aethersdr/AetherSDR v26.9.2

AetherSDR v26.9.2 — New receivers, multi-band skimming and station control

on GitHub

67 merged changes from 15 human contributors and AetherClaude, plus two Dependabot updates within that total, expand receive options and multi-band skimming while improving station peripherals, CW, Icom and Hermes-Lite 2 reliability.

New receivers and multi-band skimming

• Four concurrent TCI DAX IQ subscriptions — several CW skimmers through one TCI server let compatible Flex setups feed several skimmers through one TCI server. Receivers on the same panadapter share its IQ stream; four independent band spectra require four panadapters (#4951).
• Experimental ANAN-G2 reception adds openHPSDR Protocol 2 discovery, a single receive path, spectrum and audio, with live tuning and zoom. This phase is receive-only; transmit remains a future phase (#5143).
• Experimental RTL-SDR USB reception adds a single slice and panadapter with basic AM, FM, SSB and CW demodulation on builds with the required RTL libraries. Availability varies by package; selectable sharp passband filtering is not yet implemented (#4862).

Amplifiers, wattmeters and operator workflow

• SPE floating front panel adds a live amplifier LCD mirror and guarded front-panel keys (#5393).
• TelePost LP-100A support displays the wattmeter's readings over local serial or a serial-to-network proxy. This first version is read-only (#5320).
• Runtime Monitor gains process-memory history (#5397).
• PGXL and TGXL startup synchronization improves initial status presentation (#5337, #5339). PA current appears when PTT originates at the radio (#5307).
• The connection panel stays visible at startup (#5334), CTCSS choices are easier to read (#5259), and radio-specific settings and Flex-only zoom controls are gated to compatible backends (#5299, #5166).

KiwiSDR

• The public-receiver browser reads its directory from the AetherSDR CDN mirror (#5445).
• The directory-mirror Worker is included in the repository, and stale directory data is advisory so operators can continue browsing available receivers (#5449).

CW

• Client-side recordings capture sent CW instead of microphone input (#5278).
• CWX sidetone follows the keyer's scheduled edges (#5129).
• The P/CW pane gains APF toggle and level controls (#4883).
• APF wheel input is ignored while APF is disabled (#5163).
• CW settings remain stable on backends that do not echo them (#5380).

Audio and Flex controls

• Controller AGC-T input reaches the correct level control with AGC off (#5387).
• Active-slice ALC and TX waveform meter routing are corrected (#5344).
• Ulanzi TCI volume handling now converts the wire's dB values correctly (#5389).

Icom

• Wire-based model identification and optional wake on connect replace reliance on an editable network nickname. Wake defaults off and uses model-specific profiles for IC-705, IC-7300MK2 and IC-9700; the radio's network interface must remain reachable (#5438).
• Durable memory ownership and synchronized recall are restored (#5328).
• RX filter preset identity, skirt mapping and recall are corrected (#5363).
• Background polling no longer starves TX meters (#5435).
• Finite AX.25 transmit audio is preserved over RS-BA1 (#5311).
• IC-705 GPS location and NTP controls are added (#5146).
• Unavailable tuner controls are dimmed (#5292).
• IC-705 power gauges use the appropriate QRP scale (#5369).

Native controls and meters (#5436)

A broad IC-7300MK2 control cleanup makes the UI follow the radio's supported settings, ranges and native readback. Model-specific mappings remain separate so these corrections do not impose MK2 behavior on other Icom radios.

• TX bandwidth: correct the high/low cutoff encoding and decoding, including the 300 Hz and 500 Hz low-cut selections. On the MK2, the native 0x30 value correctly represents 100–2900 Hz. IC-705 and MK2 retain their own setting addresses and cutoff tables.
• CW speed: use the MK2's supported 6–48 WPM range. When capabilities change, the slider and numeric editor reconcile together without sending an unintended radio command.
• CW pitch: follow the MK2's 5 Hz steps so button presses and radio readback agree instead of displaying unsupported intermediate values.
• Squelch: keep the threshold usable in CW and data modes, preserving the radio's value across mode changes rather than treating squelch as a voice-only control.
• Unsupported controls: disable AGC threshold, AGC Off, AM carrier and VOX delay where the backend cannot implement them. Selecting an unavailable AGC mode is refused instead of silently substituting another mode.
• Repeater controls: disable unsupported MK2 offset magnitude and direction controls, and refuse unsupported commands and polling. XFC remains available.
• Tune in CW/CW-R: refuse Tune before changing power, generating a tone or requesting PTT. Stop remains available if a tune operation is already active.
• Radio readback: periodically reconcile CW speed, CW pitch, squelch and TX bandwidth, allowing the client to adopt radio-side changes and restored settings.
• Meter precision and scales: preserve fractional power readings and present native ALC and compression scales. Fractional watts retain the radio's reporting resolution; they do not imply greater measurement accuracy. ALC continues to follow the active slice, and changing meter units clears incompatible animation state while normal unkey decay is retained.
• Automation and accessibility: expose the existing RF gain slider by name and consistently reject disabled or unreachable combo-box selections. RF gain's protocol and range are unchanged.
• Meter diagnostics: add bounded, read-only observation windows for delivery age and native peaks, including multiple samples arriving within the same millisecond.

Hermes-Lite 2 reliability and diagnostics

• HL2 power gauges use the appropriate 5 W scale (#5369).
• Per-band gain survives startup and temporary overrides (#5402), and the HL2 IO Board gains band-following amplifier control (#5362).
• DSP setup is bounded and logged; diagnostics expose actual DSP configuration and connection progress (#5415, #5401, #5416).
• TX FIFO status decoding follows the gateware, repeated ADC-overload warnings are rate-limited, and spectrum FFTW operations are serialized (#5398, #5381, #5424).
• The Hermes troubleshooting guide preserves the WDSP wisdom cache during isolation and updates resolved defect status (#5417, #5383).

Headless engine, packaging and project quality

• aetherd Stage 3 groundwork adds the versioned protocol boundary, typed observations, per-session authorization and an observe-only discovery catalogue. Authenticated radio control, transmit grants and a replacement desktop client are not part of this release (#5109, #5391, #5434, #5455).
• Linux gains CPack DEB/RPM configuration and an optional system SQLite build (#5155, #4736). Homebrew header precedence and MinGW compatibility are corrected (#5399, #5375, #5377).
• Windows Store packaging includes fuller symbols and upload handling, a corrected Store CLI pin, and an explicit developer-flight submission workflow (#5345, #5388, #5346).
• The full test suite runs on pushes to main; sanitizer configuration and suppressions are repaired, two previously unregistered tests join execution, and eight intermittent tests are removed (#5412, #5405, #5411, #5419, #5421, #5101, #5452).
• Review guidance, reviewer attribution and release metadata are synchronized; committed build logs are removed, and two GitHub Actions dependencies are updated (#5358, #5459, #5325, #5453, #5439, #5440).

Contributors

Thanks to @jensenpat (13 commits — Icom, TCI, Flex meters and Windows packaging), @ten9876 (11 commits — maintainer; Kiwi directory, sanitizer recovery and CI), @on8st (9 commits — HL2 reliability and diagnostics), @skerker (6 commits — CW, audio, controls and Runtime Monitor), @w5jwp (6 commits — amplifier startup and radio controls), @rfoust (4 commits — headless engine protocol and discovery), @NF0T (3 commits — LP-100A and MinGW compatibility), @dawkagaming (2 commits — Linux packaging and SQLite), @nigelfenton (2 commits — PA current and Ulanzi volume), @randal007 (2 commits — HL2 IO Board and QRP gauges), @tropo1234 (2 commits — ANAN-G2 and capability gating), @aethersdr-agent (1 commit — AetherClaude orchestrator; APF controls), @azchohfi (1 commit — Windows Store CLI), @opalito (1 commit — SPE front panel), @Ozy311 (1 commit — CW control persistence), @pcarff (1 commit — RTL-SDR reception). Dependabot contributed two dependency updates. Counts cover primary commit authors; co-author credit remains in the commit history.

Welcome to first-time contributors @on8st, @randal007, @azchohfi, @pcarff!

Thank you to Microsoft for their first commit and for helping us improve our publishing automation!

Thank you to the KiwiSDR team for partnering with us to establish a mirror for Kiwi receivers!

Downloads

Tag-triggered CI publishes Linux AppImages, macOS DMGs, Windows installers and portable ZIPs, and Stream Deck plugins as jobs finish. Assets may still be building when this release first appears. macOS signing/notarization and release checksum/signature generation run in their respective workflows.

Full diff: v26.9.1...v26.9.2. See verification instructions.

73, Pat KI6BCJ & Codex (AI dev partner)