Receiver profiles
| Receiver | Evidence | Known limits |
|---|---|---|
| RTL-SDR · R820 / R828 / R860 tuner | Physical Chrome checks cover live FM, audio, RDS, WebGPU, recording and replay. | Other tuner families remain unclear. See the setup guide. |
| HackRF Pro | Physical checks cover reception at 4.8 and 9.6 MS/s, tuning, recording and restart with firmware v2026.01.1–v2026.01.3. | The owner reports stable 19.2 MS/s reception on 14 October 2026; broader loaded-host and per-mode checks remain separate. One and Pro are detected through the shared HackRF One / Pro source option. |
| HackRF One · experimental | Source-pinned receive protocol, simulated USB/browser controls, native CI8 capture and replay. USB API 0x0110 (official v2026.01.3 baseline), native 9.6 MS/s with a 2.4 MS/s host-filtered channel. | Physical One reception is unverified. Older APIs and custom clone/PortaPack firmware are outside the initial profile. Pro hardware evidence does not apply to One. |
| bladeRF 2.0 Micro | xA4 physical checks cover connection, volatile FPGA load, RF configuration and initial reception. xA4, xA5 and xA9 recording paths have software coverage. | Sustained hardware checks remain. Native SC16 Q11 recordings use SigMF; 19.2 MS/s is experimental. TX is unavailable. |
| USRP B205-mini / B205mini-i | Software tests cover mocked USB lifecycle, volatile firmware/FPGA load, SC16 receive handling and reconnect. | USB 3 physical validation remains pending. Receive-only; software coverage is not proof of live RF reception. |
| Synthetic spectrum demo | Software-tested spectrum and analysis in desktop Chromium. | No RF hardware, station reception or audio. |
Other SDR hardware has no established direct profile. A similar product name does not establish compatibility.
Browser and operating-system requirements
Current desktop Google Chrome is the tested browser. WebUSB needs HTTPS or localhost and a user-approved device selection. The app reports WebUSB and WebGPU availability separately in Diagnostics. Other Chromium browsers and mobile setups remain unclear.
On Windows, an RTL-SDR may need the WinUSB driver on its receiver interface. On Linux, USB permissions or a DVB kernel driver can prevent access. On macOS, check the exact receiver and browser profile before assuming that a device will connect. The app’s OS-specific Setup help provides recovery guidance; it cannot inspect or alter your system drivers.
Supported signals and sample rates
The app offers spectrum-only acquisition, WBFM, NBFM, AM, USB, LSB and CW, plus DAB/DAB+, 1090 MHz ADS-B, dual-channel AIS and SRD inspection where the source and effective channel rate support them. A mode’s presence does not imply that every device, sample rate or local signal has been physically validated.
Start with an established rate for your receiver. High-rate sources can reduce a selected channel to 2.4 MS/s for supported decoding paths. BrowserSDR rejects incompatible mode/rate combinations rather than treating them as successful reception.
Firmware and FPGA images
The bladeRF and USRP workflows identify exact official archives and verify imported images before loading them. Images are loaded into volatile RAM when required; BrowserSDR does not write flash or EEPROM or enable transmit. The app’s About and Help tabs contain detailed provenance and compatibility notes.
Follow the first-reception steps, or read about recording formats and replay.