Quick Start

Quick Start

1. Start the dashboard

spectrum-alert web --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Open http://localhost:8000.

For Docker:

docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:8088.

2. Confirm the receiver

The System status panel reports the detected RTL-SDR and host metrics. The same information is available from the terminal:

spectrum-alert monitor status

If the panel reports no receiver, see Troubleshooting.

3. Start a scan

In the dashboard, open Monitor → Spectrum analysis and press Start. The centre frequency defaults to 145 MHz with a 2.048 MHz window.

From the terminal, the equivalent scan is:

spectrum-alert monitor start --freq-start 144 --freq-end 148 --mode full

4. Review detections

Open the Threats module for the severity summary, timeline and recent alerts. An alert can be acknowledged or sent to the workspace for locating.

The boundaries are:

• Spectrum data — raw captures and feature rows
• Detection — SNR and prominence over the noise floor
• Anomaly — a detection that passed the configured threshold and gating

5. Open the analysis workspace

Select Workspace in the app bar. The workspace contains:

• Receiver roster and add/edit controls
• Calibration and path-loss fitting
• Live waterfall and peak table
• Emitter map with confidence ellipse
• RF fingerprint capture and reference library
• PMR446 channel scanner
• Activity log

Triangulation needs at least two enabled receivers with coordinates. The requirement indicator under the target frequency states how many are available.

6. Try it without a dongle

Generate deterministic IQ fixtures:

python scripts/generate_iq_samples.py \
  --data-dir /tmp/spectrumalert-demo/data \
  --raw-dir  /tmp/spectrumalert-demo/raw

Run the dashboard from that data directory:

cd /tmp/spectrumalert-demo
PYTHONPATH=/path/to/SpectrumAlert python3 -m uvicorn \
  spectrum_alert.web.run:create_app --factory --port 8000

The fixture generator writes clean captures, four detectable signals, full and lite feature rows, and anomaly history.

Next

• Web Dashboard
• CLI Reference
• Data and Training