trx-rs

A modular amateur radio control stack written in Rust.

trx-rs splits radio hardware access from user-facing interfaces so you can run rig control, SDR DSP, decoding, audio streaming, and web access as separate, composable pieces.

Backends	Yaesu FT-817, Yaesu FT-450D, SoapySDR
Frontends	Web UI, rigctl-compatible TCP, JSON-over-TCP
Decoders	AIS, APRS, CW, FT8, RDS, VDES, WSPR
Audio	Opus streaming between server, client, and browser

Quick Start

1. Install dependencies

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config cmake libopus-dev libasound2-dev
# Optional — SDR support
sudo apt install libsoapysdr-dev

Fedora

sudo dnf install gcc pkg-config cmake opus-devel alsa-lib-devel
# Optional — SDR support
sudo dnf install SoapySDR-devel

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S base-devel pkgconf cmake opus alsa-lib
# Optional — SDR support
sudo pacman -S soapysdr

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install cmake opus
# Optional — SDR support
brew install soapysdr

See Build Requirements in the wiki for details on each library.

Note: cmake is required even when a system Opus library is installed. The audiopus_sys crate probes for Opus via pkg-config; if it is not found (or pkg-config is unavailable), it falls back to compiling a vendored copy of Opus with CMake. A missing cmake therefore fails the build with is cmake not installed? rather than a missing-Opus error.

2. Build

cargo build --release

Build without SDR support: cargo build --release --no-default-features

3. Configure

Run the interactive setup wizard to generate config files for your station:

./target/release/trx-configurator

The wizard walks you through rig selection, serial port detection, audio settings, and frontend options, then writes trx-server.toml and trx-client.toml.

Alternatively, copy trx-rs.toml.example — a commented example covering every setting — and edit it by hand:

cp trx-rs.toml.example trx-rs.toml
./target/release/trx-server --check-config --config trx-rs.toml

--check-config reports everything wrong with a config without starting anything. --print-config prints the same settings without comments.

4. Run

./target/release/trx-server --config trx-server.toml
./target/release/trx-client --config trx-client.toml

A single trx-rs.toml can configure both: the server reads its [trx-server] section and the client reads [trx-client].

Open the configured HTTP frontend address in a browser (default http://localhost:8080).

5. Install (optional, Linux + systemd)

To build, install the binaries system-wide, and set up systemd user services that run the server and client in the background:

script/install.sh

This builds in release mode, installs trx-server, trx-client, and trx-configurator to ~/.local/bin, seeds ~/.config/trx-rs/trx-rs.toml from the example (existing config is never overwritten), and installs ~/.config/systemd/user/{trx-server,trx-client}.service.

script/install.sh --prefix /opt/trx-rs # choose another installation prefix
script/install.sh --no-sdr            # build without SoapySDR support
script/install.sh --enable-now        # also enable + start the services now
script/install.sh --help              # all options

After editing your config, manage the services with:

systemctl --user enable --now trx-server trx-client   # start now + on login
journalctl --user -u trx-server -u trx-client -f      # follow logs
loginctl enable-linger "$USER"                        # keep running after logout

Serial (/dev/ttyUSB*) and audio access require your user to be in the dialout and audio groups. Remove everything with script/uninstall.sh (add --purge to also delete the config).

For an unattended or remotely accessible installation, follow the safe deployment guide. It covers a dedicated service account, device permissions, authentication, firewall and reverse-proxy boundaries, verification, upgrades, and rollback.

How It Works

graph TD
    SDR1["SDR #1"] & SDR2["SDR #2"] <-->|USB| S1["trx-server A"]
    SDR3["SDR #3"] & FT817["FT-817"] <-->|USB / serial| S2["trx-server B"]

    S1 <-->|"JSON-TCP :4530"| C1["trx-client"]
    S1 -->|"Opus-TCP per rig"| C1
    S2 <-->|"JSON-TCP :4530"| C1
    S2 -->|"Opus-TCP per rig"| C1

    C1 <-->|internal channels| F1["Web UI :8080"]
    C1 <-->|internal channels| F2["rigctl :4532"]

Each trx-server owns one or more rigs and runs DSP, decoding, and audio capture locally. A trx-client connects to any number of servers over TCP and exposes them through a unified set of frontends.

Documentation

Resource	Description
User Manual	Configuration, features, and usage
Architecture	System design, crate layout, data flow, and internals
Optimization Guidelines	Performance guidelines for the real-time DSP pipeline
Planned Features	Roadmap and design notes
Contributing	Commit conventions, workflow, and code style

License

GPL-2.0-or-later. See LICENSES for the full license text and bundled third-party license files. Bundled third-party components retain their original licenses: Leaflet is BSD-2-Clause, DSEG is OFL-1.1, and opus-decoder is MIT. The APRS symbol sprites come from hessu/aprs-symbols; their per-symbol copyright status is catalogued in LICENSES/LicenseRef-APRS-Symbols.txt.