RFSpace SDR-IQ with SpectraVue 3 on Linux

RFSpace SpectraVue is a nice SDR GUI that work both online (with a radio) and offline (from a saved file). SpectraVue is a Windows program that also works on Linux via WINE. For USB based SDRs, since WINE doesn’t currently have USB support, we use the Linux program siqs-ftdi to connects to the SDR-IQ over USB, and provide the packets on a local network socket. For Debian and Ubuntu, siqs-ftdi is provided with the CuteSDR program, another useful SDR interface.

It is necessary to use siqs-ftdi on the Linux Terminal to make the USB → network connection, since WINE currently does not support USB in general. This method has worked for several years across various versions of WINE, SpectraVue and Linux.

SpectraVue on Linux is run via WINE. Configure WINE with MFC42 and VCRun2010:

winetricks mfc42 vcrun2010

Download RFSpace SpectraVue and run:

wine SpectraVueSetup*.exe

Add to ~/.bash_aliases

alias SpectraVue='wine $HOME/.wine/drive_c/SpectraVue/SpectraVue.exe'

For USB-connected RFSpace SDR-IQ, use siqs-ftdi to make the USB connection.

For Ubuntu, siqs-ftdi is available in the cutesdr package for Ubuntu:

apt install cutesdr

If siqs_ftdi is not included with your CuteSDR Ubuntu package, it’s possible to manually extract siqs-ftdi from the cutesdr*.deb for your platform using dpkg-deb:

mkdir cutesdr

dpkg-deb --raw-extract cutesdr*.deb cutesdr

cp cutesdr/usr/bin/siqs_ftdi ~/.local/bin

Ensure ~/.local/bin is on PATH by adding to ~/.profile:

export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin

Install FTDI driver:

apt install libftdi1-2

To use SpectraVue with SDR-IQ:

  1. Be sure siqs-ftdi is running and SDR-IQ is plugged into the PC via USB.
  2. In SpectraVue, click InputDevice → SDR-IQ (or your radio model).
  3. Click SDR-IQ Setup → Interface Selection → Network
  4. click SDR-IQ Setup → Network SDR-IQ Setup → IP Address 127.0.0.1
  5. click Find and select your SDR-IQ

For a network (Ethernet) connected SDR, enter the IP address of the SDR. This does NOT work for USB-connected SDR such as SDR-IQ.

  1. In SpectraVue, click InputDevice and select your radio model.
  2. click SDR-IQ Setup → Network SDR-IQ Setup → IP Address (enter IP address of your SDR)
  3. click Find and select your SDR

To run SpectraVue simply start it up, perhaps by:

wine $HOME/.wine/drive_c/SpectraVue/SpectraVue.exe

USB SDR and SpectraVue on Linux is one of the best ways to use the RFSpace SDR-IQ or other USB-connected SDR on Linux.

Open a Terminal and type

siqs-ftdi

Open a second Terminal window and type:

SpectraVue

Errors like:

err:module:import_dll Library mfc100.dll (which is needed by L"C:\SpectraVue\IOModule.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library IOModule.dll (which is needed by L"C:\SpectraVue\SpectraVue.exe") not found
err:module:import_dll Library mfc100.dll (which is needed by L"C:\SpectraVue\SpectraVue.exe") not found

are fixed by

winetricks vcrun2010

The error

err:module:import_dll Library MFC42.DLL (which is needed by L"c:\\SpectraVue\\SDR14X.dll") not found

is fixed by

winetricks mfc42

Alternative: CuteSDR with RFSpace SDR-IQ on Linux