How good is CubicSDR?

[FlyingGerman]

Hi all,

I'd like to hear about your favorite SDR software.
I have been using CubicSDR and it's been working good despite
the suboptimal documentation available.

What is your favorite software to use and what makes it "better"
than CubicSDR?

I'm not into decoding digital stuff etc. just listening to
amateur radio repeaters, cops etc.

I should mention, I'm running MacOS, not Windows.
I'm also set up and experienced with Linux. At least enough to be dangerous.

 

[devicelab]

Honestly I'd buy a cheap PC. You can get them for very good deals these days. SDR# is the way to go these days. Geesh, CubicSDR hasn't been updated since 2018. I guess for listening to basic stuff it's probably OK but I've never used it. Looking at a few YouTube videos it seems 'nice' but no idea how well the app plays with others.

Also if you want to decode P25, dstar, nxdn, Fusion, etc. you'll need DSD+ and I don't know if it's supported on Mac. I kind of doubt it.

PS. I guess there's OP25 on the Linux side. I never had a need for it though.

 

[smason]

SDR++ has a Mac version. Very similar to SDR# Not a lot of plugins available yet.

 

[DC31]

Hi all,

I'd like to hear about your favorite SDR software.
I have been using CubicSDR and it's been working good despite
the suboptimal documentation available.

What is your favorite software to use and what makes it "better"
than CubicSDR?

I'm not into decoding digital stuff etc. just listening to
amateur radio repeaters, cops etc.

I should mention, I'm running MacOS, not Windows.
I'm also set up and experienced with Linux. At least enough to be dangerous.

If you are Linux-capable, get yourself a Raspberry Pi to play with. You can run GQRX, SDRtrunk, rtlsdr_airband, and others. It sounds like your needs are rather simple. Don’t over-complicate it. Tuck a pi away in a corner, in the attic, in the garage, then remote into it using VNC. No need for a bunch of additional hardware around (keyboard, monitor, mouse…). The problem is pi availability right now.

 

[FlyingGerman]

If you are Linux-capable, get yourself a Raspberry Pi to play with. You can run GQRX, SDRtrunk, rtlsdr_airband, and others. It sounds like your needs are rather simple. Don’t over-complicate it. Tuck a pi away in a corner, in the attic, in the garage, then remote into it using VNC. No need for a bunch of additional hardware around (keyboard, monitor, mouse…). The problem is pi availability right now.

Yes for now it is rather simple.

Thanks for the tip.
I like the remote access via VNC and using a Pi for it.
Never even thought of that.

 

[FlyingGerman]

SDR++ has a Mac version. Very similar to SDR# Not a lot of plugins available yet.

Is it actively being updated and expanded upon?

"Devicelab" mentioned above that CubicSDR has not been updated since 2018.
I didn't really pay attention to the latest version's release date, but now I will

 

[smason]

Is it actively being updated and expanded upon?

Yes, it's on Github which is a bit annoying. The "stable version" 1.04 hasn't changed in a while (October), but there's a nightly build 1.06 that works quite well. Just follow the link to the nightly build from the main page at https://www.sdrpp.org/

 

[FlyingGerman]

Yes, it's on Github which is a bit annoying. The "stable version" 1.04 hasn't changed in a while (October), but there's a nightly build 1.06 that works quite well. Just follow the link to the nightly build from the main page at https://www.sdrpp.org/

Software not being updated for a few months in my view is not much of an issue,
but rather a sign of a stable build.
Software not being updated for four years such as CubicSDR could point to
the project having been abandoned.

Thanks for the link! Much appreciated.

 

[smason]

Let us know how you like it. I haven't tried it on a Mac or Pi, or Linux yet, but I like the Windows version.

 

[righthalfplane]

You are a bit out of date - Feb 05, 2022 was the last CubicSDR release -

Release 0.2.7 Release · cjcliffe/CubicSDR

Release Notes (Since 0.2.5): Added CW mode, Code cleanup, Various fixes : AM mode, ... Library updates : RtAudio v5.2.0, liquid-dsp v1.4.0 (required), Hamlib 4+, wxWidgets... (to be completed) Th...

github.com

Here are some uTube videos comparing it to SdrGlut -

SdrGlut v1.29 vs. Gqrx 2.15.8 on MacOS Monterey with The BladeRF xA5

CubicSDR v0.2.7 vs. SdrGlut v1.29 on Ubuntu 22.04.