Abraca DAB radio is DAB and DAB+ Software Defined Radio (SDR) application. It works with cheap RTL-SDR (RTL2832U) USB sticks but also with Airspy R2 and Airspy Mini devices and with many devices supported by SoapySDR.
Application is based on Qt6 cross-platform software development framework and can run on any platform supported by Qt6 (Qt version 6.5 or higher is required for full functionality since application version 2.5.90). Prebuilt binaries are released for Windows, macOS (both Intel and Apple Silicon) and Linux x86-64 (AppImage). ArchLinux users can install AbracaDABra from AUR.
Simple user interface that is focused on radio listening. Just select your favorite service from service list on the right side and enjoy the music with slideshow and DL(+). Service can be easily added to favorites by clicking "star" icon. Most of the elements in UI have tool tip with more information.
An announcement is a period of elevated interest within an audio programme. It is typically a spoken audio message, often with a lead-in and lead-out audio pattern (for example, a musical jingle). It may refer to various types of information such as traffic, news, sports and others. [TS 103 176]
All DAB(+) announcement types are supported by AbracaDABra, including test alarm feature (ClusterID 0xFE according to TS 103 176). The application is monitoring an announcement switching information and when the announcement is active, AbracaDABra switches audio output to a target subchannel (service). This behavior can be disabled by unchecking a particular announcement type in a Setup dialog. If an announcement occurs on the currently tuned service, it is only indicated by an icon after the service name. This icon can be clicked on, which suspends/resumes the ongoing announcement coming from another service. OE Announcements are not supported.
The option "Bring window to foreground" tries to focus the application window when the alarm announcement starts. The alarm announcements carry emergency warning information that is of utmost importance to all radio listeners and they have the highest priority (according to TS 103 176) in the sense that alarm announcement cannot be disabled and it can interrupt any ongoing regular announcement.
Announcements from other service display a thematic placeholder. The artwork of placeholders are created by Smashicons - Flaticon
Service and programme information (SPI) application is supported. When SPI application is enabled in the settings and SPI is available for selected service and/or in the ensemble, application starts its decoding automatically. SPI from X-PAD, from secondary service and from dedicated data service is supported, it can be even decoded from more sources in parallel. In general, SPI application is very slow and it takes several minutes to acquire all objects. AbracaDABra can use internet connection to download service logos and to retrieve service information using RadioDNS if it is supported by broadcaster of the selected service. Both internet connection and RadioDNS are optional features that are enabled by default.
Service logos, XML files and internet download cache are stored in dedicated directory on the disk. Location of the cache is OS dependent:
$HOME/Library/Caches/AbracaDABra/
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\AbracaDABra\cache\
$HOME/.cache/AbracaDABra/
AbracaDABra visualizes Electronic Program Guide (EPG) if it is provided by broadcaster in SPI application and/or over RadioDNS. In such case "Program guide..." menu item becomes active and user can browse through services program in interactive user interface.
EPG dialog supports dragging or scrolling by mouse, specific program detail can be displayed by clicking on item. Audio service can be selected by clicking on the service name on the left side.
AbracaDABra can be configured to store all incoming data from slideshow (SLS) and/or SPI application. The configuration consists of storage folder that is common for both applications and subfolder template configurable for each application individually. Storage of data can be enabled for each application individually.
Default storage folder is OS dependent:
$HOME/Downloads/AbracaDABra/
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\AbracaDABra\
$HOME/Downloads/AbracaDABra/
Overwrite checkbox enables overwriting of the files with the same name. If it is not checked (default), new file with existing name will be ignored and not stored.
Subfolder template for each application can be created individually. Following tokens are supported:
SLS | SPI | Token | Description | Example |
---|---|---|---|---|
* | * | {serviceId} |
Current audio service ID (ECC+SID) as hexadecimal number | e01234 |
* | * | {ensId} |
Current ensemble ID (ECC+UEID) as hexadecimal number | e0eeee |
* | {scId} |
Data service component ID as 12bit decimal number | 47 |
|
* | * | {transportId} |
MOT Object transport ID as 16bit decimal number, it shall uniquely identify "file" within single data MOT channel. [EN 301 234 7.2.7.4] | 123456 |
* | {directoryId} |
Directory ID is transport ID of MOT directory. | 654321 |
|
* | * | {contentName} |
MOT object content name parameter. It is used to uniquely identify an object. [EN 301 234 6.2.2.1.1] | stationLogo |
* | {contentNameWithExt} |
MOT object content name parameter with extension that is added based on MIME type if content name is without extension. | stationLogo.jpeg |
Important notes:
/
as directories separator, backslash \
is forbidden character._
. For example this is perfectly valid content name: http://www.example.com:80/logo1
.http___www.example.com_80_logo1
{directoryID}
in the template.{scId}
shall be unique but directory ID {directoryId}
is generally not unique within ensemble.Default template for SLS application is SLS/{serviceId}/{contentNameWithExt}
. Using examples from the table, it would store this file under macOS and Linux: $HOME/Downloads/AbracaDABra/SLS/e01234/stationLogo.jpeg
Default template for SPI application is SPI/{ensId}/{scId}_{directoryId}/{contentName}
. Using examples from the table, it would store this file under macOS and Linux: $HOME/Downloads/AbracaDABra/SPI/e0eeee/47_654321/stationLogo
AbracaDABra features audio recording. Two options are available:
Audio recording can be started and stopped from application menu. It can be also stopped from status bar. The recording files are stored automatically in predefined folder. Application stores also plain text file containg Dynamic label messages (DL) with timestamp.
Note: Audio recording stops when ensemble reconfigures or when any tuning operation is performed.
Audio recording can be also planned in advance. Plan is defined by:
New audio recording schedule can be added from Audio recording schedule dialog (see screenshot below) accessible from application menu or from EPG (Schedule audio recording button).
Notes:
TII decoder is considered to be advanced feature thus it is only available when application is in Expert mode. Before using it, the feature needs to be configured from application settings:
First update the DAB transmitter database kindly provided by FMLIST. Note: you might need to configure network proxy in Others tab.
Then set your location, 3 options are available:
Note: Map is centered in Prague when location is not valid.
Last TII related option is a possibility to enable spectrum plot. This option is mostly for debug purposes. If enabled it displays spectrum-like plot in the TII Decoder dialog that shows sum of carrier pairs calculated from NULL symbol of DAB signal. Plot can be zoomed in both axes by mouse wheel or in one axis by clicking on the axis a zooming by mouse wheel. When zoomed plot can be dragged by mouse, zoom is reset do default by right click on plot area. Note: Optional QCustomPlot library is needed for this functionality.
TII Decoder dialog shows an interactive map provided by OpenStreetMap, table of detected transmitter codes and ensemble information. Blue dot shows location configured in Settings. Table shows TII code (Main & Sub), relative transmitter level, distance and azimuth if position of the transmitter is known. Table can be sorted by any column by clicking on its header, by default it is sorted by Level so that the strongest transmitter is on top. To see details of particular transmitter, you can either select it by clicking on the row in table or you can click on position bubble in the map. Transmitter details are shown above the map in bottom right corner like in the screenshot above.
SNR Plot is considered to be advanced feature thus it is only available when application is in Expert mode. It needs optional QCustomPlot library. This feature can be accessed by clicking on SNR value in status bar. It displays time plot of SNR that might be particularly useful for antenna alignment. No user interractions with this plot are supported.
Some settings can only be changed by editing of the INI file. File location is OS dependent:
$HOME/.config/AbracaDABra/AbracaDABra.ini
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\AbracaDABra\AbracaDABra.ini
$HOME/.config/AbracaDABra/AbracaDABra.ini
Following settings can be changed by editing AbracaDABra.ini:
[General]
audioFramework=0 # 0 means PortAudio (default if available), 1 means Qt audio framework
keepServiceListOnScan=false # delete (false, default value) or keep (true) current service list when running band scan
# note: favorites are not deleted
Application shall not run while changing INI file, otherwise the settings will be overwritten.
It is also possible to use other than default INI file using --ini
or -i
command line parameter.
Download latest DMG file from release page and install it like any other application.
There are two versions of DMG, one for Intel Mac and the other from Apple Silicon Mac. Although Intel Mac application runs on both platforms, it is highly recommended to install Apple Silicon version if you have Apple Silicon Mac. Both Apple Silicon and Intel builds require at least MacOS BigSur (11).
Download latest Windows zip file from release page and unpack it to any folder on your drive.
RTL-SDR devices need WinUSB driver for correct functionality under Windows. To install it, use Zadig that can be downloaded from zadig.akeo.ie. Please follow installation steps described here. When the driver is installed, start AbracaDABra.exe
and first band scan should start automatically when RTL-SDR device is recognized.
Please note that other applications requiring Realtek driver will not work with WinUSB driver from Zadig.
The simplest way is to download latest AppImage file from release page, make it executable and run it.
There are two versions of AppImage - one for Intel/AMD 64 bit CPU (x86_64) the other for ARM64 CPU (aarch64) so make sure you are downloading the one matching your hardware.
ArchLinux users can install AbracaDABra from AUR.
Following libraries are required:
Ubuntu 24.04 or lower does not support Qt>=6.5.0 that is required for full applications features. If you want to compile the application you shall install Qt using online installer. Following modules are sufficcient to compile AbracaDABra:
Note: Currently you can still compile the application with obsolete Qt version delivered with Ubuntu 24.04 but it is an unsupported configuration with limited functionality.
Optional Airspy support:
sudo apt-get install libairspy-dev
Optional SoapySDR support:
sudo apt-get install libsoapysdr-dev
Then clone the project:
git clone https://github.com/KejPi/AbracaDABra/
cd AbracaDABra
Create build directory inside working copy and change to it
mkdir build
cd build
Export QT path
export QT_PATH=$HOME/Qt/6.7.2/gcc_64
Run cmake
cmake .. -DUSE_SYSTEM_QCUSTOMPLOT=OFF -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$QT_PATH/lib/cmake
Optional Airspy support:
cmake .. -DUSE_SYSTEM_QCUSTOMPLOT=OFF -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$QT_PATH/lib/cmake -DAIRSPY=ON
Optional SoapySDR support:
cmake .. -DUSE_SYSTEM_QCUSTOMPLOT=OFF -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$QT_PATH/lib/cmake -DSOAPYSDR=ON
Optional disable QCustomPlot:
cmake .. -DQCUSTOMPLOT=OFF -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$QT_PATH/lib/cmake
Run make
make
Install application for all users (optional)
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
Note: CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX
is /usr/local
by default. It means that application installs to /usr/local/bin
and library is installed to /usr/local/lib
. Make sure that /usr/local/lib
is in your ldconfig
path, if it is not then use LD_LIBRARY_PATH
environment variable when running AbracaDABra:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:$QT_PATH/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/local/bin/AbracaDABra &
USBFS buffer size limitation is typical problem under Linux. In such case RTL-SDR disconnects just after tuning. You may also see a message like this in terminal:
Failed to submit transfer 10
Please increase your allowed usbfs buffer size with the following command:
echo 0 > /sys/module/usbcore/parameters/usbfs_memory_mb
You can set unlimited size using this command:
sudo bash -c 'echo 0 > /sys/module/usbcore/parameters/usbfs_memory_mb'
There are instructions on the internet how to make this settings persistent, for example here