RTLSDR Scanner Standalone Application Released

RTLSDR Scanner is a program that can be used with an RTL-SDR to do a power scan over a very wide frequency. It works by quickly scanning the selected bandwidth in chunks and stitching the results together. Previously to install this software you had to run an installer which installed many dependencies. However just recently the author has released a standalone version which doesn’t require any installation. To use this version simply download the RTLSDR Scanner .exe file, and place it into the same folder as the official Windows librtlsdr drivers, which can be downloaded from Osmocom.

One useful application that RTLSDR Scanner can be used for is to generate a signal strength heatmap. If you connect a GPS device to your laptop, RTLSDR scanner will record GPS coordinates together with signal strengths as you drive around. From this a heatmap of signal strengths can be generated which can help you to find signal sources, or sources of interference.

RTLSDR Scanner scanning the cellular bands.
RTLSDR Scanner scanning the cellular bands.

11 comments

  1. Anthony

    I have a question I installed the full setup files and how do I get the scanner to recognize my RTL SDR ? Any help would greatly be appreciated.

  2. Harvey

    Well, there’s 2 hours of futzing around I’ll never get back. I give up (and I’m NOT loading 8 libraries for a “standalone).

  3. Brett

    this is a bloody joke….im ok at computers BUT to have to install 8 other depend programs is shit

    what am I missing here

    Python 2.7 or greater
    wxPython
    matplotlib
    numpy
    Pillow
    rtlsdr
    pyrtlsdr
    pySerial

  4. george

    Hello!
    i wolder if is possible to use it directly (with the maximun dwell time of 8 sec) for detecting the galacting plane and the hygrogen line

  5. Bojan

    It works OK (with abovementioned dependencies).
    I wander if it is possible to periodically save the averaged scans on HD in numerical form for radioastronomy purposes…

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