mustang6139

mustang6139 / sdrtop

Public

Terminal monitor for SDR hardware - written in Rust. Early development.

hackrf portapack radio ratatui rust
10
1
85% credibility
Found Jun 01, 2026 at 10 stars -- GitGems finds repos before they trend. Get early access to the next one.
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AI Analysis
Rust
AI Summary

sdrtop is a terminal-based monitoring tool for HackRF One software-defined radios that displays real-time spectrum analysis, waterfall spectrograms, signal metrics, and hardware diagnostics directly in the terminal with multiple color themes and layout options.

How It Works

1
📻 Discover terminal-based radio monitoring

You hear about a tool that displays your radio's signals directly in your terminal window, no fancy graphics needed.

2
💻 Install on your Linux computer

You download and build the program using simple commands, then connect your HackRF One radio to your computer.

3
🔌 Plug in your radio hardware

You connect your HackRF One and the program automatically finds it, ready to start receiving.

4
🚀 Launch and watch everything come alive

You press one button and suddenly your terminal fills with colorful spectrum graphs, waterfall displays, and live signal readings.

5
🎛️ Explore your signals with simple keys

You use arrow keys to adjust how sensitive your radio is, type numbers to change frequency, and switch between different viewing layouts.

6
🎨 Choose your favorite color theme

You pick from six different color schemes to make the display look exactly how you like it.

✨ Successfully monitoring your radio

Your signals are now displayed beautifully in real-time, with all the diagnostic information you need right at your fingertips.

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AI-Generated Review

What is sdrtop?

sdrtop is a terminal-based monitor for software-defined radio hardware, built in Rust. It streams real-time diagnostics directly into your terminal -- spectrum analysis, waterfall display, signal metrics, IQ imbalance data, and hardware health stats. Think of it as a lightweight alternative to bloated GUI SDR applications, designed to run in tmux panes, over SSH, or on a cyberdeck screen. It currently supports the HackRF One with a clean keyboard-driven interface and multiple layout presets.

Why is it gaining traction?

The hook here is simplicity without sacrificing depth. You get FFT-based spectrum analysis with EMA smoothing, peak hold, and noise floor tracking -- all rendered in a terminal that works anywhere. The waterfall display supports truecolor down to 16-color terminals, so it adapts to whatever environment you're in. Hardware health monitoring covers drop rates, ADC saturation, USB jitter, and IQ diagnostics (DC offset, amplitude/phase imbalance) that you'd normally need separate tools to see. The observer mode is particularly clever -- when another app holds your radio, sdrtop still shows you device identity and which process is using it. Six color themes and five layout presets let you switch views on the fly.

Who should use this?

SDR hobbyists and RF engineers who prefer terminal workflows will get the most value. If you're running a headless radio station, monitoring spectrum in the field from a laptop, or building a cyberdeck, this fits naturally into that workflow. Developers working with HackRF One hardware will appreciate having diagnostic data accessible without leaving their terminal environment.

Verdict

sdrtop is a promising project at an early stage -- only 10 stars and explicitly marked as early development. The credibility score of 0.85% reflects this maturity level. That said, the code is well-structured, the feature set is comprehensive for HackRF users, and the Rust implementation suggests good performance characteristics. If you have a HackRF One and want terminal-first SDR monitoring, it's worth a look. Just expect to encounter rough edges -- the README acknowledges performance issues, and RTL-SDR support (the most requested feature) is still on the roadmap.

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