Supported Hardware

Before we dive into the installation itself, here's the basic requirements you'll need to have to set up a receiver.

Computer

Pretty much any recent machine that runs Linux should do. Many SBCs (Single Board Computers) will work as well, if they do have some decent amount of CPU power. OpenWebRX explicitly supports the Raspberry Pi, we even provide ready-to-go SD card images. The images do not support first-generation Raspberry Pis or the Raspberry Pi Zero, though.

The amount of computing power needed will be determined by various factors: amount of users, bandwidth to be displayed, which modes will typically be used and if background decoding will be enabled. A Raspberry Pi 4 will handle somewhere between 2 and 5 users, whereas an Intel Core i5 will easily handle 20 and more.

Network / data line

In most cases, you'll want to make your receiver available to the public, or at least to a certain audience. You will need about 200kbps of bandwidth per active user on your receiver, or about double that if you intend to remove compression.

SDR devices

The table below lists all currently supported SDR hardware, along with some additional information.

The type string is the string that is to be used in the configuration. See also: https://github.com/jketterl/openwebrx/wiki/SDR-device-and-profile-configuration#type
The "notes" column contains links to additional information about the device, its setup or sample configuration, if available
The latter three columns indicate which devices are initially supported when installing with the respective method
- ✔️ Drivers are provided and the device should work right away
- ✏️ not included in default configuration, configuration needs to be edited
- 🛠️ Not all parts of the software are provided, but can be installed manually
- ❌ not available
The symbols in the "Docker images" column are linked to the corresponding images on the Docker Hub

Device	notes	uses SoapySDR	since version		RPi images	Packages	Docker images
RTL-SDR USB sticks	📄	no	0.18.0		✔️	✔️	✔️
RTL-SDR USB sticks		yes	0.18.0	✏️	✔️	✔️	✔️
SDRPlay devices (RSP1, RSP2, RSPDuo, RSPDx)	📄	yes	0.18.0		✔️	🛠️	✔️
Airspy R2, Mini	📄	yes	0.18.0	✏️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Airspy HF+, Discovery	📄	yes	0.18.0		✔️	🛠️	✔️
HackRF	📄	yes	0.18.0	✏️	✔️	✔️	✔️
LimeSDR devices		yes	0.18.0	✏️	✔️	🛠️ [1]	✔️
PlutoSDR		yes	0.18.0	✏️	✔️	🛠️	✔️
FiFi SDR	📄	no	0.18.0	✏️	🛠️	🛠️	❌
SoapyRemote		yes	0.18.0	✏️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Perseus	📄	no	0.19.0	✏️	✔️	🛠️	✔️
Ettus Research USRP		yes	0.19.0	✏️	✔️	✔️	✔️
RadioBerry	📄	yes	0.19.0	✏️	✔️	🛠️	✔️
FunCube Dongle Pro+		yes	0.20.0	✏️	🛠️	🛠️	✔️
RTL-SDR devices via `rtl_tcp`		no	0.20.0	✏️	✔️	✔️	✔️
HPSDR devices (Hermes / Hermes Lite 2 / Red Pitaya)	📄	no	1.0.0	✏️	✔️	✔️	✔️
R&S devices using the EB200 or Ammos protocols		no	1.0.0	✏️	✔️	✔️	✔️
BladeRF devices		yes	1.2.0	✏️	✔️	✔️	✔️