Getting started

Installing (Mac with Apple silicon) ↑

Open the disk image, KaikuSDR-<version>-arm64.dmg, and drag KaikuSDR onto Applications. Open it from Applications.

During the beta the app is not yet notarized by Apple. The first time, macOS says it cannot verify the developer: right-click (or Control-click) KaikuSDR in Applications, choose Open, then Open again. After that it opens as usual.

KaikuSDR opens in a window of its own. To quit, press Cmd+Q or close the window: whatever is being recorded is finished first, and everything you set up is kept for next time.

Installing (Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit) ↑

Open KaikuSDR-win-Setup.exe. It installs KaikuSDR into your own user folder, so no administrator password is needed, puts it in the Start menu, and starts it. Updates come from inside the app, when you ask for them under Settings › About.

During the beta the installer is not yet signed with a Microsoft certificate. Windows SmartScreen says Windows protected your PC: press More info, then Run anyway. After that the app starts as usual.

Your receiver needs two or three things set up once on Windows, which the app tells you about and which Your receiver walks through: the dongle's USB driver (Zadig), rtl_tcp.exe (a button in the app fetches it), and, on some computers, Microsoft's Visual C++ runtime.

To quit, close the window: whatever is being recorded is finished first, and everything you set up is kept for next time.

The first-run guide ↑

The first time, a short guide asks three things. You can change each of them later in Settings (the gear at the top right), and bring the guide back from there.

1. Your receiver. If a receiver is found on your computer, the guide offers it: press Use it. If none is found, press Try the demo — simulated transmissions on the bands of where you are, to learn the app — and add your own receiver later (Your receiver).
2. Where are you? Radio bands differ between countries. The list comes from public band plans (Where does this list come from? shows which); tell us if something is wrong where you are.
3. What do you want to hear? Aircraft, boats and ships, amateur radio, walkie-talkies, FM radio, or everything. FM radio is on its own: while it is chosen, nothing else is scanned.

Then Start listening.

Laws on receiving, recording and sharing radio communications differ between countries. You are responsible for making sure that your use of KaikuSDR complies with the laws that apply where you use it.

The page and the settings ↑

The page is the chart, what is on the air now, and your lists; the squelch and the volume are at the top. Nothing is hidden behind a mode: every setting is in Settings (the gear at the top right), a panel with a page for each thing: What to scan, Receivers, Listening, Recording, Speech to text, Chart and Sharing; About says which version this is and where the app keeps its files. The panel opens on the page you used last. The one thing with a switch of its own is the waterfall under the chart, Show the waterfall, since it costs drawing.