SDR++, The bloat-free SDR software

SDR++ is a cross-platform and open source SDR software with the aim of being bloat free and simple to use.

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Features

• Wide hardware support (both through SoapySDR and dedicated modules)
• SIMD accelerated DSP
• Cross-platform (Windows, Linux, OSX and BSD)
• Full waterfall update when possible. Makes browsing signals easier and more pleasant

Coming soon

• Digital demodulators and decoders
• Light theme (I know you weirdos exist lol)
• Waterfall color scheme editor
• Other small customisation options

Installing

Windows

Download the latest release from the Releases page and extract to the directory of your choice.

To create a desktop shortcut, rightclick the exe and select Send to -> Desktop (create shortcut), then, rename the shortcut on the desktop to whatever you want.

Linux

Debian-based (Ubuntu, Mint, etc)

Download the latest release from the Releases page and extract to the directory of your choice.

Then, run:

sudo apt install libfftw3-dev libglfw3-dev libglew-dev libvolk2-dev libsoapysdr-dev libairspyhf-dev libiio-dev libad9361-dev librtaudio-dev libhackrf-dev
sudo dpkg -i sdrpp_debian_amd64.deb

If libvolk2-dev is not available, use libvolk1-dev.

Arch-based

Install the latest release from the sdrpp-git AUR package

Other

There are currently no existing packages for other distributions, for these systems you'll have to build from source.

MacOS

TODO

BSD

There are currently no BSD packages, refer to Building on Linux / BSD for instructions on building from source.

Building on Windows

Install dependencies

• cmake
• vcpkg
• PothosSDR (This will install libraries for most SDRs)
• rtaudio

After this, install the following dependencies using vcpkg:

• fftw3
• glfw
• glew

Building

mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. "-DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=C:/Users/Alex/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake" -G "Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64"
cmake --build . --config Release

Create a new root directory

./create_root.bat

Running for development

If you wish to install SDR++, skip to the next step

You will first need to edit the root_dev/config.json file to point to the modules that were built. Here is an example of what it should look like:

...
"modules": [
    "./build/radio/Release/radio.dll",
    "./build/recorder/Release/recorder.dll",
    "./build/rtl_tcp_source/Release/rtl_tcp_source.dll",
    "./build/soapy_source/Release/soapy_source.dll",
    "./build/audio_sink/Release/audio_sink.dll"
]
...

You also need to change the location of the resource and module directories, for development, I recommend:

...
"modulesDirectory": "../root_dev/modules",
...
"resourcesDirectory": "../root_dev/res",
...

Remember that these paths will be relative to the run directory.

Of course, remember to add entries for all modules that were built and that you wish to use.

Next, from the top directory, you can simply run:

./build/Release/sdrpp.exe -r root_dev

Or, if you wish to run from the build directory:

./Release/sdrpp.exe -r ../root_dev

Installing SDR++

If you choose to run SDR++ for development, you do not need this step. First, copy over the exe and DLLs from build/Release/ to root_dev.

Next you need to copy over all the modules that were compiled. To do so, copy the DLL file of the module (located in its build folder given below) to the root_dev/modules directory and other DLLs (that do not have the exact name of the modue) to the root_dev directory.

The modules built will be some of the following (Repeat the instructions above for all you wish to use):

• build/radio/Release/
• build/recorder/Release/
• build/rtl_tcp_source/Release/
• build/spyserver_source/Release/
• build/soapy_source/Release/
• build/airspyhf_source/Release/
• build/plutosdr_source/Release/
• build/audio_sink/Release/

Building on Linux / BSD

Install dependencies

• cmake
• fftw3
• glfw
• glew
• libvolk

Next install dependencies based on the modules you wish to build:

• soapy_source: SoapySDR + drivers for each SDRs (see SoapySDR docs)
• airspyhf_source: libairspyhf
• plutosdr_source: libiio, libad9361
• audio_sink: librtaudio-dev

Note: make sure you're using GCC 8 or later as older versions do not have std::filesystem built-in.

Building

replace <N> with the number of threads you wish to use to build

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make -j<N>

Create a new root directory

sh ./create_root.sh

Running for development

If you wish to install SDR++, skip to the next step

First run SDR++ from the build directory to generate a default config file

./sdrpp -r ../root_dev/

Then, you will need to edit the root_dev/config.json file to point to the modules that were built. Here is an example of what it should look like:

...
"modules": [
    "./build/radio/radio.so",
    "./build/recorder/recorder.so",
    "./build/rtl_tcp_source/rtl_tcp_source.so",
    "./build/soapy_source/soapy_source.so",
    "./build/audio_sink/audio_sink.so"
]
...

Note: You can generate this list automatically by running find . | grep '\.so' | sed 's/^/"/' | sed 's/$/",/' | sed '/sdrpp_core.so/d' in the build directory.

You also need to change the location of the resource and module directories, for development, I recommend:

...
"modulesDirectory": "./root_dev/modules",
...
"resourcesDirectory": "./root_dev/res",
...

Remember that these paths will be relative to the run directory.

Of course, remember to add entries for all modules that were built and that you wish to use.

Next, from the top directory, you can simply run:

./build/sdrpp -r root_dev

Or, if you wish to run from the build directory, you will need to correct the directories in the config.json file, and then run:

./sdrpp -r ../root_dev

Installing SDR++

To install SDR++, run the following command in your build folder:

sudo make install

Contributing

Feel free to submit pull requests and report bugs via the GitHub issue tracker. I will soon publish a contributing.md listing the code style to use.

Credits

Patrons

• Croccydile
• Daniele D'Agnelli
• W4IPA
• Lee Donaghy
• ON4MU
• Passion-Radio.com
• Scanner School
• SignalsEverywhere

Contributors

• Aang23
• Alexsey Shestacov
• Aosync
• Benjamin Kyd
• Benjamin Vernoux
• Cropinghigh
• Howard0su
• Joshua Kimsey
• Martin Hauke
• Paulo Matias
• Raov
• Starman0620
• Syne Ardwin (WI9SYN)
• Szymon Zakrent
• Tobias Mädel

Libraries used

• SoapySDR (PothosWare)
• Dear ImGui (ocornut)
• spdlog (gabime)
• json (nlohmann)
• rtaudio
• Portable File Dialogs