iNTERCEPT + SDR for Signal Monitoring on Raspberry Pi

Check for BLE trackers, view nearby air and sea traffic, tune in to HAM stations and more with iNTERCEPT.

by Tim C

published April 28, 2026, last edited May 01, 2026

posted in Raspberry Pi Breakout Boards/ WiFi Breakout Boards/ Radio Internet of Things - IOT/ Bluefruit / BLE

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Project guide

Overview

Raspberry Pi with a USB SDR device and a small antannae sitting below an HDMI monitor showing a the iNTERCEPT bluetooth tracker dashboard.

iNTERCEPT is a free and open-source project that combines several signals intelligence tools together into a single web interface. The UI and dashboards resemble something you might see on a screen in the background of a scene in a spy movie. Even if you're not on a secret mission, this software offers a helpful visual GUI for interacting with a software defined radio device connected via USB.

Using this software on a Raspberry Pi with a cheap SDR, you can scan for BLE trackers, tune in to AM/FM and HAM radio frequencies, automatically decode morse code, recieve ADS-B transmissions from airplanes, AIS from ships, and more. The system also supports the HackRF device which covers the range 1 MHz to 6 GHz, much wider than a cheaper SDR.

iNTERCEPT can run on the Pi 3, 4, or 5. Available features vary based on built-in WIFI/Bluetooth device and the connected SDR.

Parts

Angled shot of green Raspberry Pi 5 microcontroller.

Raspberry Pi 5 - 4 GB RAM

The Raspberry Pi 5 is the newest Raspberry Pi computer, and the Pi Foundation knows you can always make a good thing better! And what could make the Pi 5 better than the...

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Raspberry Pi 4 Model B - 4 GB RAM

The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B is the newest Raspberry Pi computer made, and the Pi Foundation knows you can always make a good thing better! And what could make the Pi 4 better...

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Raspberry Pi 3 - Model B - ARMv8 with 1G RAM

Did you really think the Raspberry Pi would stop getting better? At this point, we sound like a broken record, extolling on the new Pi’s myriad improvements like we’re...

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Software Defined Radio Receiver USB Stick - RTL2832 w/FC0013

If you've ever been curious about software defined radio (SDR), this USB stick is the easiest way possible to have fun with a powerful, configurable receiver. Packed with the...

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Official Raspberry Pi 45W USB-C Power Supply

If you want a general-purpose USB Power Delivery supply, the official Raspberry Pi 45W USB-C power supply makes for a good quality PD supply that provides high current at a large...

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Install

Raspberry Pi OS

Begin by installing the latest full version of Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) on your system using the steps outlined on this Raspberry Pi Imager learn guide page. If you intend to have the Raspberry Pi installed somewhere out of the way and wish to connect to it remotely, then be sure to enable SSH and configure your public key in the customization menu of the Raspberry Pi Imager. It's also convenient to configure the WiFi network details inside of the Pi Imager app so that the Pi will automatically connect to your WiFi when it boots up.

Adafruit's Raspberry Pi Lesson 1. Preparing an SD Card for your Raspberry Pi

By Simon Monk

Raspberry Pi Imager

View Guide

After you boot up the Pi for the first time on a fresh Raspberry Pi OS image, run these commands to update the software preloaded in the system.

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sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

If these commands fail with network errors, use the WiFi settings in the OS to connect to your network and then try again.

Install iNTERCEPT

To install the iNTERCEPT software, you need to clone the repo and run the setup.sh script inside of.

The iNTERCEPT install script can take a while to complete. It compiles several things from source which can be a slow process, especially on older Pi models. The full install will take 10-15 minutes on a Pi 5 or up to 30+ minutes on older models. During the process, there are several prompts that must be answered to continue.

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git clone https://github.com/smittix/intercept.git
cd intercept
./setup.sh          # Interactive menu (first run launches setup wizard)

git clone https://github.com/smittix/intercept.git
cd intercept
./setup.sh          # Interactive menu (first run launches setup wizard)

The setup wizard will begin and walk you through several steps to install and configure various components.

If you know that you're only interested in certain types of radio signals and don't care about the others, then select the profile that contains the tools for the signals you're interested in. If you don't know what they are, or just want to tinker with anything available for your hardware enter 5 for the "Full SIGINT" profile.

During the installation, you'll be presented with a several yes/no prompts about installing certain components. Choose yes if you're unsure and want to experiment, or no if you know that you don't need the capability the component provides or want to minimize the time it takes to install.

Install wizard at 2/25 progress and prompting the user to select whether to install the RTL-SDR Blog drivers.

After all of the prompts for installing different components, it will prompt about disabling kernel drivers that conflict with rtl_sdr being able to access the hardware device. Enter Y for yes to this.

At the end it will prompt to set up the environment variables.

iNTERCEPT install wizard environment configuration prompt

iNTERCEPT install wizard server environment configuration prompts

The default server configurations are fine if you intend to access the system remotely from a browser on different computer on the same network as the Pi. If you're only going to access it locally in the browser on the Pi itself then you can change the HOST IP address to 127.0.0.1 instead of 0.0.0.0.

See the Security.md documentation file for more details and information about the implications of these configurations. If you want to keep the system running long term and accessible over the network, it would be wise to configure the firewall and authentication as shown in this document.

iNTERCEPT install wizard optional PostgreSQL DB setup for storing ADS-B history

Next, the wizard gives you the option to set up PostgreSQL to store historical ADS-B data from aircraft. If you opt not to do this, you can still listen to ADS-B traffic but it will only be stored temporarily and lost when you navigate away from the system.

To enable history, enter Y and the desired database configurations. The default values are fine.

Once you've completed all of the prompts you're ready to launch the system using the start script.

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Use

Starting iNTERCEPT

The repo provides a start.sh script that can be used to start up the web server and begin listening on the configured port. The instructions say to run it with sudo for easiest operation so that it has permission to automatically disable drivers that conflict with its usage of the SDR device. If you have more experience with Linux, you can handle this manually with modprobe and then you would not need to use sudo.

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cd intercept  # go into the directory if not already there

sudo ./start.sh

cd intercept  # go into the directory if not already there

sudo ./start.sh

Terminal output showing the iNTERSCEPT server starting up and listening on port 5050

Access the Server

If you're accessing the system locally on the Pi itself, open the browser and enter http://localhost:5050 in the address bar.

If you're accessing from another computer on the network, open the browser and use the IP address from the "Listening on __" section of the startup output or hostname of the Pi to reach the server, for example http://192.168.1.160:5050 or http://raspi5:5050.

The login screen is purely decorational. The default credentials are admin/admin and it does not appear to be possible to change them from the UI.

It has a fun sweeping bar animation to fit the spy movie vibe that is inherent to the whole interface.

Usage Documentation

The system provides access to lots of different tools and capabilities, the UI can seem complex and a bit overwhelming with panels and controls strewn all over the place.

Along the top right of the page is a row of navigation icons. Amongst them is a Mode Cheat Sheet that has a small document with folded corner icon. This will pop up a dialog with high level information about the current mode. It's good to figure out what each mode does.

The repo contains a docs/ folder with some helpful markdown files. Features.md contains a comprehensive list of the systems capabilities and Usage.md contains brief instructions for using each mode.

ADS-B Air Traffic

To access the ADS-B monitoring dashboard, click Tracking -> Aircraft.

To start monitoring, click the green Start button in the panel labeled ADS-B Tracking below the bottom right corner of the map.

When a transmission is received, the page will play a beep sound and populate data in the transmission into the right side panels. If there is location data, it will plot the aircraft on the map and start showing a historical trail behind it of different way points received so far.

iNTERCEPT aircraft monitor dashboard showing a map plotting live ADS-B data received by the system.

Scan for Bluetooth Trackers

The Bluetooth dashboard can be accessed by clicking Wireless -> Bluetooth.

Click the green Start Scanning button on the left side of the page to initiate the scan. The system will list all nearby BLE devices that are found with their MAC address or other information that they are broadcasting. Trackers like Apple AirTags and Samsung SmartTags get identified and put into a separate panel to the left of the proximity radar. If you see a tracker and want to narrow down its location further, you can add filters to the monitor and move the Pi around to different locations, taking note of the estimated distance from each location to play a game of digital Marco Polo.

iNTERCEPT Bluetooth dashboard showing the nearby devices and BLE trackers

Tune in to AM/FM and HAM Radio Frequencies

The SDR tuner page is accessed by clicking Signals -> Waterfall. On this page you can tune to and scan specified frequencies and ranges. The page contains a waterfall visualizer to see a representation of audio recently received.

Type the desired frequency into the box labeled Center on the left side of the main panel and choose the appropriate band to the right of that, then press the green Monitor button on the left side of the screen to hear audio from the tuned frequency.

In the left hand navigation column there are various panels for bookmarking stations, scanning, handoff, identification and more.