Native RF analysis for macOS
From live spectrum to decoded bits.
Sigil puts a live spectrum and waterfall on your SDR, cuts any burst straight to an IQ recording, and takes it apart: symbols, bits, decoded messages. It's a true Mac app, SwiftUI and Metal front to back, and just as at home with a recording as with live air.
macOS 14 or later · Apple Silicon & Intel
| 14:32:07.412 | 1C6F02A4 | Schrader-EG53MA4 | temp=21°C pressure=32.5PSI |
| 14:32:09.876 | 0F58C11D | Toyota | temp=24°C pressure=35.1PSI |
| 14:32:11.204 | 1C6F02A4 | Schrader-EG53MA4 | temp=21°C pressure=32.4PSI |
Works with
- RTL-SDR
- HackRF One
- USRP UHD
- SignalHound BB60
- HydraSDR RFOne
- SoapySDR any device
Each device's free library loads at runtime — a one-line Homebrew install. Opening recordings needs no drivers at all.
Inside the instrument
Anything you can see, you can capture
Live spectrum and waterfall render on Metal at your display's refresh rate, while a rolling buffer holds the raw IQ behind everything on screen. Shift-drag a box around a burst as it scrolls past and Sigil cuts that slice out as a SigMF recording, straight into analysis. A click-to-tune VFO plays live audio: NBFM, WFM, AM, USB/LSB.
- 60–120 fps Metal spectrum + waterfall, vsync-paced
- Rolling IQ buffer sized to your Mac's memory
- Jump into analysis without stopping the SDR
Make sense of an unknown burst
Point the symbol analyzer at a burst you can't identify and it recovers the carrier, the baud, and the constellation — blind. The lock chip is honest: you get QPSK · EVM 4.2% only when there's a real symbol lock, never a decorated guess. Eye diagrams, channel measurements, and a modulation classifier that names what it sees: CW, CSS, FM, M-FSK, PSK, OOK, FSK.
- Blind carrier / baud / constellation recovery
- Eye diagram with strobe-aligned traces
- Band power, occupied bandwidth, channel SNR
Constellation SYM 9600 · QPSK · EVM 4.2%
Eye · I
A workbench for raw bits
Decoded a frame nobody documents? Drag across the bit grid to carve fields, read each one as hex, decimal, binary, or ASCII, and let the checksum search work out which known CRC model connects the message to its check bytes. Reverse-engineering, minus the spreadsheet.
- Drag-select field annotation over raw decoder bits
- 51-model verified CRC catalog
- Checksum identification over any selection
Bits 96 bits · FSK burst
Decoders that show their work
When a decoder comes up empty it tells you why: which stage gave up, and what to try next. A silent capture is a clue, not a dead end.
| Decoder | Modulation | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| CW | On-off keyed Morse | Text with adaptive WPM tracking |
| OOK | Pulse trains | Bits, Manchester decode, protocol matching |
| FSK | 2-level FSK | NRZ bitstream with symbol-center clock recovery |
| POCSAG | FSK · 512–2400 Bd | Pager messages — address, function, alpha/numeric |
| FLEX | 2/4-level FSK · 1600/3200 Bd | BCH-checked pager frames, full field table |
| TPMS | OOK / FSK bursts | Tire sensor ID, pressure, temperature |
| LRS | FSK paging | Restaurant pager transmissions |
Unknown signal? analyze gives you a modulation verdict first, then you pick the decoder.
The engine ships as a CLI, too
The same DSP core behind the app — pure Swift and Accelerate — drives the command-line tools: decode recordings in batch, generate synthetic IQ for testing, or run captures headless.
$ decode drive.sigmf -d tpms
[structured] Schrader-EG53MA4 id=1C6F02A4 temp=21°C pressure=32.5PSI
$ generate psk random:2000 --order 4 --symbol-rate 9600 -o qpsk.sigmf
$ capture --device hackrf -c 433.92e6 -s 10e6 -o band.sigmf
Reads
- SigMF
- fc32 / cf32
- cs16 / sc16
- cu8
- cs8
- WAV
- BLUE .cdif / .blue
- SDVR
- raw
Coming soon.
Sigil for macOS
1.0 in development
- Every decoder and SDR driver included
- The full analysis suite: symbols, bits, measurements, classifier
- One-time purchase — no subscription
Pricing announced at launch. Secure checkout through Paddle, VAT handled.
Beta program
Beta opening soon
- Full app, no feature gates
- Signed, notarized builds with auto-update
- Open a SigMF recording — no hardware needed
macOS 14 Sonoma or later · universal binary (Apple Silicon & Intel)