Hey everyone,
I wanted to share a project I’ve been working on with Claude Code that might be useful for anyone with an RTL-SDR dongle lying around.
What it does:
Turns a cheap RTL-SDR USB dongle into a radio tuner that streams FM/AM stations to your Chromecast or Squeezelite speakers. It integrates with Music Assistant so your radio stations show up alongside your other music, and you can control everything through HA automations.
Why I built it:
I had an RTL-SDR gathering dust and wanted a way to listen to local FM radio on my whole-home audio setup without buying a dedicated tuner. I know internet Radio eixst but I have frequent drop outs or some stations wont play at all. This will also should work when the internet is down.
How it works:
- Backend tunes the RTL-SDR and transcodes to MP3 (ffmeg and rtl_sdr)
- Save your favorite stations as presets via the web UI
- Music Assistant provider exposes those stations as radio items
- Play to any MA-supported player (Chromecast, Slimproto/Squeezelite, etc.)
- Automate with HA - “play Triple J in the kitchen when I get home”
Stack:
- FastAPI backend
- React frontend
- Custom Music Assistant provider (I had to create my own image ontop of the official to get my plugin into MA).
- All runs in Docker
If you’ve got an RTL-SDR and want to give it a go: GitHub - SeanoNET/rtlsdr-radio: Network Radio using a RTL-SDR
Happy to answer any questions or take feedback. Still a work in progress but it’s been working ok for me so far.
