A narrowband AM airband receiver for RTL-SDR and Airspy dongles. Listen to multiple ATC channels simultaneously from a terminal.
sdrx turns a cheap USB dongle into a professional-grade multichannel AM airband monitor. It runs entirely in the terminal with no GUI required.
| Device | Type |
|---|---|
| RTL-SDR Blog V3 | RTL |
| Nooelec NESDR SMArt v5 | RTL |
| Airspy Mini | Airspy |
| Airspy R2 | Airspy |
| RTL-SDR Blog V4 (R828D) | Untested |
Only R820T(2)/R860 tuner-based devices are officially supported.
Monitor multiple ATC frequencies simultaneously from a single dongle and audio output.
Channels placed in a virtual left-right stereo field for spatial awareness across the band.
Per-channel automatic SNR-based squelch; only opens when a signal is truly present.
Auto-restarts and reconnects if the dongle is unplugged and re-inserted at runtime.
Use standard designators (8.33 kHz & 25 kHz spacing) instead of raw frequencies.
Full individual control over LNA, Mixer, and VGA gain stages on R820T(2)/R860.
Up to 8 MHz with Airspy R2/Mini at 10 MS/s IQ
Requirements: Linux + ALSA. Basic command-line proficiency expected. Less powerful Pi models and non-R820T(2)/R860 dongles may not be compatible.
sdrx is source-only. Build it with CMake — submodules for librtlsdr and libairspy are included.
Full build instructions including dependency installation are in the doc/BUILD.md file in the repo.
Specify channels using standard airband designators. Both 8.33 kHz and 25 kHz channel spacing schemes supported.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--channels | Channel designators to receive |
--device | rtl or airspy |
--lna / --mix / --vga | Gain stage control |
--squelch | SNR squelch threshold |
Full documentation at doc/USING.md