stillbox

README

stillbox

"When they say stillbox, you know it's real."

A Golang scanner call server and Angular frontend. Basically a rewrite of rdio-scanner with a cleaner backend (not frontend, so far; I am not a frontend guy and it shows) and a more opinionated featureset.

Primary differences:

• Backend written as if Go is actually a typed language

  I never would have started this project if existing projects were this way, as modifying them would have been far easier.

• Call transcription using whisper.cpp.

  Just setup transcribed on a machine with a GPU (even the same machine) and point it to stillbox for call transcriptions. Then, use full-text search on the transcriptions in the database!

• No directory watch source, for now

  This is not a feature I need personally, but would be simple to implement as another source.

• Only supports Postgres DB right now. May add SQLite someday.

  Most all database access is abstracted using a repository architecture. The calls table is also partitioned, with configurable intervals and retention.

• Filter calls by duration, source, or transcript text in search

  Enhanced search was a major impetus for even starting the project.

• Both REST and WebSocket APIs

  REST is used for the admin interface, and WebSockets/protobuf are used for listener apps, including Calls (both Flutter and terminal versions).

• Uses protobuf instead of JSON for the WebSocket API (no JSON arrays of numbers for call audio!)

  Another thing that originally spawned the project.

• Talkgroup activity alerting

  We use go-trending to implement this.

  Notifications are via Web Push notifications or Slack-compatible webhooks (tested with Prosody mod_slack_webhooks).

• "Native" flutter client (Calls) for Android/iOS/macOS/Linux/Windows (in progress)

  This client, as of this writing, works for listening linearly only. More functionality to come. Currently available here.

• RadioReference talkgroup import, SDRtrunk talkgroup playlist export

  Just copy and paste from RadioReference. You can also have your talkgroup labels in SDRtrunk!

• Incidents functionality (group past calls together and retain them)

  Keep track of interesting past calls and link them to your friends. Calls linked to an incident are even swept away before retention pruning is done!

• No premiumization nags or advertising of any kind

  Another thing that drove me to start this project. It's either Free Software, or it isn't, folks.

• No restrictions on who can connect to the WebSocket API

  Anyone may use it for whatever they want. Or not.

• 3-clause BSD license

  But that doesn't mean I don't want your improvements so that I may incorporate them!

Note

If this message is still here, the database schema initial migration and protobuf definitions are still subject to change.

Once stillbox is actually usable (but not necessarily feature-complete), I will remove this note, and start using DB migrations and protobuf best practices (i.e. not changing field numbers).

Compatibility

stillbox is developed primarily on FreeBSD/amd64, with CI done on Linux/arm64. calls is tested primarily on Linux and macOS. The Web client is developed on Linux and macOS, and tested on those systems and Android. It is a goal of the project to function on as many systems as possible. Contributions toward this goal, of code or bug reports, are always welcome.

License and Copyright

© 2024-2026 Daniel Ponte

Licensed under the 3-clause BSD license. See LICENSE for details.

Credits

Thanks to, among others:

• rdio-scanner for the original inspiration
• sdrtrunk, without which this would all be moot
• go-trending and go-time-series
• isoweek
• minimp3