- CMake
- UDP protocol implementation
- Windows + Linux
Services used
More work
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