A set of command line tools for visualizing (and hopefully eventually manipulating) RF signals.
Currently includes a signal seeker and scanner. Future plans include some form of basic signal generation, identification, and maybe decoding.
Initially more of an art project/experiment to see if I could get any useful RF visualization on a terminal only. I was happy with the results and I enjoy using the terminal, so I'm trying to flesh it out into something useful.
In practical terms, the intention is to allow casual RF cruising directly from a terminal, potentially remote, without a GTK popup or other GUI.
It's not a replacement for a real scanner, text just doesn't have the fidelity for that, but it can give some idea.
- ADALM-PLUTO (or compatible)
- pyadi-iio
- Assumes you've updated to AD9364 for LO range and bandwidth. Use narrower available values if not.
- RTL-SDR
- Python 3.10
- Some kind of modern terminal emulator like kitty, alacritty or foot.
Clone and pip install -r requirements.txt.
Note that it does require matplotlib, but only to generate colormaps.
Edit radio.py and change the constants for frequency range and bandwidth for your device if they do not match.
Defaults assume:
- Pluto updated to AD9364 (see above)
- Rafael Micro RTL-SDR
Invoke with python [tool].py [options].
All tools run as full screen terminal applications. Ctrl+C exits.
Continuously scans a target frequency range, plotting dbfs vs frequency as a scatter plot where dbfs exceeds some threshold (0 by default.)
Running without options will scan entire available frequency range. See --help for more options.
Usage: sigseek.py [options]
Options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-f FRANGE, --frange=FRANGE
frequency range expressed as min:max. defaults to
radio range.
-l LINGER, --linger=LINGER
number of samples to collect before moving to next
frequency. default 20.
-p MINDBFS, --mindbfs=MINDBFS
record signals above this dbfs threshold. default 0.
FFT:
--fftsize=FFTSIZE rx buffer and fft size. default 1024.
--nperseg=NPERSEG welch's method segment size. set to fft size to use
non-segmented periodogram. default fftsize/4 for
pluto, fftsize for rtl.
--window=WINDOW any scipy windowing function that doesn't require
parameters (boxcar, blackman, hamming, hann, etc).
default hann.
Radio:
--radio=RADIO radio to use. options are "pluto", "rtlsdr" or "auto".
auto will select pluto or rtlsdr depending on which is
available. default auto.
-r RATE, --rate=RATE
iq sample rate/bandwidth/step size. default 1000000
hz.
--gain=GAIN rx gain in db, or auto attack style ("fast"/"auto" or
"slow" for pluto, "auto" for rtlsdr). default auto.
Display:
--style=STYLE visual style. options are tokyonight, cyberpunk,
matrix. default tokyonight
Look for local FM radio stations from 80 to 105mhz. Each line represents a separate station, with the height indicating reception strength.
python sigseek.py -f80000000:105000000
Scan all available frequencies. This is a rural area, so we see a cluster of VHF/UHF (FM radio, HAM, marine, etc) and only a bit of WiFi/cellar, etc.
python sigseek.py
Scans a selected center frequency at a selected rate and displays a live PSD plot and/or waterfall.
The visualizer can be selected with -v/--visualizers as a comma-separated list. If one is selected, it's shown fullscreen. If two, the first takes up the top 35% of the screen and the second the remainder. For example, psd,waterfall (the default) will draw a smaller psd plot at the top and a larger waterfall at the bottom.
WASD-style key navigation.
A/a/[- "pan left", increase center frequency by 10mhz, 0.1mhz or 100kz.D/d/]- "pan right", decrease center frequency by 10mhz, 0.1mhz or 100kz.W/w- "zoom in", decrease sample rate by 10mhz or 0.1mhzS/s- "zoom out", increase sample rate by 10mhz or 0.1mhzc,p,f- toggle fullscreen constellation, psd or waterfall
Usage: sigscan.py [options]
Options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
Scanner:
-f FREQUENCY, --frequency=FREQUENCY
centre frequency. increase or decrease respectively
with d/D/] and a/A/[ (medium/coarse/fine.) default
100000000 hz
--mindbfs=MINDBFS plot min dbfs. default -50.
--maxdbfs=MAXDBFS plot max dbfs. default 40.
FFT (if applicable):
--fftsize=FFTSIZE rx buffer and fft size. default 1024.
--nperseg=NPERSEG welch's method segment size. set to fft size to use
non-segmented periodogram. default fftsize/4 for
pluto, fftsize for rtl.
--window=WINDOW any scipy windowing function that doesn't require
parameters (boxcar, blackman, hamming, hann, etc).
default hann.
Radio:
--radio=RADIO radio to use. options are "pluto", "rtlsdr" or "auto".
auto will select pluto or rtlsdr depending on which is
available. default auto.
-r RATE, --rate=RATE
iq sample rate/bandwidth/step size. increase or
decrease respectively with w/W and s/S
(medium/coarse.) default 1000000 hz.
--gain=GAIN rx gain in db, or auto attack style ("fast"/"auto" or
"slow" for pluto, "auto" for rtlsdr). default auto.
Display:
-v VISUALIZERS, --visualizers=VISUALIZERS
comma-separated list of visualizers. available options
are [p]sd, water[f]all and [c]onstellation. you can
toggle between a fullscreen version of each and your
selected visualizers with the keys in brackets.
default psd,waterfall.
--fps=FPS frames (or rows) to display per second, 0 to not
throttle. default 0.
--style=STYLE visual style. options are tokyonight, cyberpunk,
matrix. default tokyonight.
Scan 2.4ghz with default options.
python sigscan.py -f2400000000 --style=cyberpunk
Scan 98.5mhz with a larger sample buffer.
python sigscan.py -f98500000 --style=cyberpunk --fftsize=4096
Random panning with default options.
python sigscan.py
Show PSD and constellation plot at 120mhz.
python sigscan.py -f120000000 --visualizers=psd,constellation
- more keyboard control (gain)
The plot colors as well as the glyph to use for the waterfall can be customized. You can edit or add styles in visualizer.Styles. In addition to tokyonight and cyberpunk used in the screenshots above, the following are included:
