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Updated 2026/01/24:
Turn your PC into the ultimate shortwave radio. Skywave Linux is an X86, 64 bit live environment configured for accessing internet accessible software defined radio receivers.
With this operating system, you may tune in popular stations or amateur radio, aeronautical, maritime, or other signals received at remote internet servers around the world. For a live map of the best KiwiSDR and WebSDR servers and a nice "click to tune" interface, Use the installed SDR-Map utility to find radio servers and listen from interesting places. Also, I have set up a self-updating SDR Map at https://rx.skywavelinux.com.
An internet radio streamer application is also included for popular studio streams. Bring it up with keys [Super] + [S]. SDR software is configured to operate with popular plug-in devices, such as the RTL-SDR dongles, Airspy, and, HackRF radios.
Skywave Linux is built on Debian Sid. It is primarily a live environment, but can be fully installed.
Features
- Debian Sid with the Dynamic Window Manager (DWM)
- Xanmod's Linux Kernel 6.18 (x64v2 - can run on older hardware)
- WebSDR, KiwiSDR radio servers accessible via internet browser.
- Broad SDR Hardware Support with SoapySDR and discrete drivers
- SoapySDR plug-and-play functionality via CubicSDR and SDRPlusPlus
- SoapySDR ADS-B tracking and mapping via Dump1090
- RTL-SDR, Airspy, Ettus SDR hardware is supported.
- WSJT -X / JTDX / WSPR-X weak signal digimode software
- Weather Satellite Decoding via SatDump
- Satellite tracking with Gpredict
- Neovim code editor, with themes and a few great plugins
- Tmux terminal multiplexer
- Multichannel AM / NBFM demodulation
- Multichannel ACARS / VDL Mode 2 Reception
- Maritime AIS Monitor
- Audacity audio editor LV2, VST, and Nyquist audio plugins
- Take notes with Obsidian
- Screen Capture with OBS-Studio
- Overcome Geoblocking with Tor, I2P, and other tools.
Project Samples
