AetherSDR — Open-Source Linux Client for Flex Radios

WX7Y · April 11

UPDATE: the Linux Version of AetherSDR 0.8.9 and 0.8.9.1 Audio are broken here for WSJTX so stay with 0.8.8 for now.

0.8.9.1 was supposed to fix the Audio issues but I don't think the fix got saved as 0.8.9.1 and is actually the broken 0.8.9

FredKrause · April 11

Hey Jeremy, great work on AetherSDR — this has been a long time coming for the Linux community.

Noticed you added a CW decoder for giggles in v0.4.13. I've been working on something that might be
worth a look before you go too far down that road. It's called OpenSkimmer — an open source Linux CW
skimmer I've been building with Claude as a co-developer (looks like we had the same idea there).

Quick tour:

- Full 192kHz band coverage via a polyphase filter bank channelizer — monitors every CW signal in the
band simultaneously, not just the active slice
- Three-decoder ensemble: uhsdr_cw (Goertzel, same core SkimSrv uses), libbmorse.so (Bayesian trellis,
AG1LE's decoder), all in C++
- Scores 56/67 on a dense CWT contest pileup benchmark — lightyears ahead of anything else available on
Linux open source
- GPLv3, so the licensing lines up perfectly with AetherSDR

The IQ stream from the Flex via VITA-49 is exactly what the channelizer eats, so integration into
AetherSDR would be fairly natural. What ggmorse gives you is a solid single-slice decoder — what this
adds is full-band skimming, which is a different beast entirely for contest and DX work.

Still actively developing but it's in good shape. Happy to connect and share more if you're interested.

73, Fred WF8Z

roberval · April 13

I’d like to take a moment to sincerely thank everyone involved in the development of AetherSDR. Your work and dedication truly show in the quality of this project.

I’m currently running the client on a MacBook Pro M4, and it’s been working flawlessly. The performance, stability, and overall user experience are outstanding.

Projects like this make a real difference for the SDR community, and it’s clear a lot of passion and expertise went into making it what it is today. Thank you all for your efforts and for continuing to push things forward.

73, Roberval PS7TI

Scott Lewis · April 16

Have been using it with my FR8600/TGXL/PGXL/AG8x2 running Windows 11 pro, since version 0.8.1, now on .0.8.15.1. The software has come a long, long way in just a few versions. I have not opened FR Smart SDR in over a week now, except for testing issues found on ASDR. The nice thing is, if you are kind (don't be demanding it's free software, you did not pay for it "FREE"), and submit a bug report, it is generally fixed the next morning. Big shout-out to the team working on ADSR.

Trucker · April 19

There's a new update for AetherSDR out this evening. Version 0.8.16. Tested on Windows 11 and working great. Tested on my old,AMD Athlon mini-desktop (5350 processor) running CachyOS Linux. Basic noise reduction features work well. But, with the low power cpu ,I have problems with the add on noise reduction features, NR4 and DFNR. Those two will bring the AMD Athlon processor to a crawl with nearly 100% usage on all four cores. I will have to find something a little newer with more horsepower if I want to use all of the features in AetherSDR in Linux.

James

WD5GWY

John K3MA · April 19

The good news is you have a large selection of mini computers with high performance cpu's available to select from these days. The bad news is you would have gotten the same mini computer for less money 9 months ago, before the memory pricing craziness. For example I purchased a i9-13900HK with 14 cores/20 threads 64GB/2TB for $599 10 months ago. Today, the same mini PC with half the memory and SSD storage is $799. This particular Mini PC runs AetherSDR 0.8.16 with less than 10% max CPU loading as a guide for you.

Trucker · April 19

I usually buy from a local computer shop that sells refurbished Dell desktop lease returns. Some have really good specs and at low prices. My main desktop is an i7 Dell with 4 cores /8 virtual cores, that runs at 3.2Ghz and 16Gb ram. It cruises along just fine with AetherSDR in Windows 11. And I only paid $200 for it with a keyboard, mouse and monitor. Not the latest and greatest. But, plenty powerful enough for AetherSDR.

I have considered the mini desktop computers on Amazon. But, I like the option to add a better video card if I want. Since I am not a gamer, that hasn't happened.

James

WD5GWY

Mike-VA3MW · April 20

Make sure you test some of the older computers.

I've been running AetherSDR on a HP All in one desktop that was the XYLs with Mint. It works beautifully until you run WSJTx on it and it can't handle the decoding fast enough.

If you watch the CPU monitor, you'll see all 4 cores max at 100% and then the DT's, which are the decoded time, start to go long and over 1 second and up to 2 seconds. The more signals to decode, the longer the DTs. It is a great indication of computer performance.

Trucker · April 20

I do plan to replace the AMD Athlon mini-desktop with something a lot newer to run AetherSDR in Linux. I will probably go by the computer shop in a day or two and see what they have available.

James

WD5GWY

Trucker · April 22

Wow! Over 6,100 views in this thread! That should give Flex Radio some indication of how much their customers are wanting something new and exciting. And AetherSDR has come along and provided new features for the 6000 radios that many of us believed would never happen. And on top of that, it adds those new features to the 8000 radios and the Aurora radios. Best of all, those new features don't cost $200-$300 to get them. I hope that the silence from Flex Radio about the next version of SmartSDR is an indication that they are upping their game and getting ready to release a new version of SmartSDR that will rival AetherSDR and add new, desirable features to SmartSDR.

James

WD5GWY

Doug - W3UB · April 22

And, let’s not forget that the QT6 environment provides a multi-OS end product. The only way to go these days.

WX7Y · April 22

I am impressed with the new features as well of the AetherSDR Client, And I think now they have the ROOTS of the 6000 / 8000 / Arura SmartSDR feature set working that they are just scratching the surface of what's possible with these radios. I know Flex design idea for the 6000 / 8000 / Arura is to have all the heavy lifting processing be done in the Radio Hardware but this is hard to do as we have seen.

Maybe this is what FLEX has been waiting for too, after all this is how "PowerSDR" got started on the 1000, 5000, 3000, and 1500, and look at it now with the BASIC design of PowerSDR on the ANAN radios, there will be so much pressure taken off of the programmers that they can get to the bottom of some of the Firmware issues that need to be fixed in the Hardware.

I think it will take a little time for everyone to get there head wrapped around how to get there Soundcard 3rd party programs configured and maybe the Author of those program's will add TCI to there software as WSJT-X has done once they see how easy it is to have ONE device to do the Sound and CAT control. The built in CW Decoder works great as does the new Client based DNS filters. Maybe someday it will have like FLDIGI built in for the other Digital modes.

For those who haven't tried it sure should and see how it looks, even if you have a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 or an old Intel based MAC kicking around it can make a nice portable station.

It's very nice to have something that works on Windows, MAC, Linux, or Raspberry Pi all the the same user interface and enough like SmartSDR to make it easy.

Trucker · April 22

Check out the video just posted about the upcoming release of SmartSDR v4.2. It has some much needed changes. But, to me, some disappointments as well. No mention of improvements to the new DSP functions ( no sliders) and no mention of the new 60 meters allocation being added. I will say this, the ability to create custom filters ( transmit and receive) and save them is nice. And as for the band plan display, AetherSDR already has that. I guess I was hoping that Flex Radio would do something unexpected and really knock it out of the park by adding some really useful and neat features. Maybe by the time my Early Access license expires they will dazzle us with something exciting. Just not today.

James

WD5GWY

Dan Trainor · April 22

I watched the video, but I don't need any of the new features. I use SmartSDR for Mac and now increasingly AetherSDR for Mac. New DAX Architecture and FlexVSP driver irrelevant to me. SmartSDR for Mac has its own DAX streaming capability that is more robust and of higher performance - optimized for the platform. Recently, this streaming feature integrates the Common-Radio™ Audio Driver, which provides seamless, low-latency audio exchange with external apps. A third-party audio driver is no longer necessary. However, the option to use one remains available. If you prefer to use loopback audio drivers, you can simply uncheck the "Use Common Radio Audio" setting at the top of the DAX Streaming screen. Anyway, to make long story short, these new Flex DAX architecture in the Flex 4.2 release is irrelevant for me on the Mac Platform. Similar story with the AetherSDR, a comprehensive yet simple to use DAX streaming capability that leverages the best underlying audio routing aspects of each targeted platform, Linux using PipeAudio, Mac using CoreAudio and Windows the Native DAX virtual audio devices are not yet available. In any case, the new 4.2 DAX design is irrelevant unless you are on Windows 11. For me, irrelevant. BandPlans, the capability has been in SmartSDR for Mac for several years, so I aready have that and certainly don't need to pay for it. And have a list of SmartSDR for Mac features built-in that is too long to list here that are not in Flex Windows version, so there's that. Custom Filters, I don't have a use case for that and I think it just complicates things with less than marginal benefit for anyone. Band Edges, never had an issue so to me that is a solution without a problem, for me. ARM support on Windows, again does not apply to me. The 3 Plus features are not needed and and certainly don't rise to the level of a purchasable feature and they probably are not supported on 6000 series, so a non-starter. So, if I put this all together, for me, upgrading to the client part of this New 4.2 serves no purpose for me. Firmware maybe, if it proves to be stable, only time will tell. That's my take. I have no need or desire to upgrade, but that is just me.

Dan

WA1QZX

AetherSDR — Open-Source Linux Client for Flex Radios

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