Skip to content

quisk

SDR transceiver software with a real front panel, driving hardware or a dongle

What it does

A software-defined transceiver: waterfall and panadapter, filters, AGC, noise blanker, and transmit as well as receive. It speaks to SoapySDR devices, to sound-card IQ hardware such as the SoftRock family, and to Hermes and HPSDR boards, and it can act as a panadapter alongside a conventional radio.

Why you would want it

It is one of the few pieces of Linux SDR software that transmits rather than only receiving, which is what makes it a transceiver rather than a receiver. For homebrew and kit SDR hardware in particular it is often the software the hardware was designed against.

Before it will work

A configuration file. Quisk is configured in Python rather than through a settings dialog, and the shipped examples are the starting point -- this is the step that stops people, and it is deliberate rather than an omission. Hardware access means the dialout or plugdev group depending on the device.

How it installs

  • apt: quisk
  • AHRL purges the repository package and builds 4.2.50 from a tarball, running it out of /usr/local/src rather than installing to a prefix (inventory unit 65). Debian 13 and Parrot carry 4.2.32, Ubuntu 26.04 and Kali 4.2.50, Mint 4.2.30 (measured 2026-08-28). The packaged build is used here; the run-in-place pattern is exactly the shape this project exists to replace.

Known problems

The Python configuration is genuinely a barrier for a first-time user and there is no graphical alternative for the hardware section. Transmit involves real RF: check what your device actually emits before connecting an antenna, and remember that a dongle-only setup cannot transmit at all. python3-wxgtk is the toolkit, and wx applications scale poorly on HiDPI.

Keeping it current

  • probe: apt policy
  • strategy: apt_upgrade

Where to get help with the software itself

James C. Ahlstrom, N2ADR. Both Debian and PyPI declare the project home as james.ahlstrom.name/quisk/, and this could NOT be checked: that host resolves to an IPv6 address only and the machine doing the checking has no IPv6 route (2026-08-28). Unreachable from here is not the same as gone, so the manifest points at the PyPI project instead, which is live, carries the same author, and was publishing 4.2.54 while Debian 13 shipped 4.2.32. Someone with IPv6 should confirm the project page and this entry can then cite it.

Source: catalog/packages/quisk.yaml