AetherLink SDR
MCP server for Software Defined Radio — control RTL-SDR & HackRF from Claude/LLM. ADS-B aircraft tracking, AIS ship tracking, POCSAG pager decoding, Meteor-M satellite imaging, ISM band scanning, spectrum analysis, and more.
What is AetherLink SDR?
AetherLink SDR is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to mcp server for software defined radio — control rtl-sdr & hackrf from claude/llm. ads-b aircraft tracking, ais ship tracking, pocsag pager decoding, meteor-m satellite imaging, ism band scanning, spec...
MCP server for Software Defined Radio — control RTL-SDR & HackRF from Claude/LLM. ADS-B aircraft tracking, AIS ship tracking, POCSAG pager decoding, Meteor-M satellite imaging, ISM band scanning, spectrum analysis, and more.
This server falls under the Developer Tools category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- MCP server for Software Defined Radio — control RTL-SDR & Ha
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx aetherlink-sdr-mcpConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use AetherLink SDR
AetherLink SDR MCP bridges Software Defined Radio hardware — RTL-SDR and HackRF — with Claude and other LLM agents via the Model Context Protocol. It exposes 26 tools covering ADS-B aircraft tracking, AIS marine vessel tracking, POCSAG pager decoding, Meteor-M satellite imaging, ISM band scanning, spectrum analysis, and signal recording, letting you control radio hardware through natural language.
Prerequisites
- RTL-SDR or HackRF hardware dongle connected via USB
- Python 3.8+ installed on macOS or Linux (Windows supported with Zadig USB driver swap)
- System SDR tools installed: rtl-sdr drivers, dump1090-fa (ADS-B), rtl_433 (ISM), multimon-ng (POCSAG), SatDump (satellites)
- pip or uvx package manager available
- Claude Desktop or another MCP-compatible client
Install system SDR dependencies
AetherLink delegates decoding to native SDR tools. Install the ones matching your use cases before installing the Python package.
# macOS
brew install rtl-sdr dump1090-fa rtl_433 satdump
# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install rtl-sdr librtlsdr-dev dump1090-fa rtl-433 multimon-ng
# Build multimon-ng from source on macOS if needed
git clone https://github.com/EliasOenal/multimon-ng.git
cd multimon-ng && mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. && make && sudo make installInstall AetherLink via pip
Install the aetherlink package from PyPI. The --setup flag runs an interactive wizard that detects your SDR hardware and generates the MCP server config.
pip install aetherlink
aetherlink --setupLinux udev rules and kernel module blacklist
On Linux, the DVB kernel module conflicts with rtl-sdr. Blacklist it and add udev rules so non-root users can access the device.
# Blacklist conflicting kernel module
echo 'blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu' | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rtlsdr.conf
# Add udev rules (copy from rtl-sdr package)
sudo cp /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/60-rtl-sdr.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger
# Unplug and replug the dongle, then verify
rtl_test -tConfigure Claude Desktop
Add the AetherLink MCP server entry to your Claude Desktop configuration file. Replace the path with the actual virtualenv Python path from 'which python' while the venv is active.
{
"mcpServers": {
"aetherlink": {
"command": "/path/to/venv/bin/python",
"args": ["-m", "sdr_mcp.server"],
"cwd": "/path/to/AetherLink-SDR-MCP"
}
}
}Verify the server starts
Test the server manually before launching Claude Desktop to catch dependency errors early.
source /path/to/venv/bin/activate
python -m sdr_mcp.server
# Should print: AetherLink SDR MCP server running on stdioAetherLink SDR Examples
Client configuration
Minimal claude_desktop_config.json entry using a pip-installed aetherlink in a virtual environment.
{
"mcpServers": {
"aetherlink": {
"command": "/home/user/venvs/aetherlink/bin/python",
"args": ["-m", "sdr_mcp.server"],
"cwd": "/home/user/AetherLink-SDR-MCP"
}
}
}Prompts to try
Sample natural-language prompts that exercise the 26 available MCP tools.
- "Track aircraft in my area and show me a table of callsigns, altitudes, and speeds"
- "Set frequency to 152.240 MHz and start the POCSAG pager decoder at 1200 baud"
- "Analyze the spectrum from 430 MHz to 440 MHz in 1 MHz steps"
- "Start ISM scanning on 433.92 MHz for 30 seconds and list detected devices"
- "Decode Meteor-M2-4 satellite pass for 600 seconds and save the image"Troubleshooting AetherLink SDR
rtl_test reports 'No supported devices found'
On Linux, ensure the dvb_usb_rtl28xxu kernel module is blacklisted and udev rules are installed, then unplug and replug the dongle. On Windows, use Zadig to replace the USB driver with WinUSB.
Only one SDR tool can use the hardware at a time
Close GQRX, SDR#, or any other SDR application before asking Claude to connect. The sdr_disconnect tool releases the device when you are finished.
dump1090 or rtl_433 not found when Claude calls the tool
Ensure the system tools are on the PATH visible to the MCP server process. Add the Homebrew or apt binary directory to the PATH inside the MCP server env block in claude_desktop_config.json if needed.
Frequently Asked Questions about AetherLink SDR
What is AetherLink SDR?
AetherLink SDR is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that mcp server for software defined radio — control rtl-sdr & hackrf from claude/llm. ads-b aircraft tracking, ais ship tracking, pocsag pager decoding, meteor-m satellite imaging, ism band scanning, spectrum analysis, and more. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install AetherLink SDR?
Follow the installation instructions on the AetherLink SDR GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with AetherLink SDR?
AetherLink SDR works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is AetherLink SDR free to use?
Yes, AetherLink SDR is open source and available under the MIT License license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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