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Version: 26.10.1

Your First Session

This tutorial walks you through AetherSDR for the first time using the built-in demo, so you need no radio, no antenna and no licence. In about 20 minutes you will connect, tune, change mode and filter, add a panadapter, clean up a noisy band, change the display, save a memory and disconnect. Every step tells you what you should see, so you know it worked.

The demo is a simulator that generates its own receive audio and spectrum. It cannot transmit, so nothing you do here reaches the air. It also has fewer features than a real radio: one slice, USB and LSB audio, and no DAX. See Demo Mode for everything it offers.

Requirements​

  • AetherSDR installed on Linux, macOS or Windows. See Installation.
  • Speakers or headphones on your computer.

Step 1: Start AetherSDR​

  1. Start AetherSDR.

You should see the Connect to Radio window. If it does not open (for example because AetherSDR connected to a radio you used before), choose File → Connect to Radio.... On Windows and Linux the menus are behind the ☰ button at the left of the title bar; on macOS they are in the system menu bar.

Step 2: Connect to the demo​

  1. In the Connect to Radio window, choose On This Network.
  2. Under Available radios, find AetherSDR Demo, labelled "Simulator (not on the air)". It always sorts below any real radios.
  3. Select it and click Connect Selected Radio.

You should see the main window come to life:

  • a panadapter: the spectrum on top and the waterfall scrolling below;
  • a VFO for slice A on 14.100 MHz in USB, with a 100–2900 Hz filter;
  • a tab for the demo in the title bar;
  • the Demo Noise applet in the applet panel, with Pink / hiss and Birdie carrier lit.

You should hear a soft hiss with a steady tone in it: the band noise and the birdie carrier.

If the demo is not in the list, tick Show the AetherSDR demo simulator in the Connect to Radio window.

The demo panadapter is a narrow 8 kHz window that follows your frequency. A real radio shows much wider spans.

Step 3: Tune​

  1. Point at the spectrum and turn the mouse wheel one notch.

    You should see the frequency change by 100 Hz, the slice's step size.

  2. In the RX applet, double-click the frequency, type 14.074 (a frequency in MHz) and press Enter.

    You should see the VFO move to 14.074 MHz.

You can also double-click anywhere on the spectrum or waterfall to tune there. See Panadapter Controls for every mouse action.

Step 4: Change the mode​

  1. On the VFO, open the mode list (it shows USB) and choose LSB.

    You should see the mode read LSB, and the shaded passband on the panadapter move from above the frequency line to below it.

  2. Choose USB again.

    You should see the passband move back above the frequency line.

The mode list offers every mode a FlexRadio supports, but the demo's receiver is built for USB and LSB.

Step 5: Change the filter​

  1. In the RX applet, find the filter preset buttons and click 2.4K.

    You should see the shaded passband on the panadapter narrow, and the filter width in the RX applet header change to match.

  2. Click 2.9K to widen it again.

See RX Controls for the presets in each mode.

Step 6: Add a panadapter​

The demo has a single slice, so the +RX button does not add a second one here. On a real radio it does; see Multi-Slice Operation. The demo can show up to four panadapters, so add one instead.

  1. Choose Tools → Add Panadapter....

    You should see the Panadapter Layout window with Choose panadapter layout: and a set of layout buttons.

  2. Click A / B (2 pans).

    You should see a second panadapter appear with the first. It has no slice on it: in the demo, extra panadapters are extra views of the same simulated band.

  3. Choose Tools → Add Panadapter... again and click Single (1 pan) to go back to one panadapter.

Step 7: Clean up a noisy band​

Make some noise, add a voice to listen to, then let AetherSDR's noise reduction work on it.

  1. In the Demo Noise applet, click the noisy-qth preset.

    You should see Pink / hiss, Power-line and SMPS hash light up, and you should hear a buzz and a rough hash on top of the hiss.

  2. Click Voice (speech) to turn it on.

    You should hear a voice in the noise. Hover over any source for a tooltip that explains the real-world cause.

  3. Choose Settings → AetherRX.... On the AetherNR tab, click NNR.

    You should see the NNR button light and the AetherNR stage's tick box become ticked. You should hear the noise drop behind the voice.

  4. Click BYPASS at the foot of the AetherRX window, then click it again.

    You should hear the unprocessed noise while BYPASS is on, and the cleaned-up audio when you turn it off.

NNR works on every platform with nothing to download. Try the other methods too. A method your computer cannot run is greyed out; hover over it for the reason (for example MNR outside macOS). The first time you choose NR2, it spends a while optimising itself in an FFTW Wisdom window. See DSP Noise Mitigation.

Step 8: Open the Display panel​

  1. In the column of buttons at the left edge of the panadapter, click Display.

    You should see the Display panel open, with controls such as Heat Map, Grid and FFT averaging.

  2. Click Grid.

    You should see the frequency and dB grid lines disappear from the panadapter. Click Grid again to bring them back.

  3. Click Display again to close the panel.

See Panadapter Controls and Themes and Theme Editor for more ways to change the look.

Step 9: Save and recall a memory​

  1. In the same button column, click Memory, then Add Memory.

    You should see a Save Memory window showing the current frequency, mode and filter.

  2. Type a name, for example My first memory, and click Save.

    You should see Saved "My first memory" to memories. in the status bar.

  3. Tune somewhere else, for example by scrolling the mouse wheel a few notches.

  4. Choose Tools → Memory... and double-click the row for your memory.

    You should see the VFO return to the frequency you saved.

The demo keeps its memories on this computer. A FlexRadio keeps them on the radio. See Memory Channels.

Step 10: Disconnect​

  1. Choose File → Disconnect.

    You should see the demo session close. Open the File menu again and Disconnect is greyed out, because nothing is connected.

Because you disconnected yourself, AetherSDR does not reconnect to the demo the next time it starts.

Going further​

  • Fault injection: the Fault Injection row in the Demo Noise applet shows how AetherSDR handles trouble: a high SWR, a dropped slice, a stalled spectrum, a lost connection or a malformed message. Clear undoes them. A dropped slice comes back only after you disconnect and reconnect. See Demo Mode.
  • Other presets: storm, night-40m and cw-in-noise each set up a different band to practise on.
  • Your own radio: connect it with First Connection, then work through Before You Transmit before you key up for the first time.

See also​