aethersdr/AetherSDR v26.6.1

AetherSDR v26.6.1 — HID input devices + Windows hardening + new protocol surfaces

on GitHub

143 commits across 14 contributors since v26.5.3. Full detail in CHANGELOG.md.

Headlines

HID input devices — three new physical-device classes, all opt-in:

• Elgato StreamDeck+ — encoders, LCD buttons, touchscreen with live labels (#3236)
• Ulanzi Dial — cross-platform on Linux evdev, Windows, and macOS (#3238, #3239)
• Native Icom RC-28 encoder support (#3293)
• AetherPad RC-28 Arduino emulator recognised via VID/PID alias (#3171)

Windows hardening

• PerMonitorV2 DPI awareness (#3208)
• Discrete-GPU preference on hybrid laptops (#3299)
• Microsoft Store MSIX packaging groundwork + embedded DFNR weights (#3178, #3205, #3225)
• Windows Snap restoration for the frameless title bar (#3069)
• WASAPI CW sidetone routing for low-latency keying (#3193 → #3241)

New protocol surfaces

• SmartCAT TCP server — TS-2000 + FlexCAT dialects (#3131)
• Unified RADE TX pipeline — EOO frame transmission + callsign encoding (#3221)
• AX.25 1200-baud VHF Bell 202 receive + transmit (#3253, #3256)
• SSDR-parity PWR/SWR metering on PGXL/TGXL amplifier applets (#3277)
• TCI clicked_on_spot event for Log4OM interoperability (#3145)

Reliability sweep

• 7-year-old NR2 Gamma crackling fix — SpectralNR Bessel function variants corrected (#1507 → #3275)
• Multi-monitor main-window restore under Minimal Mode (#2483 → #3174)
• Multi-pan TCI spot freeze — spot-marker rebuilds coalesced (#2481 → #3310)
• FreeDV / Quindar interactions (#3317, #3320) + RADE filter passband alignment (#3301)

New applets and UI

• HLTH antenna health applet (#3153)
• Customizable button bar with favourites + push-down drawer (#3150)
• Reference target curve overlay on the Aetherial Parametric EQ (#3259)
• AetherControl double-click to latch / unlatch (#3103)
• ESC click-to-adjust polar display for phase and gain (#3134)

Adaptive throttle UX

• Toggle in the Connect panel for all modes (#3175)
• Visibility through status-bar heartbeat colour and Network Diagnostics graphs (#3203)

Theming foundation (early beta)

A runtime theming system lands as early beta, opt-in via Settings → Theme Editor. Default Dark remains the shipped default. Token names, the .aethertheme file format, and the editor UX are expected to change before stabilising — please file issues with the theme label if you try it.

• ThemeManager foundation + 51-token design taxonomy
• Theme Editor dialog with live colour editing, gradient editor, font + sizing pickers
• New Default Light theme alongside Default Dark
• .aethertheme import/export with drag-and-drop
• Embedded DSEG Modern 7- and 14-segment fonts (SIL OFL 1.1)

See the Theming section in CHANGELOG.md for phase-by-phase detail.

Build, CI, and packaging

• check-windows + check-macos always run on every PR (#3244) — retires the path-filter allow-list that was leaking platform-only regressions
• Sanitizer step pinned to bash so pipefail works (#3155)
• SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH for reproducible builds (#3165)
• System-library opt-in flags for distro packagers (#3135 — @dawkagaming): USE_SYSTEM_ZLIB, USE_SYSTEM_MSPACK, USE_SYSTEM_LIBMOSQUITTO, USE_SYSTEM_RTMIDI
• Lowercase binary name option (#3138 — @dawkagaming), Linux 256×256 icon (#3143 — @dawkagaming), improved .desktop description (#3074 — @dawkagaming)
• Debian multiarch tuple for Qt6GuiPrivate probe (#3159 — @K5PTB)

Contributors

Big thanks to @jensenpat (22 commits — TCI/CAT, multi-monitor restore, network diagnostics), @aethersdr-agent (the AetherClaude orchestrator, 28 commits), @NF0T (10 commits — Windows packaging, RADE TX pipeline), @nigelfenton (8 commits — TCI fixes), @M7HNF-Ian (7 commits — XVTR, slice spawning, NR2 Gamma fix), @chibondking (6 commits — bandplan corrections, panadapter context slice spawning), @K5PTB (5 commits — MQTT publish topics, CMake Debian multiarch fix), @dawkagaming (4 community PRs — distro packaging quality-of-life), @rfoust (4 commits), and first-time contributors @w5jwp (Icom RC-28 encoder support), @motoham88 (StreamDeck+ support), @mvanhorn (theme migration tool cleanup), and @VU3ESV (macOS phys_footprint memory reporting).

73, Jeremy KK7GWY & Claude (AI dev partner)

Downloads

Linux AppImage, macOS universal DMG, Windows installer and portable ZIP are attached below — built and signed by CI workflows on this tag.

Verifying releases: see docs/VERIFYING-RELEASES.md. Signing key: docs/RELEASE-SIGNING-KEY.pub.asc.