diff --git a/src/McRFPy_API.cpp b/src/McRFPy_API.cpp
index a1ed25f..2b0c11b 100644
--- a/src/McRFPy_API.cpp
+++ b/src/McRFPy_API.cpp
@@ -140,6 +140,11 @@ PyStatus init_python(const char *program_name)
     PyConfig config;
     PyConfig_InitIsolatedConfig(&config);
 	config.dev_mode = 0;
+    
+    // Configure UTF-8 for stdio
+    PyConfig_SetString(&config, &config.stdio_encoding, L"UTF-8");
+    PyConfig_SetString(&config, &config.stdio_errors, L"surrogateescape");
+    config.configure_c_stdio = 1;
 
 	PyConfig_SetBytesString(&config, &config.home, 
         narrow_string(executable_path() + L"/lib/Python").c_str());
@@ -187,6 +192,11 @@ PyStatus McRFPy_API::init_python_with_config(const McRogueFaceConfig& config, in
     PyConfig pyconfig;
     PyConfig_InitIsolatedConfig(&pyconfig);
     
+    // Configure UTF-8 for stdio
+    PyConfig_SetString(&pyconfig, &pyconfig.stdio_encoding, L"UTF-8");
+    PyConfig_SetString(&pyconfig, &pyconfig.stdio_errors, L"surrogateescape");
+    pyconfig.configure_c_stdio = 1;
+    
     // CRITICAL: Pass actual command line arguments to Python
     status = PyConfig_SetBytesArgv(&pyconfig, argc, argv);
     if (PyStatus_Exception(status)) {