Skywave Linux Updated to ver 4.2 | Shortwave Radio | RTL-SDR | KiwiSDR

WebSDR Handbook
How to Tune Global Broadcasts and Communications for Free With Software Defined Radio

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Click here to visit the main Skywave Linux pages as it upgraded to version 4.4 (with GNOME and i3, plus new KiwiSDR clients). See what is written below for version 4.2. It looks pretty solid, with those floating windows in i3wm worked out. There kernel for version 4.2 is 5.15.14-rt27-xanmod1 5.9.1 and several applications have been freshened. It is nice to have SDR++ now in the iso.

SDR++ and Neovim Skywave Linux

More of the drivers needed to run plugin SDR devices are now sourced from git repositories instead of the Ubuntu / Debian repos. The directory /usr/local/src is packed with fresh source code from cloned repos. Bash scripts there are used to manage updates, where you can simply run a script and it will freshen the local source, compile the binaries, and install them. These are some of the changes:

upgraded Xanmod kernel 5.15.14-rt27-xanmod1
default screen resolution 1920 x 1080
removed LightDM (now boot directly to the desktop)
i3wm "master and stack" tiling window layout
Configured fzf and fzf plugin for Neovim through Telescope and Treesitter
Neovim more deeply integrated through Language Server Pprotocol
fewer Neovim plugins for reduced latency
LinHPSDR removed and replaced with SDR++ (SDRPlusPlus)
Added SDR++ (SDRplusplus) working with devices through SoapySDR
OBS Studio replaces Simplescreenrecorder
Dump1090, the AIS monitor, and other utilities switched from Zenity to Rofi / Dmenu
New RTLSDR bookmarks
Revamped internet radio streamer
Updated SSH tunneling (sshuttle); more stable behavior

It seems that a lot of people in the Eastern world are being cut off from new sources such as the BBC. Fortunately, if you have internet and Skywave Linux, you have access to the broadcasts you want. It is trivially easy to either get off-the-air signals from a WebSDR or KiwiSDR - or use a circumvention app to stream noise-free content directly from the studios.

It has become a challenge to keep up with the stream urls for that nice high quality broadcast streaming. WTF, broadcasters? How much control do need over your listeners? As if it is not enough to deal with blocked access on the receiving end, we must play games with platforms who intend to choose who listens? Game on, friends.

Skywave Linux v4.2 is a larger iso file, with more programming tools going along with the git source for those SDR drivers. With the increased size, it is more powerful Linux system. Over here, in my world, it has worked well for a number of monitoring, writing, and content creation tasks which involve radio in one way or another. It is a joy for writing Bash, Python, and HTML code. All while running my local SDR to sniff for signals on the bands.

Enjoy,

P.C. AB9IL / Skywave Linux

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AB9IL.net: Skywave Linux Updated to ver 4.2