Kiwi, WebSDR availability or alternatives?

[Edgar Souse]

I've toyed with the idea of occasionally setting up an online SDR. Had my eyes on a Kiwi, but I never got one due to needing a wired internet connection (I could do it, but would really prefer wifi). It's now discontinued and the Kiwi 2 may be a while before it comes out. I'm not sure if I could setup a WebSDR with my RSP2, or what the requirements are. Are there any alternatives? I know that SDRConnect and (I think) console have a server option but I like the idea of being to connect with a simple web browser on any device.

[RobRich]

The software side of the KiwiSDR is basically OpenWebRX. More info:

https://github.com/jketterl/openwebrx/wiki/Setup-Guide

Here is more modern fork:

https://github.com/luarvique/ppa

There are packages for Debian and Ubuntu, plus docker images, RPi images, etc.

Various and even multliple concurrent SDRs are supported; within the limits of hardware and drivers of course.

The RSP2 is rated for up to ~10MHz of bandwidth, so you should be able to cover multiple MW/HF bands. For example say from MW BCB up to the 30m amatuer band. That said, AFAIK, plan on running OpenWebRX+ on a x86 system instead of RPi if trying to simultaneously do such high per-device RF sampling rates, multiple users, and digital decoding support.

I have a virtualized install of OpenWebRX+ on a Linux x86 system here, but I have not delved much into the setup config at this time. IIRC, I did test it briefly with a MSI SDR, which is a RSP1 clone, to verify basic operation.

[Edgar Souse]

Ah, interesting. Thanks for this. Looks like I will need Linux or RPi for it. I have limited experience with Linux and none with Pi, though I don't think that is a huge barrier.

I can only guess for WebSDR there is no repository or place to download software. From what I've read it sounds like you have to get it from PA3FWM

[RobRich]

AFAIK, yeah, you have to contact the WebSDR dev for the software.

While there lots of different ways to go about the process, you could install VirtualBox and virtiualize a Linux install on your existing Windows or Mac system. If you run into a major prob, you can reinstall or (if enabled) just rollback the virtualized snapshot. VirtualBox supports passing USB devices, so your RSP2 should work okay.

I use Kubuntu these days, but for starting out with SDR on Linux, you might be interested in checking out DragonOS. It is a Lubuntu-based distribution for radio enthusiasts. AFAIK, the older original OpenWebRX software is already included, though you might still need to install the SDRplay API.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/dragonos-focal/

Also if interested, there are various YouTube videos about DragonOS, OpenWebRX, etc. The DragonOS maintainer has many here:

https://cemaxecuter.com/?page_id=115

[Edgar Souse]

DragonOS looks interesting it really includes a lot! Guess I could do a lot more with SDR and get better with Linux. Actually this looks like a possibly perfect solution and an entirely new rabbit hole for me to jump down!  I had an old laptop with a VM running Xubuntu that I played with for a while, but it was lost in an apartment flood. As I recall it was pretty easy to setup and was stable.