OnAir 3.8

OnAir 3.8 adds 101 modes (292 in all), mostly satellite downlinks, HF utility links, radio-control and IoT protocols. It also adds one-click "ease" features across many modes, drag-to-tune on the spectrum, a Wireshark output, subscriber transmit for DMR, MeshCore transmit, a reworked satellite tracker, and many fixes from your reports.

Measured numbers come from OnAir's own generated test signals, not from over-the-air recordings, unless a line says so. Read Known limits at the end before relying on a new decoder.

Highlights

• 101 new modes (191 in 3.7, 292 now). The list is in MODES.md, generated from the app's mode table.
• Drag on the spectrum to tune, like SDR++.
• Several modes at once on one capture; search everything heard across all modes; Wireshark output with one switch per mode.
• "My station": callsign, location, radios and antennas entered once and reused by the modes that need them.
• DMR subscriber transmit and MeshCore transmit (both need your Arm; neither has been tried on the air).
• Android: record IQ from the receiver menu, in-app update from the GitHub release or the mirror.

New modes

• Satellite X-band, L-band and S-band downlinks (SatDump formats, GPL-3.0; the code was written for OnAir and the notices are in the files, THIRD_PARTY.md and the in-app credits): MSG raw data, HimawariCast, GeoNetCast, GOES GRB, GVAR, CDA and MDL, GK-2A UHRIT and CDAS, an S-band CCSDS table, JPSS HRD (NPP, NOAA-20, NOAA-21), EOS direct broadcast (Aqua, Aura, Terra), MetOp X-band dump, MetOp-SG DDB, Landsat 8/9 (X and S band), Proba S-band and Proba-V X-band, GCOM-W1, GCOM-C1, STEREO high rate, Oceansat-2 and -3, Saral, Kanopus-V and DMSP RTD. Details: docs/SAT-XBAND-3.8.md, docs/SATDUMP-TIER3-3.8.md.
• Other satellites: Geoscan, Lucky-7, Spino, Erminaz, Gonets, Tsikada / Parus, Thuraya GMR-1 channels, Tiantong signalling, TDRS, Tiangong / Shenzhou carriers, Starlink and OneWeb detectors, a UHF SATCOM skimmer, NavIC, "What satellite is this?", Space station and zombie satellites. Several of these are detectors or carrier finders (no public specification exists for the payload). Details: docs/SAT-MISC-3.8.md.
• HF utility: MIL-STD-188-110 serial and STANAG 4285 (with STANAG 5066 framing), ARQ-E, ARQ-N, AUTOSPEC, SPREAD, G-TOR, EFR teleswitch, Piccolo Mk VI, Coquelet-8 and HFGCS voice. Details: docs/HF-UTIL-3.8.md.
• Ham science and weak-signal: QRSS and DFCW grabbers, FSK441, ISCAT, PI4, Throb, SuperSID (VLF), a riometer, pulsar folding and weather radar detection. Details: docs/HAM-SCIENCE-3.8.md.
• Aviation and road: ADS-L (with FLARM from the same capture), FANET, OGN tracker, GBAS VDB, AAR end-of-train, ERMES paging, 802.11p / ITS-G5, DSRC road toll, C-V2X, LDACS and AeroMACS structure detectors, marine radar detection. Details: docs/ADSL-3.8.md, docs/AVIA-ROAD-3.8.md.
• Radio control and links: Reticulum (RNode), ExpressLRS, MAVLink on SiK radios, FrSky and FlySky receivers, wfb-ng / OpenHD, New Packet Radio (NPR-70), WINMOR, mioty and DECT NR+. Details: docs/MESH-RC-3.8.md, docs/LEFTOVERS-3.8.md.
• Two-way radio and channels: Motorola Type II (control channel and call following), TETRA DMO, MDC-1200, CB radio, FRS / GMRS, PMR446 analog, ham FM repeaters, a wireless microphone finder and an OpenSky identifier. Details: docs/VOICE-TRUNK-3.8.md, docs/CHANNELS-3.8.md.
• Cellular and IoT: UMTS cells (BCH, operator and cell identity), Bluetooth Classic discovery (access codes by LAP), KNX RF, HomeMatic BidCoS, EnOcean ERP1, DASH7. Details: docs/IOT-3.8.md.
• Existing modes grew: TETRAPOL (soft-decision decoding, messages, neighbours; tables and layouts from the public PAS), DRM, DVB-T2 (MISO, common PLPs, T2-Base / T2-Lite in mixed FEF signals, T2-MI), DVB-C annex B, ATSC (PSIP guide, ATSC-M/H), HD Radio traffic and radar maps, DAB packet mode and a census of every ensemble in a wide capture.

New features

• Easier to start: first Start scans and plays for FM, DAB and TV; Airband loads the nearest airport; Repeaters near me; automatic band by time and sun; clock correction for FT8, WSPR and JS8; the next-pass line and geostationary visibility per mode; "Whole span" for ALE, DRM and pagers on a wide radio; automatic settings for RTTY, PSK31 and keyboard modes (manual settings under Advanced). Details: docs/EASE-3.8.md, docs/EASE2-3.8.md, docs/AUTO-PARAMS-3.8.md.
• Drag on the spectrum to tune (docs/DRAGTUNE-3.8.md), several modes at once on one capture, a search over everything heard in all modes, "My station" (docs/STATION-3.8.md) and a Wireshark output with one switch per mode (docs/WIRESHARK-3.8.md).
• Satellite tracker reworked around a queue and a pass runner, with a dish Align view (level bar and peak hold). Details: docs/SATTRACK-3.8.md.
• Transmit (receive-first app; transmit stays behind your Arm): DMR subscriber transmit (voice, SMS, LRRP, Tier III request), MeshCore node screen with Join and chat, ISDB-T transmit mode, a video generator with several outputs, per-radio calibration and IQ correction, predicted output power in the live meter. Details: docs/DMR-TX-3.8.md, docs/MESHCORE-TX-3.8.md, docs/TX-CONTROL-3.8.md.
• Decoder depth: TV closed captions (CEA-608 and 708), ARIB STD-B24 text, TR 101 290 stream health; FM RDS TP / TA / PTY and EON rows, RDS2 subcarriers and SCA audio, BTSC stereo and SAP for NTSC sound; ADS-B trust score, ACAS lines and timeline; LoRaWAN and Zigbee / Wi-SUN / Z-Wave S0 / wM-Bus mode 5 decryption with keys you import (nothing is cracked); about 60 plain-text ACARS formats; Meshtastic waypoints and telemetry; MeshCore and Meshtastic list sizes; P25 and DMR trunking messages; AIS binary messages; FX.25 and IL2P on the 1200 baud demodulators; WSPR balloon telemetry; fldigi RSID detection; FIS-B NEXRAD and text from UAT.
• Voice: a Channels tab with Mute, Solo and Priority per talkgroup; a persistent TETRA talkgroup log with CSV and JSON export.
• Optional libraries: docs/OPTIONAL-LIBRARIES.md, a list in the app, and a codecs folder that radio driver DLLs are searched in too. A Discord button on every codec install screen.
• Android: IQ recording from the receiver menu and an in-app update (docs/ANDROID-IQ-3.8.md).

Fixes

• Reports fixed: #139 and #424 (top bar buttons overlapped the mode selector), #169 (Lime driver hint on Windows), #225 (Hellschreiber: click the signal to receive, clean keying, USB transmit), #335 (DMR LRRP positions behind a Motorola compressed header), #357 and #430 (Icom R8600 firmware check), #358 (Hamlib rigs tune to the dial; macOS asks for the microphone), #373 (transmit fall-back is NFM), #421 (a picked More tab shows its own name), #440 (an installed Aero AMBE plug-in is registered), #468 (the Windows codec helper links the static mbelib-neo), #471 (audio files longer than 10 minutes play to the end), #472 (the installer update keeps user-installed DLLs).
• Features from requests: #368 (ADS-B label size and contents; Meteor 124 colour composite), #375 (Chinese texts for the TV player and teletext), #427 (332 Turkish texts, machine translated and marked unreviewed), #431, #432, #436, #438, #443, #449, #453, #455, #464 and #466 (see New features and the per-feature docs).
• Also fixed: GVAR infrared block written past its buffer, plot order during a middle-button pan, DAB transmitter submission uses the wizard's country, the codec-missing badge in the mode browser, ADS-B no longer reads coarse TIS-B as ADS-B, DME opens at 1104 MHz, annex B frame sync is re-acquired after lock, meteor trails dropped from the satellite echo list, extcap stops on SIGTERM, several Windows and GCC build errors.

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who reported the issues named above: @richt314, @trebor-56, @BI4PYM, @djnutmac, @ArieGroeneveld, @djs007, @G8HUIGW, @BG2GGF, @perseus68-github, @ptmy53, @scanflight, @DickvanNoort, @xxj737, @moricef, @Voyager-III, @Saga24, @ibomdv, @Totoche95, @jk1rcc, @ddjridley, @YanO1420 and @G0MJW. No external pull requests were merged since 3.7. The full list is in CONTRIBUTORS.md, which is generated from tools/contributors.tsv.

OnAir's own code carries one attribution term under GPL section 7(b) (see ADDITIONAL-TERMS.md): keep the notices and the line "Based on OnAir by Kristijonas Adomaitis - https://on-air.dev" in a program that contains it.

Known limits

Please read these before relying on a new feature.

• Most new decoders were tested on simulated signals only. If you have a recording of one of these, please share it. This holds for: all the new satellite X-band, L-band and S-band modes (no public recordings were found; GOES GRB has never run on a real recording), the other-satellite detectors, the HF utility modes, the ham science modes (QRSS, DFCW, FSK441, ISCAT, PI4, Throb, SuperSID, riometer, pulsar folding), ADS-L, FANET, OGN, GBAS, ERMES, 802.11p, DSRC and the structure detectors, Reticulum, ExpressLRS, MAVLink, FrSky, FlySky, wfb-ng, NPR-70, WINMOR, mioty, DECT NR+, Bluetooth Classic, KNX RF, HomeMatic, EnOcean, DASH7, UMTS cells, Motorola Type II, TETRA DMO, the channel-voice modes (CB, FRS / GMRS, PMR446, MDC-1200), the DVB-T2 MISO and sub-sliced PLP work, ATSC PSIP, DRM SDC schedules, FIS-B, FX.25 and IL2P, and the "ease" features.
• Validated on real recordings, in part: TETRAPOL (a real recording from issue #408: 3092 control-channel frames without a bad one, traffic channels and encrypted group calls; VHF coding, clear calls and many message types are simulated only), AAR end-of-train (3 frames of a public recording, plus simulated frames) and the ADS-B signal-library excerpt.
• Transmit has not been tried on the air. DMR subscriber transmit, MeshCore transmit, ISDB-T transmit and the video generator outputs are checked against OnAir's own receivers on simulated signals.
• Android: the in-app update and IQ recording have not yet been tried on a phone. The 3.7 Android limits (emulator only, wide TV modes too heavy for most phones) still apply.
• TETRAPOL: "Follow clear calls" assumes a regular channel raster; on the network of issue #408 the channel numbers do not follow one.
• Carried over from 3.7: Inmarsat BGAN and the Iridium silent-WAV fix are not validated on real signals, auto gain was tested on a simulated front end, and Arktika-M GGAK is experimental.
• DRM xHE-AAC (#331, #332): concealed xHE-AAC frames are now played; on the #332 sample the missing frames went from 212 to 63 of 776. #331 (32 kHz mono, "refuses this stream") has no recording, so it is not known whether this covers it.