Wiki Recording and data
Settings, files and language
The app has no separate settings window, and the free edition does not use the network: everything the app remembers lives in a few files on your computer. This page tells where those files are, what is kept between launches and what is not, how the language is chosen and what remains after the app is uninstalled.
Where things are kept
| What | App from the Store (MSIX package) | Portable build |
|---|---|---|
| Settings, calibration, crash record | Documents\SDR Signal Analyzer | next to the program |
| IQ recordings | C:\sdrsa-rec | C:\sdrsa-rec |
In the Store package the program's own folder is read-only, so the state lives in Documents. The app asks Windows for the real location of Documents, so if you have moved it to another drive or into OneDrive, the folder is exactly there. The precise path is shown in two places: in the Data folder window on the first start and in Help → About (the lines Settings and calibration: and IQ recordings:).
The portable build keeps everything next to itself, so that the instrument travels together with its settings. If the program folder cannot be written to, the state goes to %LOCALAPPDATA%\SDR Signal Analyzer, and the app says so once with the same Data folder window.
Separately, the Qt framework keeps a cache of the compiled interface under %LOCALAPPDATA%\SDRSA; it contains no personal data.
The About window shows the version and both folders; the free edition does not read the hardware. In versions 0.9.27–0.9.48 it also showed the code of this computer for ordering SDR SA PRO; since 0.9.49 0.9.49 it is gone — SDR SA PRO itself shows the code in its key window.
The SDR SA PRO folder PRO
SDR SA PRO keeps its state apart from the free edition — in a folder named SDR SA PRO, by the same rules: in the Store package it is Documents\SDR SA PRO. The two apps have their own settings, spur passports and crash records, while both write IQ recordings to C:\sdrsa-rec. On top of what is described below, the SDR SA PRO folder may hold:
pro-license\*.sdrsa-license- Licence key files. The app also looks for keys in
Documents\SDR SA PRO\pro-licenseand%ProgramData%\SDR SA PRO\pro-license. See SDR SA PRO. scanner\table.json,scanner\settings.json- The Scanner's frequency table and its alarm settings. The
scannerfolder does not exist until you have changed any of these. scanner\events-YYYY-MM-DD.csv- The Scanner's event log — one file per day (UTC), one line per alarm. Off by default; written only when you have switched it on. See Scanner.
What is in the data folder
config\sdrsa.json- The app settings — a single JSON file.
config\bands.json- The default profile of named bands. It is created on the first start from the built-in list; edits made in the Bands group are saved to it on exit.
calibration\self-spurs.json- The passport of the receiver's own spurs for a HackRF One. For an RTL-SDR there is a separate file,
calibration\self-spurs-rtlsdr.json0.9.25: each device type has its own passport. The same goes for SDR SA PRO PRO:self-spurs-pluto.json,self-spurs-fobos.json,self-spurs-bladerf.json. It appears after the first passport has been taken; see Detection marks and the spur passport. sdrsa-crash.json- The crash record. It does not exist until the app has failed or could not draw the spectrum (for example without OpenGL 3.3). The app never sends it anywhere; the file may be deleted. What it contains is described in Troubleshooting.
What is remembered between launches
| Group | What exactly |
|---|---|
| Level scale | Scale (auto or manual) 0.9.25, Ref, Range, Spectrum extent. Ref and range are remembered separately for each device type 0.9.25: the levels of a HackRF One, an RTL-SDR and a tinySA sit in different parts of the scale. |
| Waterfall | Palette, Gamma, Rows/s; the heat map — whether it is on, its Persistence and Contrast. |
| Window | Theme, window size and position, panel layout, the open tab, the spectrum/waterfall split, language. |
| Performance | Spectrum frames, Spectrum from blocks. |
| Measurement | DC filter; whether the passport spurs are cut out of the measurement. |
| Audio | Squelch level, Gain, Volume, Output. |
| Bands | Which profile is open, the Show on spectrum checkbox and the list itself. |
| RTL-SDR 0.9.25 | The ppm correction — a property of the crystal of a particular dongle. A dongle with its own serial number has its own value; dongles with a generic serial number share one. |
| SDR SA PRO PRO | A Pluto address typed by hand — once the device has really opened at it. The Scanner's frequency table and alarm settings — in the scanner folder. |
What is not remembered
This is deliberate: an RBW saved from the last session at a different sample rate would give a scale nobody asked for.
- RBW, N, window, detector and VBW — they start from their defaults every time.
- Traces, their modes and detectors, the reference trace.
- The VFO mode, bandwidth and step.
- The device's frequency, sample rate and gains: a HackRF One always starts at 2255 MHz with 10 MS/s and LNA 32 / VGA 36 0.9.25, an RTL-SDR at 100 MHz with 2.4 MS/s.
- The tinySA controls: the sweep starts from 2200–2300 MHz with 450 points every time, and the attenuator, LNA and spur filter are unknown until they are chosen in the app.
When the settings file is written
- The settings are written when you close the app. The window layout can be saved earlier too: View → Save workspace (Ctrl+S).
- If the process is killed or crashes, the changes of that session are not saved.
- The file is written whole: first a temporary file next to it, then a replacement of the old one. A power cut during the write does not leave a truncated file.
- If there is no file, the defaults are used. If the file is damaged, the app sets it aside next to the original as
sdrsa.json.brokenand starts from the defaults; there is no separate window about it. - Settings from an older version are migrated by the app itself. In a file from a newer version, the fields it does not know are left unchanged.
To return to the default settings, close the app and delete or rename config\sdrsa.json. The spur passport and the band profile live in other files and are not lost by this.
The recordings folder
IQ recordings always go to C:\sdrsa-rec. The folder is created with the first recording; it does not exist before that. A recording is made of pairs of files, .sigmf-data and .sigmf-meta: it is cut into segments, and each segment has its own pair. For a recording to start, the drive must have at least 2 GiB free; when less remains, the recording stops by itself and what has been written stays intact. In detail — on the page IQ recording.
A sweep saved as CSV (File → Save sweep (CSV)…) and band profiles (Save as…) go wherever you point the save dialog. The sweep save dialog starts in C:\sdrsa-rec if that folder already exists, and suggests a name such as sweep-20261020-153000.csv. What such a file holds for a tinySA is on the page tinySA and tinySA Ultra.
Language
The interface has two languages — Ukrainian and English.
- Until you choose a language yourself, the app takes the first Windows display language (not the regional formats): if it is Ukrainian, the interface is Ukrainian; if it is any other, English.
- The Language menu lists Українська and English — each name is written in its own language, so that you can recognise yours without reading the current one. The choice takes effect at once, without a restart, and from then on overrides the Windows language.
- Dialogs that are already open and messages that are already shown keep the old language — a line in the menu itself says so.
- The names of the built-in bands are translated; the names you have given yourself stay as they are.
- If the translation catalogue fails to load, the app says so in the Language window and stays in Ukrainian; the saved choice is not overwritten.
Privacy
- No network. The app makes no internet connections and sends no telemetry, crash reports or statistics.
- No accounts, no advertising, no in-app purchases and no third-party analytics.
- Radio data is processed on your computer and saved only when you start a recording yourself.
- Services of Windows, not of the app. If Documents is synced by OneDrive or another service, the files in the data folder are synced by that service under its own settings. Windows Error Reporting may collect information about an application crash according to your diagnostic data settings; the app neither triggers nor receives these reports.
The full text is in the privacy policy. All of this is about the free edition. SDR SA PRO PRO with an ADALM-Pluto receiver connects over a network to the device itself — through its network interface, 192.168.2.1 by default; see ADALM-Pluto.
After uninstalling
Uninstalling touches neither Documents\SDR Signal Analyzer nor C:\sdrsa-rec: the spur passport, the settings and the recordings are not lost, and after a reinstall the app picks them up again. If you no longer need them, delete these folders yourself. The SDR SA PRO PRO folder is a separate one, and uninstalling one app does not touch the folder of the other.
Limits
- The recordings folder cannot be changed: it is always
C:\sdrsa-rec. - Measurement settings (RBW, detector, traces) and device settings are not saved between launches.
- The app does not report a damaged settings file in a window — it only sets it aside as
.broken. - There is no amplitude calibration of the IQ receivers; the
calibrationfolder holds only the passports of the receivers' own spurs.