Skybridge-Alaska

Software Inventory — DOT-VHF Ground Station

Project: SkyBridge Alaska Station ID: DOT-VHF Inventory Date: 2026-03-12


1. Operating System

Component Version
OS Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)
Kernel 6.12.47+rpt-rpi-2712 (aarch64, SMP PREEMPT)
Architecture ARM64 (aarch64)

2. Custom Scripts (~/scripts/)

Script Size Purpose
vhf-pipeline.py 15 KB Core pipeline: RTL-TCP IQ → AM demod → VAD → FLAC archive → Whisper STT → Meshtastic publish
test-pipeline.py 16 KB 17-test validation harness for vhf-pipeline (runs without SDR hardware)
status-dashboard.py 8.6 KB Generates live HTML status dashboard every 30 seconds
nvme-backup.sh 1.2 KB rclone sync of NVMe data to central backup server

3. SDR & Aviation Stack (Built from Source)

Software Version Source Location Purpose
OpenWebRX 1.2.2 jketterl/openwebrx ~/openwebrx/ Web-based SDR receiver interface
csdr jketterl/csdr ~/csdr/ DSP signal processing library
pycsdr 0.18.2 jketterl/pycsdr ~/pycsdr/ Python bindings for csdr
owrx_connector jketterl/owrx_connector ~/owrx_connector/ SDR device connectors for OpenWebRX
rtl-sdr osmocom/rtl-sdr ~/rtl-sdr-build/ RTL-SDR USB drivers and utilities
dump978-fa FlightAware/dump978 ~/dump978/ UAT 978 MHz ADS-B decoder
readsb wiedehopf script /usr/bin/readsb 1090 MHz ADS-B decoder
tar1090 wiedehopf script /usr/local/share/tar1090/ ADS-B web map and history compressor
skyaware978 FlightAware/dump978 /usr/local/bin/skyaware978 UAT web map JSON writer

RTL-SDR Utilities Installed (/usr/local/bin/)

rtl_tcp, rtl_fm, rtl_sdr, rtl_eeprom, rtl_test, rtl_power, rtl_adsb, rtl_biast, rtl_connector, rtl_tcp_connector

4. AI / Speech-to-Text

Software Version Location Notes
faster-whisper 1.2.1 vhf-pipeline-venv CTranslate2-based Whisper inference
CTranslate2 4.7.1 vhf-pipeline-venv Optimized transformer runtime
ONNX Runtime 1.24.2 vhf-pipeline-venv Neural network inference
Whisper Model tiny.en Downloaded on first run 5.1M params, CPU int8 quantization

5. Mesh Networking

Software Version Location Notes
meshtastic (Python) 2.7.8 vhf-pipeline-venv Meshtastic serial/TCP interface
meshtastic (Python) 2.7.7 system pip System-level install
bleak 2.1.1 vhf-pipeline-venv Bluetooth LE (future Meshtastic BLE)

6. System Utilities

Software Purpose
sox Audio format conversion (FLAC archiving)
ffmpeg Audio resampling (24kHz → 16kHz for Whisper)
rclone 1.73.1 Remote backup sync
smartmontools NVMe SMART health monitoring
nvme-cli NVMe management
lighttpd Lightweight web server (dashboard)
fail2ban SSH brute-force protection
logrotate Log rotation and compression

7. Python Environments

vhf-pipeline-venv (~/vhf-pipeline-venv/)

Primary packages:

faster-whisper    1.2.1
ctranslate2       4.7.1
onnxruntime       1.24.2
meshtastic        2.7.8
pyrtlsdr          0.4.0
pyserial          3.5
numpy             2.4.2
bleak             2.1.1
av                16.1.0

OpenWebRX venv (~/openwebrx/venv/)

8. Systemd Services

Service ExecStart User Status
openwebrx ~/openwebrx/venv/bin/python openwebrx.py blastly active
readsb /usr/bin/readsb (ADSB1090, globe-history) readsb active
dump978-fa /usr/local/bin/dump978-fa (device=1, port 30978) blastly active
skyaware978 /usr/local/bin/skyaware978 (127.0.0.1:30978) blastly active
tar1090 /usr/local/share/tar1090/tar1090.sh tar1090 active
status-dashboard /usr/bin/python3 ~/scripts/status-dashboard.py blastly active
lighttpd system lighttpd www-data active
vhf-pipeline ~/vhf-pipeline-venv/bin/python ~/scripts/vhf-pipeline.py blastly enabled, inactive
nvme-backup.timer ~/scripts/nvme-backup.sh (every 6h) blastly active

9. Systemd Timers

Timer Service Schedule
nvme-backup.timer nvme-backup.service Every 6 hours, first run 10 min after boot

10. Cron Jobs

Schedule Script Purpose
Daily (root) /etc/cron.daily/nvme-health-check SMART snapshot → /mnt/nvme/skybridge/logs/nvme-health.log

11. Web Interfaces

Service URL Purpose
OpenWebRX http://192.168.1.81:8073 SDR spectrum viewer and VHF tuning
tar1090 http://192.168.1.81:8504 ADS-B aircraft tracking map
Status Dashboard http://192.168.1.81:8080 Station health and metrics

12. Network Ports

Port Protocol Service Direction
1235 TCP rtl_tcp (OpenWebRX compat) internal
8073 HTTP OpenWebRX LAN
8080 HTTP lighttpd (dashboard) LAN
8504 HTTP tar1090 LAN
30001 TCP readsb raw input internal
30002 TCP readsb raw output internal
30003 TCP readsb SBS (BaseStation) internal
30004 TCP readsb Beast input internal
30005 TCP readsb Beast output internal
30978 TCP dump978-fa JSON internal