Number Stations on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS: the GNOME desktop, as the boot test saw it
The desktop as the boot test saw it, GNOME on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.
Download
4.5 GiB
To the desktop
28 s
Apps
2
Last built
October 22, 2026

What is inside

Number Stations is an Ubuntu desktop for amateur radio. Gqrx, fldigi, WSJT-X, JS8Call, Gpredict and QLog come installed and pinned to the dock, ready for an SDR, digital modes, satellite passes and logging. The clock runs on UTC, as radio logs do. The look is a pale WSJT-X waterfall with a column of five-digit groups painted into the band, a nod to the numbers stations that still read out coded figures on shortwave. Even the boot splash is a rolling waterfall.

Apps from Flathub

  • Firefoxorg.mozilla.firefox
  • Audacityorg.audacityteam.Audacity

Desktop and base

GNOME on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. Installed systems update with apt like any Ubuntu.

Its own additions

  • Packages: rtl-sdr, rtl-433, dump1090-mutability, multimon-ng, direwolf, ax25-tools, minimodem, gnuradio, cw, sox, libhamlib-utils, chrony, gpsd, gnupg, paperkey, ssss, qrencode
  • Files: /etc/motd

The spec

Everything above comes from these lines. Paste them into the linuxlive-distro template to build your own copy, then change what you like.

# Number Stations, made with the linuxlive.com wizard on 2026-10-21.
# Build it in your own GitHub from https://github.com/Eric-Ness/linuxlive-distro (see README.md)
schema_version: 1
name: "Number Stations"
version: "0.1"
base: ubuntu
desktop: gnome
apps:
  - firefox
  - audacity
flathub:
  - dk.gqrx.gqrx
  - io.welle.welle-gui
  - de.haeckerfelix.Shortwave
  - com.w1hkj.fldigi
  - io.sourceforge.wsjt.wsjtx
  - com.js8call.JS8Call
  - io.github.fkinoshita.Telegraph
  - io.github.teacond.Morse
  - net.qsl.QSSTV
  - com.chirpmyradio.chirp
  - net.oz9aec.Gpredict
  - io.github.wojciech_graj.OrbVis
  - io.github.foldynl.QLog
  - org.arrl.trustedqsl
  - org.kde.kleopatra
  - org.keepassxc.KeePassXC
  - io.github.picocrypt_ng.Picocrypt-NG
branding:
  wallpaper: assets/wallpaper.png
  logo: assets/logo.png
  accent_color: "#3b7ea1"
  splash:
    script: assets/splash/splash.script
    images:
      - assets/splash/strip.png
      - assets/splash/panel.png
      - assets/splash/title.png
      - assets/splash/sub.png
      - assets/splash/bar.png
      - assets/splash/bar-bg.png
settings:
  timezone: Etc/UTC
  hostname: station
  autologin: true
  dock:
    - firefox
    - dk.gqrx.gqrx
    - com.w1hkj.fldigi
    - io.sourceforge.wsjt.wsjtx
    - com.js8call.JS8Call
    - net.oz9aec.Gpredict
    - io.github.foldynl.QLog
firefox:
  homepage: "https://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html"
  bookmarks:
    - name: "PSKReporter (who hears whom)"
      url: "https://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html"
    - name: "WebSDR (receivers online)"
      url: "http://websdr.org/"
    - name: "ARRL band plan"
      url: "https://www.arrl.org/band-plan"
    - name: "QRZ.com (callsign lookup)"
      url: "https://www.qrz.com/"
    - name: "Priyom (numbers stations)"
      url: "https://priyom.org/"
    - name: "The Conet Project (recordings)"
      url: "https://archive.org/details/ird059"
    - name: "ENIGMA 2000 (newsletter)"
      url: "https://priyom.org/enigma-2000"
    - name: "linuxlive Library"
      url: "https://linuxlive.com/library/"
persistence: true
# Your own additions. Scripts and repos run as root; read them before you share the distro.
packages:
  - rtl-sdr
  - rtl-433
  - dump1090-mutability
  - multimon-ng
  - direwolf
  - ax25-tools
  - minimodem
  - gnuradio
  - cw
  - sox
  - libhamlib-utils
  - chrony
  - gpsd
  - gnupg
  - paperkey
  - ssss
  - qrencode
files:
  - src: files/motd
    dest: "/etc/motd"
    mode: "0644"

My own work, made for this distro. The wallpaper, logo and boot splash were drawn by Python scripts that simulate real FT8 signals and a CW carrier, not traced from screenshots. Released under MIT No Attribution, like the rest of the repository. Licence: MIT-0. Not made or endorsed by Canonical or the Fedora Project.

Version history

Every change to this distro in the Library repository, newest first.

  1. v0.1Add Number StationsOctober 22, 2026 · pull request #17

Built with linuxlive

Built with linuxlive

Show where Number Stations came from: paste this into its README, or any Markdown page.

[![Built with linuxlive](https://linuxlive.com/badge.svg)](https://linuxlive.com/library/number-stations-linux/)

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