Hi John
Raspberry Pi 4 comes with Python 3 which is an upgrade from Python 2.
The Pi is a great platform to get started with Python
My Raspberry pi 400 came with a nice book, the "Official Rasberry Pi Beginner's Guide, 4th Edition".
In Chapter 6, "physical computing with Scratch and Python", pg 131 they have a paragraph that
discusses how to use the GPIO pins from Python. You will need a library called GPIO Zero.
you can install it with "sudo pip install gpiozero" if you are not already superuser.
has a example of how to use it.
You might also want to look at "Getting Started with MicroPython on Raspberry Pi Pico".
The PI Pico sells for $4 from
but you will also need to get 20 pin "headers" and solder them.
Look at the pico link above to find the documentation.
I like buying from adafruit but it was a shock to me to find I needed pins
(and that I needed to solder the pins onto a "breadboard" )
to be able to easily attach wires and devices to actually
manipulate hardware.
MicroPython is a version of python that makes programming the hardware a little easier.
CircuitPython comes from Adafruit and is based on MicroPython which can run natively on the Pi Pico.
There is lots of stuff to learn to be able to master programming python for a ham project.
What a splendid adventure lies ahead for you!
73
Paul Campbell
KE7YK
Bellingham, WA
