Category: HackRF

Khanfar Software: Analog Radio Hunter

Recently, M. Khanfar released a new free program, "Analog Radio Hunter," described as a "professional RF analysis and monitoring application built around GNU Radio and Fosphor." The software currently supports RTL-SDR, Airspy, and HackRF. Khanfar writes:

Analog Radio Hunter is a professional RF analysis and monitoring application built around GNU Radio and Fosphor.

It is designed to scan large RF spans, quickly lock onto active signals, and monitor analog transmissions with NFM, AM, or WFM audio demodulation.

  • Real-time FFT + waterfall spectrum display
  • Fast scan with dwell, pause-on-squelch, and skip-ignored channels
  • Detection list with hits, timestamps, and smart deactivation
  • Favorites profiles with monitor and favorites-only scan modes
  • Built-in recorder with auto-record and event log
  • Dedicated WFM broadcast receiver with presets
  • Multi-SDR device support (RTL-SDR, Airspy, HackRF) with auto-detect and device switching
  • NFM and AM audio demodulation (in addition to WFM)
  • Peak-follow in span (auto-tune to strongest signal inside the current MS/s window)
  • Frequency list filtering to skip/mute ignored channels
  • Scan and detection profiles (save/load named presets)
  • PPM correction for RTL-SDR calibration
  • Spectrum interaction controls (cursor readout, click-to-tune, wheel step, drag-pan)
  • Recorder options (record when muted, timestamp/frequency in filename, beep on favorite)
  • WFM de-emphasis selection (50/75 µs) and preset management
  • Audio Output menu with refresh (route audio to speakers, VB-Cable, or USB output)
  • Signal Stability Filter with Min Open + Grace timing and per-target routing
  • Histogram IQ Rec with live IQ follow controls and inspectrum integration
  • Auto Squelch Calibrate (noise floor + margin) for faster field setup
  • Smart Deactivate dual-layer logic (time-based + hit-rate busy rule)
  • Favorites cooldown auto-reactivation for busy channels
  • Favorite TX tones (Tone 1-9), edge selection, and tone test buttons
  • Learning Mode hover guidance for faster onboarding
  • Status bar live metrics for Last, Active, Favorite, Peak SNR, and Level
Unique scanning and detection approach: Traditional sweep scanners only see the center frequency they step to. Analog Radio Hunter monitors an entire chunk of spectrum at once and reacts to peaks inside it. That is a major differentiator.
 

High-Impact Capabilities

  • Wide-span reactive scan engine that hunts activity across a full chunk, not one center point at a time.
  • One-click IQ capture and histogram visualization with follow and idle flow controls.
  • Carrier-resilient channel management using Smart Deactivate + favorites cooldown logic.
  • Field-ready setup speed using Auto Cal squelch and persistent live status metrics.
  • Operator-selectable audio routing to speakers, VB-Cable, or USB audio output devices.
  • Operational clarity from GUI color heatmaps, scan debug reasons, and learning-mode tips.

Signal Stability Filter: Logic and Tuning

  • Purpose: reject short squelch flicker and noisy open/close chatter before actions trigger.
  • Min Open (ms): raw squelch must stay open this long before stable-open is accepted.
  • Grace (ms): stable-open is held briefly after raw close to avoid tiny dropouts.
  • Apply targets: Detection, Rec+Alerts, Scan Hold, and optional Audio Out gating.
  • Start values: Min Open 150-250 ms, Grace 40-80 ms, then tune by channel behavior.

Like his other software, which we previously covered, it is free but not open source. Anti-virus programs may flag the software as suspicious due to heuristics. We believe this to be a false positive, but as with all software that isn't open source, we recommend being highly suspicious and only run it in a sandboxed environment like a VM to be sure.

M Khanfar Analog Radio Hunter
M Khanfar Analog Radio Hunter

Iridium-Sniffer: A Standalone Iridium Satellite Burst Detector and Demodulator

Thank you to Aaron, who is most well known for creating the DragonOS distribution, for writing in and sharing with us a new open-source program he's recently released over on GitHub.

The program is called 'Iridium-Sniffer', and it is a standalone Iridium satellite burst detector and demodulator written in C. Typically, gr-iridium has been used for Iridium demodulation in the past, but it can be clunky and slow on lower-power embedded systems like the Raspberry Pi, as it requires the large GNU Radio dependency.

The program is compatible with iridium-toolkit, which performs the actual decoding and analysis of the Iridium packets demodulated by iridium-sniffer.

If you're not familiar with it, Iridium is a large global communications satellite constellation that provides services such as voice, messaging, and data. An antenna like our RTL-SDR Blog Active Patch antenna, combined with an SDR, can be used to receive these signals. Some data on Iridium is encrypted, but there is some unencrypted data that can be decoded when combining tools like iridium-sniffer and iridium-toolkit.

Iridium-sniffer is compatible with the HackRF, BladeRF, USRP (UHD), and SoapySDR (which includes RTL-SDR). Note that higher-bandwidth SDRs can receive much more of the ~30 MHz Iridium band, and therefore decode more data at once.

The Iridium Satellite Constellation
The Iridium Satellite Constellation

Spectrum Slit: A Wall Art Display That Visualizes Wi-Fi Activity via a HackRF

Over on YouTube, RootKid, who specializes in creating engineering-based art projects, has developed an interesting wall-mounted art display panel that visualizes Wi-Fi activity by using a HackRF as the monitoring software-defined radio. The display uses a Raspberry Pi, a HackRF, and a custom-made LED light bar. The HackRF receives a 5 GHz Wi-Fi channel, and the Pi translates this into activity on the LED display, creating a visual piece that lets those around know when Wi-Fi activity is high.

The idea is to show that "we live surrounded by ghosts of our own making", which refers to the invisible storm of electromagnetic signals that we created to serve us in our modern lives.

If you are interested in other projects that combine SDR and art, you might enjoy our posts on HolyPager, Hystérésia, Signs of Life, Ghosts in the Airglow, and Open Weather.

I built a light that can see radio waves

Guglielmo FM and DAB Receiver Software Updated to Version 0.7

Thank you to Marco for letting us know that his Guglielmo software has recently been updated to Version 0.7.

Guglielmo is an FM and DAB receiver for Linux, Windows and MacOS. It supports all major SDRs, including RTL-SDR, Airspy, SDRplay, HackRF, and LimeSDR. It is designed to be easy to use for media users rather than hobbyist technical users.

Version 0.7 adds the following features:

  • Raspberry PI appimage
  • UI improvements
  • Basic skins support
  • Logo handling

The new Raspberry Pi appimage, and binaries for other platforms can be found on the GitHub Releases page. Just expand the "assets" tab.

Guglielmo: Screenshot of the DAB Interface

Mykola: A New Fast Multichannel Scanner Application for RTL-SDR, Airspy and HackRF

A new multichannel SDR scanner application called 'Mykola' has recently been released by a Ukrainian programmer with the same name as the application. A scanner application allows users to scan a much wider bandwidth than the SDR's instantaneous bandwidth, while automatically searching for active signals.

Mykola advertises extreme scanning speed abilities, adaptive noise floor, and simultaneous demodulation of 3 channels (20 in the paid pro version). It currently supports RTL-SDR, Airspy R2, and HackRF SDR devices. Some of the other features include automatic normalization of the noise floor, audio panning, and support for Windows and macOS.

The application is free, but a pro version will be available in the future, which enables additional features such as stored channel scanning, recording, voice activation, CTCSS/DCS decoder, SDR migration, channel editor, and a base channel set. The pro version is not yet available, and pricing has not been announced. 

Features of the Mykola Scanning Software
Features of the Mykola Scanning Software
Mykola Scanner Interface
Mykola Scanner Interface

HackRF Pro Updates: Sensitivity and Noise Figure Measurements + Free Stuff Program

Over on the Great Scott Gadgets blog, Mike Walters, one of the team behind the HackRF Pro has uploaded a post detailing the HackRF Pro's sensitivity and noise figure measurements.

If you are unaware, the HackRF One has long been a core staple in the SDR community. While it is not classed as a high-performance SDR for optimized reception, it is one of the most versatile hacker/experimenter SDR's on the market with a wide frequency range, wide bandwidth and RX and TX capability. The soon-to-be-released HackRF Pro is an upgrade from the original HackRF One.

The measurements by Mike show that the HackRF Pro has significantly lower noise figure across all frequencies compared to the HackRF One. A lower noise figure equates to improved receiver sensitivity. However, although improved, the noise figure is still high enough that you'll probably want to use a low-noise amplifier (LNA) for optimizing reception of weaker signals. 

HackRF Pro vs HackRF One Noise Figure Measurements
HackRF Pro vs HackRF One Noise Figure Measurements

Mike also confirms the noise figure improvements equate to improved real world performance by receiving ADS-B signals from aircraft, with the HackRF Pro showing increased range and doubling the number of messages received.

HackRF Pro (Blue) vs HackRF One (Red) ADS-B Range Comparison
HackRF Pro (Blue) vs HackRF One (Red) ADS-B Range Comparison

Also, in related news from a post a few days earlier, Maggie Way wrote about the Great Scott Gadgets free stuff program. This program allows people in the open source hardware community to submit a request for free hardware from Great Scott Gadgets if they have intentions to use the hardware to spread education, support community projects, or contribute to open source projects or research

Demonstrating a Rollback Attack on a Honda via HackRF Portapack and an Aftermarket Security Solution

Over on YouTube "Obsessive Vehicle Security" has uploaded a video demonstrating a rollback attack against a Honda vehicle using a HackRF Portapack and the "Remote" function on the Mayhem firmware. His recent blog post also succinctly explains the various types of keyless vehicle theft used by modern thieves, including Roll-Jam, Relay Amplification and Rollback attacks. Regarding rollback attacks he explains:

A Rollback Attack works by capturing remote signals and replaying them. In theory this should not be possible with a rolling code remote system, however, a large number of vehicles are vulnerable to it. Including my 2015 Honda Vezel!

For it to work on the Honda I need to capture 5 consecutive remote signals. It does not matter if the car has seen these or not, when I replay them it re-syncs and unlocks the car. I have tested this and can replay the sequence as many times as I like. It always works.

He also mentions in the video how an aftermarket security system can partially mitigate these attacks.

In the past we also posted about Flipper Zero based rollback attacks.

Rollback Attack on Honda - HackRF One Bypasses Rolling Code Security

Two YouTube Reviews of the new PortaRF – A New HackRF Portapack Combo

Recently, OpenSourceSDRLab, a Chinese store and lab that sells existing SDR products, and some unique products of their own design, has started taking pre-orders for their new "PortaRF" product. 

The PortaRF melds the HackRF and Portapack into a single PCB. They advertise it as an evolution of the PortaPack H4M, which is their popular clone of the original PortaPack, upgraded from the original. The PortaPack H4M has become one the most recommended HackRF PortaPack options on the market, even surpassing the original HackRF PortaPack, due to its high quality, excellent features, and significantly lower cost compared to the original.

The PortaRF features several improvements, including a larger 4" IPS screen compared to the 3.2" non-IPS screen on the H4M, increased flash storage from 1MB to 2MB, a higher internal battery capacity of 3000 mAh, and the addition of a new joystick control. Interestingly, OpenSourceSDRLab has also indicated that the production version may come with an AI module, which will allow the PortaRF to respond to voice commands.

The PortaRF is expected to ship around November 20, and it costs US$220, shipped from China. In comparison, the PortaPack H4M sells for US$165, shipped from China.

Recently, two reviews of the PortaRF were uploaded to YouTube. The first is by TechMinds, which provides an overview of the features and opens it up, showing the internals.

PortaRF - A NEW HackRF PortaPack Combo In One Single Board

The second review is from sn0ren who also reviews the features, and shows the internals. Sn0ren also makes some notes about his likes and dislikes with the new design.

HackRF Portapack Evolved? This is PortaRF