Julian Haag built SDR--, a software-defined radio tool with a modular synth-style patching interface. Instead of menus and config files, you drop in discrete blocks, radios, demodulators, speakers, and connect them with virtual patch cables. The project is open source and lives on GitHub under the name sdrminusminus.
The interface design is the story worth reading about. SDR tools typically demand steep learning curves and opaque configuration. SDR-- sidesteps this by making signal routing visual and physical in feel. The block-and-cable model maps directly to how engineers already draw block diagrams, so the mental translation cost drops to near zero.
Out of the box, the tool ships with decoders for ADS-B, POCSAG, SSTV, DAB, and RDS, plus passive radar and direction-finding utilities. That range of supported modes, from aircraft transponders to radio paging to slow-scan TV, makes this worth pulling up alongside the GitHub repo to see exactly how Haag structured the signal graph for each one.
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