📻 HD Radio with RTL-SDR

What You'll Need

• RTL-SDR dongle (V3 or compatible)
• Antenna (stock antenna works, but a better antenna helps)
• nrsc5 (HD Radio decoder)
• SoX (audio player for real-time playback)
• Homebrew (macOS) or MSYS2 (Windows)

macOS Setup

Works on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. Tested on macOS Ventura through macOS 26 Tahoe.

Step 1: Install Homebrew (if not installed)

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Step 2: Install SoX (Audio Player)

brew install sox

Step 3: Install RTL-SDR drivers

brew install librtlsdr

Step 4: Install nrsc5

brew install nrsc5

Step 5: Listen to HD Radio

Replace 88.5e6 with your desired frequency (in Hz notation) and 0 with the HD subchannel (0 = HD1, 1 = HD2, etc.):

nrsc5 -p -1 -g 25.0 88.5e6 0 | play -t s16 -r 44100 -c 2 -

Windows Setup

Using MSYS2 for a Unix-like environment on Windows 11.

Step 1: Install MSYS2

Download from msys2.org and run the installer.

Step 2: Update MSYS2

pacman -Syu

Step 3: Install dependencies

pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-rtl-sdr mingw-w64-x86_64-nrsc5

Step 4: Install Zadig drivers

Download Zadig, connect your RTL-SDR, and install WinUSB drivers for the device.

Step 5: Listen to HD Radio

nrsc5 -p -1 -g 25.0 88.5e6 0

Command Options

Troubleshooting

No Audio / Choppy Sound

• Try adjusting gain: -g 30.0 or -g 40.0
• Check antenna connection and position
• Move closer to a window or try an outdoor antenna
• Verify the station broadcasts in HD Radio format

Device Not Found

• Make sure no other software is using the RTL-SDR
• On Windows, verify Zadig drivers are installed correctly
• Try unplugging and reconnecting the dongle

Signal Quality

Look for these indicators in the output:

• MER ≥ 10-13 dB: Good signal quality
• BER < 0.005: Low bit error rate

Save to File

To save HD Radio audio to a WAV file:

nrsc5 -p -1 -g 25.0 -o out.wav 88.5e6 0

Then play it back:

# macOS
afplay out.wav

# Windows
start out.wav

Related Resources