adswill/OnAir v0.2.6

OnAir 0.2.6

on GitHub

OnAir 0.2.6 adds an Android app (receive only), Hamlib rig control and rotators, new radios (Fobos, RX888 MkII, RFNM, Red Pitaya) and around a dozen new modes, 111 in all.
It also brings a real-time map, DRM data services, TV teletext and subtitles, a light theme, and a long list of fixes from your reports.
Two things change: mbelib is no longer built in (DMR, P25, NXDN, dPMR and D-STAR voice needs a manual install, see Changed), and OnAir can now transmit test signals into a dummy load (see Transmit).

New modes

• Wi-SUN FAN (IEEE 802.15.4g, 915 - 928 MHz, band plans for every region)
• UAT 978 MHz (DO-282) and VDL Mode 4
• TETRAPOL network information, Elektro-L (HRIT / LRIT images, GGAK telemetry), LBJ railway train warning receiver, a first version that is not decoding real signals yet (#153)
• DECT base stations from their beacons, with system information and a burst log (#94)
• NDB long-wave beacons with Morse identification, ANT+ sensors (heart rate, bike power, speed, cadence)
• Also in this release: NB-IoT and 5G NR cells, MAC, DVB-C, MeshCom, Q65 and the other WSJT modes. See the README for the full list.

New features

• Real-time map of positions (aircraft, ships, APRS, mesh nodes, radiosondes and more) with offline MBTiles maps, a receiver-range plot on the ADS-B and AIS maps, and a pass planner.
• DRM data services: slide show, broadcast website, EPG, TPEG and Journaline; saved pictures go to the gallery. DAB and DRM share the MOT handling.
• Whole-span decoding for pagers (POCSAG, FLEX) and APRS / packet.
• TV: teletext pages and DVB subtitles, recording with pause and live buffer, your own channel logos, multi-channel DVB-T/T2 from one wide capture (two or three channels), DVB-S2X VL-SNR frames, DTMB LDPC on the GPU (Metal, #39 #88), QO-100 DATV as a second mode.
• ADS-B: feeds from other receivers, offline registrations and countries, range statistics, metric vertical speed.
• FM: Saved Stations library, a Mono switch for weak stations, band scan from 87.0 MHz or a custom range (#135), scan with full RDS.
• General receiver: up to 4 channels from one capture, per-channel recording, MP3 and FLAC recording, audio high-pass, low-pass and notch.
• Meteor LRPT: contrast stretch, thermal colours, auto-save, Doppler tracking. Radiosondes: LMS6-1680 and a landing prediction.
• Mesh: Telemetry tab, Save results (CSV, JSON, KML, GPX), a text report, ANZ 915 band plans.
• Remote-control HTTP / WebSocket API (off by default), a gain optimiser, Share my radio (an rtl_tcp server).
• Interface: Light and High contrast themes, accent colour, Cividis colour map, scroll-back, a decoder counter, scroll-wheel tuning, Clear all, a folded Tools section, Save bug report zip, optional WSPR upload to wsprnet.org.
• Languages: Portuguese (Brazil) added; Japanese, Polish, Dutch, Italian and Russian registered; 282 more texts translated.
• ATSC 3.0 optional AC-4 audio when libavcodec has it. Docker image that shows the OnAir GUI in a browser, published with each release.

Android app

• OnAir-0.2.6-android.apk, arm64-v8a, Android 9 or newer. Receive only.
• Sources: rtl_tcp, SpyServer, IQ files and a built-in test signal per mode.
• Per-mode results, spectrum and waterfall, FM with RDS, and an OpenStreetMap map (tiles are fetched only after you agree).
• Not yet: images (satellite, SSTV, fax), TV video and sound, vocoder voice, direct USB radios. Wide modes (DVB, ATSC) need a fast phone.

Radios and rigs

• Hamlib rig control (CAT) for radios such as the IC-R8600 and IC-7300, frequency and mode follow both ways, search by model name; antenna rotators.
• Fobos SDR native driver (agile firmware). RX888 MkII native USB 3 driver that loads the FX3 firmware.
• RFNM native driver (librfnm). Red Pitaya as a network radio (#72). SpyServer, Hermes Lite 2.
• Pluto+ Link setting (Auto, USB, Ethernet) lifts the USB rate cap (#96); Pluto sample buffer sized by rate on network radios (#114).
• rtl_tcp: bigger buffers, rates above 2.56 Msps. SoapyRemote: 5 s network timeout (#84).
• RTL-SDR Blog V4 HF works on macOS. A help card appears when an SDRplay RSP is plugged in but the SDRplay API is missing.

Improvements

• Every radio and mode takes the frequency as typed; driver limits are notes only.
• DTMB faster sample path and LDPC. FM scan names complete from scrolling RDS text.
• Spectrum explorer GRAVES button (#92). Cell tower scan EARFCN range and band for custom scans (#89).
• Fewer false locks in CDR; FLEX locks on a bad frame information word.
• Map ingest hardened against stale and duplicate positions.
• Codec2 1.2.0 ships with OnAir, so M17 and FreeDV speech work out of the box.

Fixes

• NB-IoT and HaLow no longer crash at start (#143).
• Airband and packet settings persist, mode list grouping fixed (#148 #140).
• CDR DRA+ playback (#138). Teletext national character sets (#125). DVB-C guide (#126). TV Guide follows the active service.
• ADS-B radar fullscreen click; CHU removed from Time signals (#118 #150). Reset spectrum control for a lost pane (#142).
• DVB-T2 HEM streams signalling MIS with one ISI (#101). ATSC 3.0 bootstrap search (#100).
• Meteor LRPT half-symbol timing lock, Doppler tracking (#79). DAB libfaad lookup on Windows (#93).
• strftime on times that cannot be converted (#74). Airspy HF+ Stop on Windows.
• Hamlib build on Ubuntu 22.04. Rig and sound settings detect serial ports.
• Fixed a merge error that fed every mode each block twice.

Changed

• mbelib is no longer built in. AMBE / IMBE are patented, so DMR, P25, NXDN, dPMR and D-STAR voice is silent until you install mbelib yourself. Calls, IDs and data still work. Steps: docs/CODECS.md.
• The highest tuning frequency is now 1000 GHz.

Transmit

• OnAir can send test signals for a set of modes (listed in docs/TRANSMIT.md). Use a dummy load.
• No frequency or power limit is applied. You are responsible for lawful use in your country and for any licence you need.

Known limits

• HFDL decoding of real recordings is not fixed yet (#66).
• Android: no images, TV video or vocoder voice yet, arm64 only, no direct USB radios.
• DMR voice through mbelib is unverified on real recordings.
• DVB-S2X superframes and bundled channels are not decoded.

Thanks

• OM5NA for the Fobos SDR driver.
• drelectro (Mike) for RFNM, Wi-SUN FAN and MeshCore ANZ presets.
• F5OEO for the ATSC 3.0 LDPC and bootstrap fixes.
• andriux26 for SpyServer and the Windows packaging work.
• Sebastian Buchweitz for the Docker web GUI image.
• ffishman for the Mesh export, map and FM scan work and the Portuguese review.
• Rodrigo Gressler and Marcelo (PU2SWX) for the Brazilian Portuguese translation.
• A2ureIm4la for the FM Saved Stations library.
• ZiYuan Yang for a compile fix (#156).
• And everyone who reported bugs and sent recordings.

Install

Download the file for your system from the assets below (named OnAir-<version>-...).

• Windows: OnAir-0.2.6-windows-x64-setup.exe or the .zip
• macOS: OnAir-0.2.6-macos-arm64.dmg (Apple silicon) or OnAir-0.2.6-macos-x86_64.dmg (Intel)
• Linux: onair_0.2.6_amd64.deb or onair_0.2.6_arm64.deb
• Android: OnAir-0.2.6-android.apk