qewer33 / sdrrat

What is sdrrat?

sdrrat is a terminal-based software defined radio receiver that lets you visualize the RF spectrum and listen to demodulated audio directly in your terminal. Built in Rust using Ratatui for the interface and FutureSDR for the DSP pipeline, it connects to RTL-SDR or HackRF USB dongles and displays real-time FFT spectrum and waterfall spectrograms. You can tune frequencies, adjust gain, and switch between WBFM, NBFM, and AM demodulation modes—all without leaving your terminal.

Why is it gaining traction?

This fills a niche for developers and hobbyists who want quick RF analysis without launching a full GUI application. The terminal-native approach means it works over SSH, integrates into scripts, and runs on headless systems. The architecture separates the DSP thread from the UI thread using lock-free channels, keeping the interface responsive even during heavy signal processing.

Who should use this?

Ham radio operators who prefer terminal workflows, embedded systems developers debugging RF hardware, and security researchers assessing wireless devices will find this most useful. It also appeals to anyone wanting a lightweight spectrum analyzer that runs in constrained environments.

Verdict

At 49 stars with a 1.0% credibility score, sdrrat is clearly early-stage and experimental. The documentation is minimal, and the project explicitly warns against using it in production. That said, the Rust implementation shows solid engineering fundamentals, and the feature set is already functional for RTL-SDR and HackRF users who need a portable, scriptable RF tool. If you want a stable, GUI-based SDR application, look elsewhere; if you need something lightweight and terminal-native for RF exploration, it is worth trying.