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Getting Started

Requirements

  • Operating System: Windows 10 or 11
  • Hardware: Any RTL2832U-based SDR dongle (e.g. NESDR SMArt, RTL-SDR Blog V3/V4, generic RTL-SDR)
  • Screen reader: NVDA, JAWS, or Windows Narrator (optional but recommended)

Hardware Setup

Connecting the dongle

  1. Connect your RTL-SDR dongle to a USB port
  2. Attach an antenna to the dongle's SMA connector — even a short whip antenna will pick up local FM stations

Driver Setup

RTL-SDR dongles need the WinUSB driver instead of the default Windows driver. If you've used SDR# or similar software before, this is likely already done.

To install or check the driver:

  1. Download Zadig
  2. Run Zadig as administrator
  3. From the menu, select Options > List All Devices
  4. Select your RTL-SDR device from the dropdown (usually called "Bulk-In, Interface (Interface 0)")
  5. Set the driver to WinUSB and click Replace Driver

Note

You only need to do this once. The driver persists across reboots.

Installation

Windows Installer

Download the latest installer from the Releases page and run it. The installer does not require administrator privileges.

After installation, launch AccessDR from the Start menu or desktop shortcut.

Running from Source

If you prefer to run from source or want to contribute:

git clone https://github.com/ragb/accessdr.git
cd accessdr
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"
invoke fetch-dlls
python main.py

The invoke fetch-dlls command downloads the RTL-SDR library automatically.

First Steps

  1. Start the radio — press R or click the Start button. AccessDR will announce "Radio started" through your screen reader.
  2. Tune to a station — press Up or Down to step through frequencies. The current frequency is announced after each step.
  3. Change the step size — press S to cycle through step sizes (1 Hz to 1 MHz). Use 100 kHz steps for quickly scanning FM broadcast.
  4. Switch modes — press W for Wide FM (broadcast radio), N for Narrow FM, A for AM, etc.
  5. Check signal strength — press I to hear the current signal level and status.
  6. Adjust volume — use the Volume slider or press M to mute/unmute.

See the full User Guide for detailed instructions on all features.