The following is a press release from the Amateur Radio Software Award:
The Amateur Radio Software Award (ARSA) committee is proud to announce that the
Hamlib project has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Amateur Radio Software
Award. This year’s award honors the outstanding work of the current core developers:
Nate Bargmann (N0NB), George Baltz (N3GB), Daniele Forsi (IU5HKX), and Mikael
Nousiainen (OH3BHX).
The annual ARSA award recognizes software projects that enhance amateur radio and
promote innovation, freedom, and openness in amateur radio software development.
Hamlib was selected for its long‐standing and essential role in enabling software to
interface with transceivers and other controllable devices. For more than a quarter
century, Hamlib has provided a unified, reliable way to send control commands and read
device status. Despite its age, the project remains actively maintained, with new radios
and devices added regularly. Hamlib continues to be the go-to library for both
established and emerging amateur radio applications.
About Hamlib
Hamlib provides stable, flexible shared libraries that simplify the development of
amateur radio equipment control applications. Many modern transceivers include serial
(RS‐232, USB, etc.) or Ethernet/Wi‐Fi/Bluetooth interfaces that allow software‐based
control. Hamlib abstracts these interfaces, making it significantly easier for application
developers to interact with radios, rotators, amplifiers, and other controllable devices.
From WSJT‐X and Fldigi to JS8Call, Log4OM, and CQRlog, today’s widely used amateur
radio applications are built on Hamlib.
Nate Bargmann (N0NB) notes that “over the lifetime of the project there have been
several principal developers. Its founder is Frank Singleton, VK4FCS. Stéphane Fillod,
F8CFE, and until about a year ago Mike Black, W9MDB (SK), were successive principal
developers.”
Bargmann reports that the current long‐term support branch will receive the 4.7.1 release
in the coming weeks, adding support for new radio models and improving existing ones.
Work on Hamlib 5 is also underway. The new major version will introduce some
backward‐incompatible changes to isolate internal structures and align with modern
best practices, including breaking the C ABI. Discussions are ongoing regarding
potential API changes, and feedback from client developers is encouraged.
“There is no set date for a release of Hamlib 5.0.0,” Bargmann adds, “but hopefully
within the next year seems possible.”
Learn more about Hamlib at https://hamlib.github.io/.
Special Event Station
To celebrate Hamlib’s selection as the 2026 award recipient—and to encourage
nominations for the 2027 Amateur Radio Software Award—the ARSA committee will
operate the special event station K7A from November 27 through December 7, 2026.
About the Amateur Radio Software Award
The Amateur Radio Software Award is an annual international award recognizing
software projects that enhance amateur radio and promote innovation, freedom, and
openness in amateur radio software development.
Award Committee
- Claus Niesen, AE0S (since 2020)
- Kun Lin, N7DMR (since 2020)
- Rich Gordon, K0EB (since 2021)
- Sebastian Delmont, KI2D (since 2026)
For nomination guidelines, event schedules, and information about past winners, visit
https://arsaward.com.
Source: Amateur Radio Software Award