airspy¶
Airspy R2, Mini and HF+ — receive-only SDRs with better dynamic range than an RTL dongle
Vendor: Airspy
Status: supported — the identifiers and setup recipe are believed correct.
Not maintainer-verified: nobody on this project has run this hardware yet. The two facts are recorded separately on purpose (D-027) — a correct recipe and a tested device are different claims.
What it is¶
A family of receive-only software defined radios. R2 and Mini cover VHF and UHF; HF+ is a separate design aimed at HF and the low VHF broadcast bands.
What you can do with it¶
Serious listening. The dynamic range is enough to work weak signals next to strong broadcast carriers, which is where an RTL dongle gives up.
Setup¶
Install the packages and add yourself to plugdev. Note R2/Mini and HF+ use different libraries and different USB identifiers, so a working R2 setup does not mean an HF+ will be found.
Known problems¶
The HF+ is a different product line despite the shared brand — SoapySDR needs the airspyhf package (native tools and the gqrx backend), which this entry already carries — the SoapySDR module for the HF+ is not packaged here, and is not the same module as the R2's soapysdr-module-airspy. 1d50:60a1 is not the R2's alone: HydraSDR's own device table and rules file list it for the HydraSDR RFOne on legacy firmware (see the hydrasdr-rfone entry), so a program selecting by that VID:PID can open either, and this entry's rule gives both the same group.
How it identifies itself¶
| USB id | What | Confirmed | Node |
|---|---|---|---|
1d50:60a1 |
Airspy R2 / Airspy Mini | yes | libusb |
03eb:800c |
Airspy HF+ / HF+ Discovery | yes | libusb |
Access and permissions¶
Group membership required: plugdev — added at install, applies at next login.
The generated udev rule provides a /dev/airspy symlink, mode 0660, group plugdev.
Software that makes it useful¶
airspy, airspyhf, gqrx-sdr, soapysdr-module-airspy
Upstream: https://airspy.com/