Supported Hardware

Before we dive into the installation itself, here's the basic requirements you'll need to have to set up a receiver.

Computer

Pretty much any recent machine that runs Linux should do. Many SBCs (Single Board Computers) will work as well, if they do have some decent amount of CPU power. OpenWebRX explicitly supports the Raspberry Pi, we even provide ready-to-go SD card images. The images do not support first-generation Raspberry Pis or the Raspberry Pi Zero, though.

The amount of computing power needed will be determined by various factors: amount of users, bandwidth to be displayed, which modes will typically be used and if background decoding will be enabled. A Raspberry Pi 4 will handle somewhere between 2 and 5 users, whereas an Intel Core i5 will easily handle 20 and more.

Network / data line

In most cases, you'll want to make your receiver available to the public, or at least to a certain audience. You will need about 200kbps of bandwidth per active user on your receiver, or about double that if you intend to remove compression.## SDR devices

SDR devices

RTL-SDR USB Sticks

Use the rtl_sdr or rtl_sdr_soapy type.

rtl_sdr_soapy uses the SoapySDR abstraction layer.

Available since: 0.18.0

SDRPlay devices (RSP1, RSP2, RSPDuo, RSPDx)

Use the sdrplay type.

Uses the SoapySDR abstraction layer.

Available since: 0.18.0

State of dual-tuner support on the RSPduo is currently unknown.

The RSPDx requires the API driver version 3, along with the SoapySDRPlay module from SDRPlay

Airspy devices (R2, Mini, HF+, Discovery)

Use the airspy type for R2 and Mini.

Use the airspyhf type for HF+ and Discovery.

Uses the SoapySDR abstraction layer.

Available since: 0.18.0

HackRF

Use the hackrf type.

Starting with 0.19.0 uses the SoapySDR abstraction layer. This change is in the develop branch right now and will make its way into the next release.

Available since: 0.18.0

LimeSDR devices

Use the lime_sdr type.

Uses the SoapySDR abstraction layer.

Avaible since: 0.18.0

Note: The driver included in the Raspberry Pi images made available at the time of the 0.18.0 Release (2020-02-20) have been reported as broken. This was fixed in a later build of the Raspberry Pi image (2020-03-21).

PlutoSDR

Use the pluto_sdr type.

Uses the SoapySDR abstraction layer.

Available since: 0.18.0

FiFi SDR

Use the fifi_sdr type.

Available since: 0.18.0

SoapyRemote

Use the soapy_remote type.

Uses the SoapySDR abstraction layer.

Available since: 0.18.0

Perseus

Use the perseussdr type.

Available since: 0.19.0

Red Pitaya

Use the red_pitaya type.

Uses the SoapySDR abstraction layer.

Available since: 0.19.0

EttusResearch USRP

Use the uhd type.

Uses the SoapySDR abstraction layer.

Available since: 0.19.0

TODO: link in documentation on how to add others

SDR device availability

Device	type string	notes	uses SoapySDR	since version	RPi images	Packages	Docker images
RTL-SDR USB sticks	rtl_sdr		no	0.18.0	✔️	✔️	✔️
RTL-SDR USB sticks	rtl_sdr_soapy		yes	0.18.0	✔️	✔️	✔️
SDRPlay devices (RSP1, RSP2, RSPDuo, RSPDx)	sdrplay		yes	0.18.0	✔️	❌	✔️
Airspy R2, Mini	airspy		yes	0.18.0	✔️	✔️	✔️
Airspy HF+, Discovery	airspyhf		yes	0.18.0	✔️	❌	✔️
HackRF	hackrf		yes	0.18.0	✔️	✔️	✔️
LimeSDR devices	lime_sdr		yes	0.18.0	✔️	❌ [1]	✔️
PlutoSDR	pluto_sdr		yes	0.18.0	✔️	❌	✔️
FiFi SDR	fifi_sdr		no	0.18.0	❌	❌	❌
SoapyRemote	soapy_remote		yes	0.18.0	✔️	✔️	✔️
Perseus	perseussdr		no	0.19.0	✔️	❌	✔️
Red Pitaya	red_pitaya		yes	0.19.0	✔️	✔️	✔️
EttusResearch USRP	uhd		yes	0.19.0	✔️	✔️	✔️
RadioBerry	radioberry		yes	0.19.0	✔️	❌	✔️
FunCube Dongle Pro+	fcdpp		yes	0.20.0 [2]	✔️	❌	✔️
RTL-SDR devices via rtl_tcp	rtl_tcp		no	0.20.0 [2]	✔️	✔️	✔️

[1]: included but reported broken. [2]: upcoming release, currently in development