A self-hosted relay that lets multiple people tune your RTL-SDR simultaneously. One controller, many viewers — all over standard rtl_tcp. No VPNs, no port forwarding, no per-user hardware.
One SDR dongle, unlimited listeners. The first user controls tuning and gain; everyone else receives the same I/Q stream in parallel.
You run the relay server and client — no third-party service to trust, no bandwidth caps, no accounts. Full control over your infrastructure.
End users connect with any rtl_tcp-compatible software: SDR#, GQRX, SDR++, SDR-Console, and more. No custom client needed.
Self-host a multi-user SDR relay in three steps.
Run the relay server on a machine with a public IP. It listens for SDR clients over WebSocket and exposes TCP endpoints for end users.
Flags:
--ws-addr WebSocket listen address
--ports TCP port range for SDR endpoints
On the machine with the RTL-SDR dongle plugged in, run the relay client. It connects to the server and registers the device.
Flags:
--relay relay server URL
--device SDR device index (0 for first)
Open any rtl_tcp-compatible SDR application anywhere and point it at the endpoint. The first user to connect becomes the controller (can tune); subsequent users are viewers.
Multiple users can connect to the same endpoint. The first user controls tuning & gain; all others listen simultaneously.
Pre-built binaries for Linux. Build from source on other platforms.
For most desktops, servers, and x86-64 machines.
For Raspberry Pi 3/4/5 (64-bit OS), AWS Graviton, and other ARM64 systems.
Pre-built binaries coming soon. For now, build from source with Go 1.24+ and librtlsdr:
Requires librtlsdr and pkg-config installed.
RTL-Relay is fully open-source and self-hosted. If you run a public relay server, bandwidth costs add up fast.
A single rtl_tcp stream running at 2.4 MSPS consumes approximately 38 Mbps of continuous bandwidth. Your relay server handles I/Q data for every connected user.
When multiple relay clients stream through your server, data transit costs multiply. Your support helps us maintain public relay infrastructure for the community.