Email over radio
Send and receive Winlink messages through your modem. A built-in RMS gateway list helps you pick a station and find a path when the band is open.
In alpha testing · Winlink (Pending approval) · PACTOR · RTTY · AMTOR · PSK31
HFConverse
Designed for SCS modems.
A modern rewrite of the classic Windows client, now on Windows, macOS and Linux. HFC drives your SCS PACTOR modem for radio email, live QSOs, RTTY, AMTOR and PSK31, and station-to-station image and QSL exchange.
CQ CQ DE MW0GBQ MW0GBQ PSE K
DE 2E0XYZ 2E0XYZ KN
2E0XYZ GM OM UR RST 599 599 QTH POWYS WALES
R FB MW0GBQ UR 589 HR NAME DAI QTH SNOWDONIA
FB DAI TNX QSO RIG HR IS PTC-IIUSB INTO FT-991A
LINKED
PTC-IIusb
14.078.50 MHz
PACTOR-3
MW0GBQ
What HFC does
One app for the HF digital modes you actually run.
Everything talks to your SCS modem, so switching between email, a ragchew, and RTTY doesn't mean switching programs.
Keyboard-to-keyboard QSOs
Ragchew in real time over a PACTOR link. Type, send, and read the other station live — the way a conversation on the air should feel.
Baudot, done properly
Classic Baudot RTTY with clean mark/space tuning. Decode and send teleprinter text alongside everything else HFC drives.
ARQ teleprinter, error-corrected
Run Amateur AMTOR in the same window as PACTOR and RTTY — an ARQ teleprinter mode that automatically resends what's missed.
Narrowband keyboard chat
Work PSK31 for narrow-bandwidth, weak-signal keyboard-to-keyboard conversations, using the same terminal and macros as your other modes.
Works with your PACTOR network as-is
HFC talks to your SCS modem the same way every other PACTOR program does — Alpha/Simple32, MixW, Airmail, RMS Express, Paxon and the rest. Anyone you can already work on PACTOR, you can still work with HFC, no special setup either end.
Images & digital cards
Send a photo or a QSL card straight to another HFC station, and keep every card you receive in a browsable QSL album.
Your keys, your words
Bind the phrases you send most to the function keys. Call CQ, pass a report, or run a net without retyping the same lines.
Read & set frequency
Read and control your rig's VFO — through the modem's own CAT port, Hamlib's rigctld, or a FlexRadio's network API — so HFC and your radio always agree on exactly where you're listening.
Know who you're working
Look up a callsign for country, name, QTH, locator, and a photo — plus distance and beam heading from your own grid square.
A log that hands off cleanly
Every QSO lands in a simple ADIF log, one click from the lookup window — and can broadcast to Log4OM or Ham Radio Deluxe over your network as you go.
New — On the Air. Announce that you're calling CQ or in a QSO on a PACTOR frequency, and see a live list of other HFConverse operators doing the same. Double-click a spot to tune to them — a purpose-built alternative to announcing yourself in a chat group.
See who's on the air
NEW · ON THE AIR ALERTS
Get a push when a station comes up
Pick a callsign, or any callsign, and a band, or any band. Your phone or desktop gets a notification when that station appears on the On the Air list in PACTOR, or moves to a new band.
- Create a Pushover account and install the Pushover app on your phone or desktop.
- Log in to alerts with your email — no password, we send you a one-time link.
- Paste your Pushover user key, add your rules, and send a test alert.
Pushover is a one-time payment of US$4.99 per platform (iPhone/iPad, Android or desktop), paid to Pushover — not to HFConverse. PACTOR spots only for now.
What an alert looks like
Pushover · HFConversenow
MW0GBQ/P is on the air — 20m
PACTOR on 14109.00 kHz (CF)
Activity: CQ · Grid: IO81
Activity: CQ · Grid: IO81
Pushover · HFConversenow
MW0GBQ/P has moved to 40m
PACTOR on 7045.00 kHz (CF)
Activity: CQ · Grid: IO81
Activity: CQ · Grid: IO81
Tap an alert to open the On the Air list.
THEMES
Light, dark, or system
Match your shack. HFC follows your system theme, or you can set light or dark to taste — try the toggle at the top of this page.
CROSS-PLATFORM
Windows, macOS & Linux
One codebase built on .NET 8 and Avalonia UI, so the app looks and behaves the same on any of the three in the shack.
COST
Free to use
No licence fee, no account, no trial. If HFC earns a place on your desk, donations are welcome — but never asked for twice.
Station to station
Confirm the contact — no paper required.
When two HFC stations are linked, you can pass an image or a digital QSL card directly across the PACTOR connection.
Cards you receive — like this one from MW0GBQ — land in your QSL album, filed by callsign and date, so the log and the confirmation live in the same place. Design your own card once and send it for every contact.
Card and image exchange is an HFC-to-HFC bonus feature — a QSO with any other PACTOR program still logs and confirms normally, it just won't trade cards this way.
Before you start
What you'll need.
HFC is built for a specific job, so the shopping list is short and honest.
-
01
An amateur radio licence
HFC is a tool for licensed operators transmitting on the amateur bands. If you hold a callsign, you're the intended pilot.
-
02
An SCS PACTOR modem
HFC is designed around SCS hardware — built for these modems, not adapted to them. Supported: the PTC-IIusb, PTC-IIIusb, P4 Dragon (DR-7800/DR-7400) and PXdragon DR-9400 — the two newest have a couple of firmware-level limitations, covered in full in the manual. Below are the models operators have confirmed working on the air; the list grows as people report what they're running.
Tested modems
- PTC-IIusb
-
03
An HF transceiver
Any rig you'd normally run digital modes on. If it exposes a
CATinterface, HFC can read and set frequency for you; if not, everything else still works. -
04
Windows, macOS or Linux
A current Windows, macOS, or Linux machine with the
.NET 8runtime. The interface is built on Avalonia UI, so it feels native on all three.
Get HFC
In alpha testing — public release coming.
HFC is being put through its paces by a small group of licensed amateurs on real stations. Public downloads for Windows, macOS and Linux will appear here once testing is done.
There's no date yet — it'll be ready when it's right. Subscribe to updates and you'll get an email the day it's out.
- Status
- Alpha testing
- Public release
- In due course
- Platforms
- Windows · macOS · Linux
HFC is free, and it stays free. It's closed-source while it's under active development, and will be opened up once it's no longer actively maintained. If it's useful to you, a donation is appreciated — but you'll never get a pop-up asking for one.
DonateGet in touch
Contact the author
Found a bug, running a modem that isn't on the tested list yet, or just want to say hello on the air? Send a note straight from here — it goes to the author over a secure connection, and any reply comes back to your inbox.
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