Palomar Amateur Radio Club STEM Experimentation Lab
📡 Information About SDR Software
There are a lot of SDR software packages out there that can be used. There is a really broad selection of commercial applications and even more free and open-source programs. When looking through these, especially the free ones, it is important to keep in mind that SDR application development has been ongoing for decades. Software projects come and go and their products can be outdated or completely abandoned. So among others things check to see how "current" and well-supported a program is. (Note that there are some really old programs that haven't been updated in years that still work.)
The programs listed here have very good user interfaces and are feature-rich making them good choices for any SDR user. These programs are extremely good for listening and a few other endeavors but most are lacking in digital mode decoding support.
| Free SDR Software Applications |
| SDR++ |
SDR++ is free and open source by Alexandre Rouma and is rapidly gaining popularity. It is available on multiple platforms. It has demodulators for various analog modes and a number of digital modes. Its goals are to offer an easy to use application that is "bloat free". |
🔗 SDR++ Home |
| SDR# or SDR Sharp |
SDR# is popular, free and open source. It is available on multiple platforms including BSD. |
🔗 SDR# GitHub Repository |
| GQRX |
GQRX is popular, free and open source by Alexandru Csete (OZ9AEC). It is available on multiple platforms. It has demodulators for various analog modes and weather FAX. |
🔗 GQRX Home |
| Cubic SDR |
Cubic SDR is popular, free and open source. It is available on multiple platforms. It has demodulators for various analog modes. |
🔗 Cubic SDR Home |
| HDSDR |
HDSDR is a free program by Alberto di Bene (I2PHD). HDSDR is Windows only. |
🔗 HDSDR Home |
| SDRAngel |
SDRAngel is free and open source. SDRAngel is multiplatform including Android. It is a feature rich signal analysis tool with a good digital support. SDRAngel supports transmit for transmit-capable SDRs. Its learning curve is a bit steeper than some of the others. |
🔗 SDRAngel Home |
| Linrad |
Linrad is free and open source. Linrad is multiplatform including FreeBSD and 32-bit/64-bit Linuxes. It has been around for a long time and is a well developed and stable program. |
🔗 Linrad Home |
| GNU Radio |
GNU Radio is a free and open source radio software development toolkit. It is available on multiple platforms. |
🔗 GNU Radio Home |
| Commercial SDR Software Applications |
| SDR Console |
SDR Console Software is commercial software (however it's free for non-commercial use) by SDR-Radio.com. It is available on multiple platforms. SDR Console consists of a whole suite of applications, both servers and clients with which very sophisticated stations can be built. |
🔗 SDR Console |
| rtl_tcp SDR |
rtl_tcp SDR is commercial software by Hotpaw Productions. It is available for iOS devices through the App Store. It relies on separate servers (like rtl_tcp) for access to SDR data over a network. |
🔗 rtl_tcp SDR App Store Preview |
| Special-Purpose SDR Software Applications |
| HABDEC |
RTTY telemetry decoder for High Altitude Balloons. Free open-source software by Michał Frątczak. It can be accessed via a web browser. Multiplatform including Windows, Linux x64, Raspberry Pi OS and OdroixXU4. |
🔗 HABDEC Github Repository |
| SigDigger |
SigDigger is a digital signal analysis program but can also be used for listening to analog voice. It is free open-source software by BatchDrake (EA1IYR). It is available for Linux and MacOS. |
🔗 SigDigger Github Repository |
Note: PARC does not sell or endorse any products mentioned in these pages.
Information is provided for education and instructional purposes only.