AetherLink SDR MCP

Control RTL-SDR and HackRF software-defined radios and decode radio protocols (ADS-B, POCSAG, AIS, Meteor-M LRPT, ISM band) from an MCP client

Part no.	HM-LB-040
Type	server
Category	Lab gear
Hardware	Software-defined radios
Language	Python
Transport	stdio
Stars	30
Last push	2026-07-21
Maintainer	N-Erickson
Source	github.com/N-Erickson/AetherLink-SDR-MCP

Requirements

Python 3.10+
An RTL-SDR (HackRF One support is limited-tested)
RTL-SDR drivers

01 · What it does

Connect an RTL-SDR or HackRF and set frequency and gain
Track aircraft over ADS-B, decode POCSAG pagers and track AIS ships
Scan 433/315/868/915 MHz ISM devices like weather stations and tire pressure sensors
Decode Meteor-M2-3/M2-4 weather satellite passes with SatDump
Spectrum analysis and scans, record raw IQ or FM/AM audio as WAV, HackRF transmit

02 · Install

$ pip install aetherlink
$ aetherlink --setup

aetherlink --setup adds it to Claude Desktop for you; uvx aetherlink --setup works without installing
The config below is the README's from-source setup; you still need RTL-SDR system drivers (brew install rtl-sdr or apt install rtl-sdr librtlsdr-dev)
Optional decoders: dump1090 (ADS-B), rtl_433 (ISM), SatDump (satellites), multimon-ng (pagers)
Windows needs Zadig to switch the RTL-SDR to WinUSB. Only one program can use the SDR at a time

03 · Client config (from README)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aetherlink": {
      "command": "/path/to/AetherLink-SDR-MCP/venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["-m", "sdr_mcp.server"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/AetherLink-SDR-MCP"
    }
  }
}

Install steps taken from the project README (its recommended path first). Placeholders are the maintainer's. Not bench-tested by HardwareMCP yet.