v0.9.6 — Aetherial Audio Channel Strip + AetherSweep Phase 2

Aetherial Audio Channel Strip + AetherSweep Phase 2

Headline additions: a unified Aetherial Audio Channel Strip that brings
every TX DSP stage (gate, EQ, compressor, de-esser, tube, AetherVoice,
reverb, and a brand-new Final Output Stage with brickwall limiter) into a
single editable window with a savable preset library — and AetherSweep
Phase 2, a polish pass on the in-panadapter SWR analyzer with log scale,
threshold-band shading, interpolated bandwidth at SWR ≤ 1.5 / 2.0, a
resonance caret, and band-change-aware auto-stop. Network Diagnostics
gained trend graphs and per-series gutter hints. RADE finally ships in
the official Windows installer.

Big thanks to @jensenpat (oscillator reference fix, AetherSweep
Phase 2, Connect-by-IP recents, minimal mode polish, Windows installer
packaging), @NF0T (RADE on Windows CI/installer, RADE mic meter
fix), @rfoust (Network Diagnostics trend graphs), and
@AetherClaude (stderr non-draining-pipe deadlock) for landing the
bulk of this release.

New features

Aetherial Audio Channel Strip (#2307, #2326)

• New unified TX DSP window covering every stage in the chain: gate, EQ,
  compressor, de-esser, tube, AetherVoice (the exciter formerly known as
  PooDoo), Freeverb, plus a brand-new Final Output Stage with brickwall
  limiter, output trim, DC block, and a 1 kHz test tone.
• Savable preset library at ~/.config/AetherSDR/ChannelStrip.settings
  (separate from AetherSDR.settings). Captures every TX DSP knob, the
  user's chain order, and final-limiter parameters. Save / Delete /
  Export Preset / Export Library buttons in the strip's preset row.
• Master/Aux BYPASS button stays in lock-step between the docked Chain
  applet and the strip via a shared engine-level snapshot — flipping it
  in either place updates both.
• Two new 4th-row panels: Aetherial Waveform — TX (1–20 s scope window
  with SCOPE/ENVELOPE/HISTORY modes) and Final Output Stage (peak-hold
  meter with GR overlay + draggable amber ceiling triangle, mouse-wheel
  ±0.1 dB).
• Logo / title rebrand: PooDoo™ exciter → AetherVoice™ "Aetherial
  Voice Processor" with Body / Clarity emphasis controls. Docked tile
  (PUDU) renamed to EVO on the chain widget; container button
  renamed VUDU.
• Double-click any TX chain tile launches the Channel Strip — replaces
  the legacy easter-egg launch nub on the Chain applet and the
  per-stage TX floating editors (ClientDeEssEditor,
  ClientReverbEditor, etc.).
• FreeVerb tile in the docked applet panel now shows the same
  decay-tail viz as the Channel Strip's reverb panel, signal-driven by
  a new AudioEngine::clientReverbStateChanged signal (no polling).

AetherSweep Phase 2 (#2320, jensenpat)

• Logarithmic SWR scale for cleaner low-ratio detail; threshold-band
  shading for SWR 1.0–1.5 (green), 1.5–2.0 (amber), and >2.0 (red).
• Resonance caret + dot at the best measured SWR point; visual
  start/end notches mark sweep endpoints.
• Interpolated bandwidth brackets at SWR ≤ 1.5 and ≤ 2.0, with a
  concise BW readout in the corner label.
• Resonant frequency display trimmed to kHz precision; corner readout
  switched from "latest sample" to best SWR + resonance frequency.
• Cleared sweep plots when the swept TX slice changes bands; if a band
  change happens while a sweep is running, the sweep stops and clears
  without restoring the old freq/pan range so cleanup doesn't fight
  the user's new band.

Network Diagnostics trend graphs (#2309, rfoust; #2316)

• Per-metric trend plots with Timeframe selector (1 min / 5 min /
  15 min / 1 h / 1 d / 1 w).
• Logarithmic Y-axis on the Rates tab — 0 / 1 / 10 / 100 / 1k kbps
  decades all visible at once instead of being squashed at the
  baseline.
• Per-series last-sample hints in the left gutter — small
  color-coded values that always show the latest reading for each
  visible stream, with a 6 px-tall solid centerline alpha gradient
  to keep the labels legible against the trace.
• Frameless chrome with draggable title bar + 8-axis resize matching
  the rest of AetherSDR's floating windows.

RADE in the official Windows installer (#2324, NF0T)

• ENABLE_RADE=ON for both the Windows CI job and the official
  installer workflow. Vendored RADE-prepared Opus + neural-net
  weights are statically linked, so no new DLLs ship — AetherSDR.exe
  grows ~8–12 MB to match the AppImage.
• New Build Opus (RADE dependency) CI step provides clean failure
  attribution and matches the AppImage workflow's pattern. Closes
  reports of "RADE absent from Windows installer".

Connect by IP recents dropdown (#2296, jensenpat)

• Connect-by-IP field is now a combo box pre-populated with the last
  five addresses (stored as RecentDirectIpAddresses). Successful
  connect promotes the address to the top of the list.

Black slider auto-offset (#2328)

• Spectrum Overlay menu's Black slider now drives a noise-floor target
  offset while AUTO is engaged: 50 = at the noise floor (today's
  behaviour); lower = darker (push threshold above the floor); higher
  = lighter. Manual mode keeps existing semantics. Both stored
  values persist independently so toggling AUTO swaps the slider
  position without losing either preference.

Minimal mode polish (#2290, jensenpat; #2299)

• Title bar drag now reaches the gutter and other previously-dead
  zones via sub-pixel hit testing. Exit paths from minimal mode
  consolidated; layout stops fighting on toggle.

Aetherial Noise Reduction docked applet (#2297)

• Client-side NR controls live in their own docked applet under
  PooDoo Audio (RX); the redundant DSP sub-panel was removed from
  the Spectrum Overlay menu for a cleaner DSP surface.

Bug fixes

Oscillator reference status no longer goes stale (#2329, jensenpat)

• New RadioModel::oscillatorChanged() signal drives the status-bar
  reference label and Radio Setup combo immediately from oscillator
  state, instead of relying on event ordering with GPS status.
  Eliminates the case where the status bar got stuck on the previous
  reference if a GPS update never arrived after the oscillator
  transition.
• Radio Setup dropdown preserves currently-selected/actual options
  during presence transitions, so transient flag blips no longer
  drop the active option from the combo. Renamed External →
  External 10 MHz to match the FlexLib API description.
• Status-bar tooltips now show desired setting, actual source, lock
  state, and GPS/external details.

RADE mic level meter + gain slider (#2292, NF0T)

• The RADE TX mic level meter now updates while the modem is active,
  and the gain slider is enabled instead of stuck at zero. Fixes
  "no apparent way to set RADE mic level" reports.

Stderr non-draining pipe deadlock (#2300, AetherClaude)

• When stdout/stderr was redirected to a pipe with no reader, the
  audio worker thread could deadlock writing log lines. Replaced
  blocking writes with a non-blocking path that drops on the floor
  rather than stalling the thread.

Windows installer runtime packaging (#2303, jensenpat)

• Tightened Windows runtime-DLL bundling for a smaller installer and
  fewer "missing DLL" reports on first launch.

Infrastructure

v0.9.5.1 release-notes expansion (#2288, #2289)

• The CHANGELOG entry for v0.9.5.1 was expanded post-release to
  cover all post-v0.9.5 fixes (#2113 reachability sweep, the four
  rfoust polish PRs, NR2 audio-thread + Qt-log hotfixes) with full
  contributor shoutouts.