AetherSDR v26.7.3 — Cross-Needle Meter & Operating Polish

25 commits across 7 contributors since v26.7.2. Full detail in CHANGELOG.md.

Headlines

New meter choices with more trustworthy readings.

• A new cross-needle PWR / SWR applet brings the classic forward-power, reflected-power, and SWR view into AetherSDR. (#4246)
• The analog S-meter now offers configurable face themes, while the SWR meter response and scale math are more accurate. (#4274)
• The HLTH applet no longer raises false SWR warnings during normal transmit transitions. (#4268)

Radio-authoritative display and slice behavior.

• Panadapters now honor the radio's live display state and place a firm bound on hidden-pan rendering work, preventing stale client state from fighting the radio. (#4261)
• KiwiSDR band changes retain RX correctly and restore mute state on exit, D-STAR slice claims reconcile cleanly, and CWX availability follows the actual TX slice. (#4204, #4219, #4269)

A tighter operating workflow from the VFO to small screens.

• The VFO DSP badge now shows when noise reduction is active, the SPLIT / SWAP badge follows the slice's current role, the RX applet's frequency font survives restart correctly, and Add Memory remains reachable in short drawers. (#4241, #4262, #4267, #4272)
• Connect to a Radio keeps its local-radio list scrollable on compact displays, including 1024x600 Raspberry Pi panels with several discovered radios. (#4284)
• Aetherial Audio regains reliable frameless edge resizing, and update-dialog title-bar spacing no longer clips message text. (#4266, #4245)

Better audio handoff diagnostics and agent automation.

• Linux PC Audio capture no longer stalls after a TCI transmit handoff, and opt-in TX capture health summaries make future TCI handoff problems easier to diagnose. (#4251, #4233)
• The automation status chip now uses the same canonical agent identity as the bridge, while MCP grab_widget can write directly to an optional output path. (#4283, #4270)

Packaging, build, and documentation maintenance.

• macOS notarization now signs the bundled aether-dv-waveform helper and keeps AetherDV.cfg in Contents/Resources; the cached Intel Qt build cuts the from-source path from roughly 2.5 hours to about 20 minutes. (#4213, #4218, #4217)
• The README and showcase image were refreshed, local DFNR setup now calls out the optional setup script prerequisite, and the release action dependency moved to 3.0.2. (#4244, #4282, #4285)

Contributors

Big thanks to @jensenpat (9 commits — panadapter state, audio / TCI, CWX, VFO and memory polish), @ten9876 (maintainer, 7 commits — macOS packaging, KiwiSDR band recall, documentation and build work), @rfoust (4 commits — cross-needle and analog meters, D-STAR reconciliation, automation identity), @nigelfenton (1 commit — compact-screen radio selection), @aethersdr-agent (the AetherClaude orchestrator, 1 commit — update-dialog layout), @Ozy311 (1 commit — SPLIT / SWAP badge state), and @skerker (1 commit — MCP screenshot output). Dependabot contributed 1 dependency bump.

73, Pat KI6BCJ & Codex (AI dev partner)

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Downloads

Linux AppImage (x86_64 / aarch64), macOS DMG (Apple Silicon + Intel, signed + notarized), Windows installer (setup.exe) + portable ZIP, and the Stream Deck plugin are attached below — built and signed by CI workflows on this tag.

Full diff: v26.7.2...v26.7.3

Verifying releases: see docs/VERIFYING-RELEASES.md. Signing key: docs/RELEASE-SIGNING-KEY.pub.asc.