Getting started with Chameleon SDR.

1 Download & run

1. Download ChameleonSDR-Setup.exe after buying a licence. It is 603 MB, so on a slow line it will take a while.
2. Double-click it and go through the wizard. The program installs into your user profile, at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Chameleon SDR (deliberately there rather than in Program Files, so that it can fetch models next to itself without administrator rights) and appears in the Windows app list, where you uninstall it like any other. The engine, speech model and translation packs are inside.
3. On first start, read and accept the terms (scroll to the end, then „I Agree").

Windows may warn the first time you run a new file. The program is fully local and passive: it never transmits.

2 Activate your key

An unactivated copy decodes nothing. Activation is handled by our licence server (license.c-sdr.pl).

1. Paste (the Paste key button or Ctrl+V) or type the key you received after payment into the key field. The program adds the dashes itself.
2. Press Enter. The program contacts the licence server, checks the key and works without a network afterwards. That check repeats on its own, in the background: at start-up, if seven days have passed since the last one. What goes out then is the licence key, the machine code and the program's version number, nothing else.
3. Your machine code is shown under the field. One key activates up to 2 machines.

A 30-day key works for 30 days, an annual key for 365 days, and a lifetime key never expires. The clock starts at the key's first activation, on whichever computer, not at purchase.

Free trial. The trial button on the activation screen (Get a 7-day trial in the new look, Get 7-day trial in the classic one) fetches a 7-day demo key and activates it straight away. One computer can get one demo key. In versions of the program before 1.3.5 this button is called Get 24-hour trial, but the key from it lasts 7 days as well. You can also take a demo key from the website: enter your e-mail address in the “7-day demo” card in the pricing section, and the key arrives by e-mail.

Changing computers. When both machines are taken, the program says the key is already active on its maximum number of computers. Write to us with the machine code of the new computer (shown under the key field and on the About page). We can free the old one's seat. The old computer loses the licence at its next weekly check.

Offline licence. If we send you a licence as a block of text starting with -----BEGIN C-SDR LICENCE-----, copy the whole block and press Paste key or Ctrl+V on the activation screen. Such a licence works only on the computer it was issued for and never contacts the network.

3 Connect an SDR

Radio drivers are not bundled: they are other people's software, under their authors' licences. Files you place by hand go into the PUT_SDR_FILES_HERE folder inside the data folder %APPDATA%\C-SDR. The Open data folder button on the Settings page opens it. The program reads that folder at start-up, so restart it once the files are in.

The easiest way is to let the SDRLoader program install them for you (see the card below). What each radio needs, should you prefer to do it by hand, is in the next card. In short: the HackRF One and the Airspy R2 and Mini start with nothing at all, an RTL-SDR dongle needs a library and Zadig, and the SDRplay, bladeRF, ADALM-PLUTO and LimeSDR have vendor packages of their own.

When no device is found, the SDR page says outright what was missing. Error 126 means the library had nothing to load with: usually the Visual C++ runtime, or a file that belongs beside it. Error 193 means a 32-bit version was picked up.

Once the files are in place, press Scan on the SDR page, choose the device and Start.

↓ Automatically: SDRLoader

SDRLoader is a free program for Windows 10 and 11 that detects the connected radio and the installed SDR programs and installs whatever is missing by itself: the WinUSB driver (without operating Zadig by hand), the manufacturers' installers, the rtlsdr.dll library and the Visual C++ runtime. It supports, among others, RTL-SDR, HackRF One, Airspy, bladeRF, ADALM-PLUTO, SDRplay RSP, LimeSDR and USRP.

1. Download the .exe file from the Releases tab.
2. Plug the radio in and run SDRLoader as administrator.
3. The program checks the radio and the installed programs, then shows a list of proposed installations. Tick what should be installed. Items that replace something are unticked by default.
4. Press Install ticked. When it finishes, restart Chameleon SDR and press Scan on the SDR page.

Until you press the install button, SDRLoader changes nothing. It checks downloaded files against their SHA-256 sums and makes a backup, so the change can be undone. If it does not know your radio, or you prefer to do it yourself, use the cards below.

↓ Drivers: what each radio needs

None of these files is part of the installer: they are other people's software, under their own licences. You download them at the source, once. The program is 64-bit, so every library must be too: in an archive with both versions, take the x64 folder, never x86.

• HackRF One, Airspy R2 and Mini: nothing to install. Windows gives them the WinUSB driver itself, and the program talks to them directly.
• RTL-SDR: the rtlsdr.dll library from the RTL-SDR Blog release. From the x64 folder take rtlsdr.dll, pthreadVC2.dll and msvcr100.dll. Plus WinUSB through Zadig, once.
• SDRplay RSP: the Hardware API package, version 3.15. If SDRuno or SDRconnect is on the machine, the API is already there. Do not use Zadig here.
• ADALM-PLUTO: only the Analog Devices USB drivers, installed before you plug the radio in.
• bladeRF: the Nuand Windows installer, with the drivers, FPGA images and the libbladeRF library.
• LimeSDR: the board driver, either Cypress FX3 for LimeSDR-USB or FTDI D2XX for the Mini. Plus PothosSDR with the LimeSDR module.
• Other radios, Airspy HF+ among them: through SoapySDR from PothosSDR, provided a module exists for your model.

Libraries you place by hand go into %APPDATA%\C-SDR\PUT_SDR_FILES_HERE. The program reads that folder at start-up, so restart it after dropping anything in. Plug the radio straight into the computer, not through a passive hub.

If VCRUNTIME140.dll turns out to be missing, install the Visual C++ Redistributable x64. We host none of these files: the links go to the publishers' own pages and you download on their terms.

↓ Zadig, the WinUSB driver

Always needed for RTL-SDR dongles, once. For HackRF and Airspy only when they have the wrong driver. Do not use it for SDRplay, bladeRF, ADALM-PLUTO or LimeSDR: those have the manufacturer's own drivers.

1. Plug the radio in and run Zadig. There is nothing to install, it is a single file.
2. In the Options menu tick List All Devices.
3. Pick the radio from the list and check its USB ID: an RTL-SDR dongle is 0BDA 2838, HackRF One is 1D50 6089, Airspy is 1D50 60A1.
4. On the right of the arrow choose WinUSB and press Replace Driver. It takes up to a minute.

An RTL dongle usually has two entries, Interface 0 and Interface 1. You change only Interface 0. Never pick a keyboard, mouse, Bluetooth, camera, disk or USB hub in Zadig: they will stop working.

↓ The map: your own provider key

There are twenty-one background sources. Two of them (the U.S. Geological Survey imagery and topographic maps) work without a key, but cover the United States only. For the rest you open a free account with the provider, copy your key and paste it into the map settings. Until you switch online tiles on, the program asks no map server for anything.

• MapTiler (the Streets, Topo and Satellite styles): maptiler.com/cloud.
• Stadia Maps (the Alidade Dark style): stadiamaps.com.
• Thunderforest (the Outdoors style): thunderforest.com.
• Azure Maps (satellite imagery): azure.microsoft.com.
• Custom XYZ server: takes any tile address template, including your own server. Use the {z}, {x}, {y} and {k} placeholders, the last one for the key.

A key is stored separately for each provider, so you can keep several and switch between them. The key is yours and is subject to the provider's terms: they set the limits and the availability. Without a key APRS positions still work, only with no map underneath.

↓ FT8 and FT4

1. Set the receiver to USB and to the calling frequency of the band. The Tune to a band button does it for you, for bands from 160 m to 2 m.
2. Choose which receiver the page listens to: VFO 1, 2 or 3.
3. Wait for a full period. FT8 runs 15 seconds, FT4 seven and a half. You do not pick the mode: the program decodes both from the same audio and labels every result.

The QSO map beside the table is drawn from the locators given in the messages, so it shows the stations that gave one. Coastlines are built into the program, so it works with no internet and no map key.

The computer clock has to be accurate. With the clock out, nothing decodes at all, and the page warns you when every station arrives with the same time offset.

↓ Satellites and passes

1. On the Satellites page give your own position, either typed in any format or picked by clicking the map. Without it the pass times are computed for somewhere else.
2. Fetch the orbits with the button on the same page. By default the program does not download them on its own. There is an “Update automatically (once a day)” switch on the same page that changes it. Either way it never asks more often than CelesTrak requests.
3. Pick a satellite from the list. The panel beside it shows azimuth, elevation, range and the next passes, with a sky chart below.
4. Turn on receiver tuning if you want the VFO to follow the satellite together with the Doppler correction.

↓ Pages on a second monitor

This is off by default. You turn it on in Settings, with the switch “Allow pages to open in separate windows (second monitor)”.

1. Turn the switch on in Settings. Before you do, the menu still appears, but the entry in it is greyed out. That is not a fault.
2. Right-click a page in the sidebar and choose to open it in its own window. The page leaves the main window, which moves to the first one still there.
3. Drag the new window to your second screen. It behaves like any other window.

The waterfall alone. Right-clicking the waterfall on the SDR page puts just the waterfall into its own window, without the rest of the panel. The SDR page stays fully usable, and a line in the waterfall's place says where it went.

Closing a torn-off window hands the page back to the main window rather than losing it. Turning the switch off in Settings closes all such windows at once and pulls the pages back.

4 Speech transcription

1. Open the Transcription tab and press Start model (the base model is built in).
2. Choose a vocabulary (default „radio"). It is the single biggest quality lever: it fixes the phonetic alphabet and aviation terms.
3. If you monitor one language, set it explicitly instead of auto: numbers and names come out better.

Set the squelch. An open receiver feeds the model noise, and it starts inventing sentences. It is the first thing to check if the log fills with nonsense.

5 Translating the transcript

1. On the Transcription tab, turn on Translate and pick a target language.
2. The translation appears in its own column next to the original. It runs offline: nothing is uploaded.
3. The Translate the log button translates rows already in the log (e.g. from before you turned translation on).

6 DMR, TETRA & keys

• DMR: keys are entered on the Keys page; the DMR page only has a Key store… button for them. The program organises calls, signalling and messages, and keeps a logbook.
• TETRA: the decoder is built in, but it needs the ETSI codec tables. You obtain them yourself („Get tables" links to ETSI), accept ETSI's terms and load the file with „Load tables". This is a one-time step.
• All keys and tables are loaded by you; the program contains no proprietary tables or keys.

7 Saving & the data folder

Settings, the licence, channels, the logbook and the driver folder all live in %APPDATA%\C-SDR. On the Settings page you choose which data is remembered, and there is a button that opens that folder.

If you used an earlier version, on first start the program moves the old %APPDATA%\C-DMR folder there for you, together with the settings, the licence and any ETSI tables you loaded. You do not lose the activation.