Home

Soapy SDR plugin for remotely accessing SpyServer devices

The Soapy SpyServer project provides a plugin module to use remote SDR devices exposed via AirSpy's SpyServer within the SoapySDR API and software that supports SoapySDR.

SoapySpyServer table of contents

• Installers
• Dependencies
• Building Soapy SpyServer
• Detecting SpyServer devices
• Limitations

Installers

Pre-built installers for various systems are available through the Pothos SDR environment.

• https://github.com/pothosware/PothosCore/wiki/Downloads

Dependencies

• Install SoapySDR: https://github.com/pothosware/SoapySDR/wiki
• Install VOLK: https://github.com/gnuradio/volk

Or install packages on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install libvolk-dev libsoapysdr-dev

Building Soapy SpyServer

The CMake build system will locate VOLK and SoapySDR development files on your system. The plugin module will be built and installed into the SoapySDR modules directories.

git clone https://github.com/pothosware/SoapySpyServer.git
cd SoapySpyServer
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

Detecting SpyServer devices

To use SpyServer devices in SoapySDR, you must provide "host" and "port" arguments. For example:

SoapySDRUtil --probe="host=82.146.59.235,port=5555"
######################################################
##     Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library     ##
######################################################

Probe device host=82.146.59.235,port=5555
[INFO] Connecting to sdr://82.146.59.235:5555...
[INFO] Ready.
[INFO] Connecting to sdr://82.146.59.235:5555...
[INFO] Ready.

----------------------------------------------------
-- Device identification
----------------------------------------------------
  driver=spyserver
  hardware=sdr://82.146.59.235:5555
  device=AirSpy HF+
  protocol_version=33556132
  serial=909324336

----------------------------------------------------
-- Peripheral summary
----------------------------------------------------
  Channels: 1 Rx, 0 Tx
  Timestamps: NO

----------------------------------------------------
-- RX Channel 0
----------------------------------------------------
  Channel Information:
    full_control=true
  Full-duplex: NO
  Supports AGC: NO
  Stream formats: CF32
  Native format: CS16 [full-scale=32768]
  Antennas: RX
  Full gain range: [0, 0] dB
    Full gain range: [0, 0, 1] dB
  Full freq range: [3.22063, 7.19937] MHz
    RF freq range: [3.22063, 7.19937] MHz
  Sample rates: 0.048, 0.024, 0.012, 0.006, 0.003 MSps

Limitations

SpyServer devices generally have a maximum session duration, after which the user will be disconnected. This is not well-communicated via the API, and you will suddenly see the session just drop, so be mindful when using the device for extended periods of time.