A software radio is a radio system which performs the required signal processing in software instead of using dedicated integrated circuits in hardware. The benefit is that since software can be easily replaced in the radio system, the same hardware can be used to create many kinds of radios for many different communications standards. Therefore one software radio can be used for a variety of applications.
DVB-T dongles based on the Realtek RTL2832U can be used as a cheap SDR, since the chip allows transferring the raw I/Q samples to the host, which is officially used for DAB/DAB+/FM demodulation. RTL-SDR is a very inexpensive USB dongle that can be used as a computer based radio scanner for receiving live radio signals in your area (no internet required). Depending on the particular model it can receive frequencies from 500 kHz up to 1.75 GHz. There’s a good range of software for the RTL2832U.
This roundup looks at the finest software-defined radio tools for Linux including apps that let you listen to DAB and DAB+ broadcasts. Many of the tools are perfect for low power devices such as the the Raspberry Pi range of single-board computers.
Here’s our verdict captured in a legendary LinuxLinks-style ratings chart. Only free and open source software is eligible for inclusion here.
Let’s explore the 21 tools at hand.
| Software-Defined Radio Tools | |
|---|---|
| SDRangel | SDR Rx/Tx software for Airspy, Airspy HF+, BladeRF, HackRF, + |
| SigDigger | Digital signal analyzer and graphical front end for Suscan |
| rtl_433 | Receives and decodes radio transmissions |
| Gqrx | SDR powered by the GNU Radio and the Qt graphical toolkit. |
| sdrtrunk | Java application |
| Qt-DAB | DAB decoder |
| AbracaDABra | DAB and DAB+ Software Defined Radio (SDR) application |
| OpenWebRX | Multi-user SDR receiver |
| inspectrum | Radio signal analyser for examining captured signals |
| welle.io | DAB and DAB+ software defined radio |
| SDR++ CE | Community-driven fork of SDR++ |
| OpenWebRX+ | Improved version of OpenWebRX |
| multimon-ng | Decoder for a broad range of digital transmission modes |
| GNU Radio | Signal processing runtime and signal processing software |
| DABlin | DAB/DAB+ audio service from a live transmission / stored recording |
| sdr_j_fm | FM receiver |
| AetherSDR | Linux-native client for FlexRadio Systems transceivers |
| Quisk | Designed for low latency CW operation |
| AIS-catcher | Versatile AIS receiver for software-defined radio |
| gr-dab | GNU Radio Digital Audio Broadcasting module |
| rtl-dab | DAB/DAB+ receiver to use with rtl-sdr sticks |
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