Reading this page
- LIVE
- Audio heard from this channel within the last 10 minutes.
- FAINT
- Channel is configured and its decoder is running, but nothing has been heard recently (or the level is below the node's noise floor) — check antenna, squelch, or whether there's simply no traffic right now.
- DARK
- The stream itself isn't running on the node — a decoder/service problem, not a signal problem.
Level (dBFS) is the decoded audio level, on the standard -60 (silence) to 0 (full-scale digital ceiling) dBFS scale — it's a real audio meter reading, not an RF signal-strength figure.
Gain and overdriving: every channel runs on a fixed, manually-set RF gain (not automatic gain control/AGC) — deliberately, since AGC constantly readjusts and can mask exactly the problem below. If a channel's level bar regularly pins at or near 0 dBFS, the SDR front-end is being overdriven: too much gain lets a strong nearby signal saturate the receiver, causing audible distortion and, on a shared antenna, intermodulation products — spurious false signals created by two real signals mixing together elsewhere in the band. If you see sustained pinning, lower that channel's gain in My Node until peaks sit with some headroom below 0 dBFS.