Windows Binaries¶
Disclaimer
AIS-catcher is intended for hobbyist and research projects only. It is NOT approved for use in navigation or safety-of-life applications. Read the full disclaimer.
Installation¶
Pre-built Windows binaries are available below. There are two ways to run your station:
- Managed mode (recommended) — configure and control your station from the browser.
- Manual mode — configure via command-line options.
Managed Mode¶
Download and unpack
Download the Edge build from the releases table below and unpack the ZIP file to a directory. Edge is the name of the latest AIS-catcher build, not the Microsoft Edge browser. Managed mode needs this build: v0.70 is older and does not have it
Set up the dongle driver
Use Zadig to assign the generic WinUSB driver to your RTL-SDR dongle (once per dongle)
Launch AIS-catcher
Double-click start-GUI.bat in the unzipped folder to start AIS-catcher in managed mode
Complete the setup wizard
Open the dashboard in your browser at http://localhost:8118. On first use, the setup wizard walks you through configuring your input device and outputs, and starts the receiver:
That's it — your station is up and running. See Getting Around the Dashboard to monitor and fine-tune it.
Manual Mode¶
Alternatively, launch via the command line or start.bat (editable with Notepad) for a command-line based configuration.
Tip
If AIS-catcher won't start, install the Visual Studio runtime libraries (usually already present).
Recent Releases¶
The AIS-catcher executables are built with the latest Windows MSVC compiler. Please update your libraries before starting the executables below. Issues have been reported on Windows 10.
| Version | Win32 | x64 | Win32 + SDRPlay | x64 + SDRPlay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edge (latest, recommended) | ZIP | ZIP | not shipped | not shipped |
| v0.70 (older, no managed mode) | ZIP | ZIP | ZIP | ZIP |
Edge is the latest build, not the browser
Edge is the latest build of AIS-catcher, produced automatically from the main branch each time the code changes. It is the recommended download and the only Windows build with managed mode and start-GUI.bat. The name refers to the build, not the Microsoft Edge browser.
v0.70 is an older release, kept for its SDRPlay builds (see below). It predates managed mode, so started with -E it stops with Option -E is obsolete.
SDRPlay builds for Windows
v0.70 is the last Windows release with SDRPlay support. The SDRPlay API installer can no longer be downloaded from an automated build, so these binaries are no longer produced. The v0.70 downloads above remain available.
SDRPlay support itself has not been removed: it is still part of AIS-catcher and is available on Linux and macOS, where the API is installed separately. On Windows you can still build from source after installing the SDRPlay API yourself.