Profiles¶
A profile is a named bundle of software that belongs together. Profiles
are flat tags with overlap, never nested (D-003): gpsd is in both
station and navigation, and you compose them freely. There are 20 of them, 12 in the 1.0 set and 8 that came after it. Every page below is generated from the profile's manifest, so it cannot drift from what the engine does.
How to use this page¶
- Find your goal in Which profile do I want.
- Open that profile's page and read what it installs, what it leaves out and what you configure by hand.
- Run
hammunition install <profile> --dry-run, read the plan, then run it again without--dry-run. Installation walks the whole path.
Install station first on any machine you will operate from. Every other profile assumes rig control, a correct clock and a position source are there. Then add the mode profile you want.
All profiles¶
Units is the number of catalog entries the profile names. A target that lacks one defers it by name and installs the rest. Footprint figures say where they were measured on each profile's own page.
| Profile | What it is for | Stage | Units | Disk | Assumes | Consent gates | Leaves out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
antenna |
Antenna modelling, transmission lines and coverage prediction | 1.0 | 12 | about 150 MB, plus terrain when map regions are set | None to model | none | general propagation prediction, rotator control, LibreVNA-GUI |
digital-modes |
FT8, JS8, PSK31, SSTV, digital voice and the rest of the keyboard modes | 1.0 | 22 | about 1.2 GB, plus 0.9 GB of build trees; six source builds | A transceiver, an audio path between it and the computer (a sound-card interface, a Digirig-class device or the radio's own USB audio), and a way to key it: CAT, a serial control line or VOX | none | packet and Winlink, Morse, SvxLink repeater software, any callsign or frequency configuration |
electronics |
Bench electronics, instruments and device programmers | 1.0 | 14 | about 250 MB; LibreVNA's build adds about 780 MB of Qt development packages | The programmers and instruments themselves | none | KiCad, Fritzing, ngspice (reserved to the maintainer), udev rules (applied separately) |
listening |
Shortwave, utility and aeronautical listening — no licence, no transmitter | 1.0 | 28 | about 400 MB; eight source or pinned-git builds | An SDR and an antenna for the band you want | none | anything that transmits, anything aimed at protected communications |
logging |
Station logs, contest logging and award tracking | 1.0 | 11 | about 700 MB; QLog is a long source build | None | none | not1mm (not in Debian), kel-agent (a local web socket), station-wide callsign config |
morse |
Morse code — sending, decoding, learning, and licence exam practice | 1.0 | 17 | under 100 MB | None for learning, which generates its own audio | none | fldigi's CW decoder, contest loggers, morse-runner (installs by name) |
packet |
AX.25, APRS, Winlink and the EMCOMM stack | 1.0 | 24 | about 500 MB, plus 220 MB for FreeDATA's venv | A VHF or HF transceiver with an audio path to the computer for the soundcard TNC route, or a hardware TNC | none | VARA and its messaging client, Pi-APRS, any callsign or port configuration |
propagation |
Band conditions, grey line, beacons and DX spotting | 1.0 | 12 | about 450 MB | None | none | nothing Q-006 chose to drop; Ubuntu 24.04 lacks openhamclock's Node |
rf-security |
Spectrum analysis, wireless auditing and protocol inspection | 1.0 | 13 | about 300 MB, mostly Wireshark | A monitor-mode Wi-Fi adapter, an Ubertooth or Bluetooth adapter, or an SDR, depending on what you capture | a typed key fingerprint per repository, only where the target's archive lacks the unit: kismet |
anything cellular, and everything gated in rf-research |
satellite |
Tracking, working and decoding amateur and weather satellites | 1.0 | 4 | about 400 MB, double without GNU Radio | An SDR and an antenna for receiving, or a transceiver for working amateur satellites | none | NOAA APT decoders (all satellites retired 2025-11-09), FoxTelem |
sdr |
Software-defined radio — receivers, GNU Radio, and the driver layer | 1.0 | 16 | about 1.5 GB, most of it GNU Radio | An SDR and an antenna | none | eleven of twelve per-device SoapySDR modules (install yours by name) |
station |
The floor every station stands on — rig control, time, position | 1.0 | 14 | about 125 MB | None to install it | none | per-manufacturer radio tools, loggers, anything mode-specific |
editors |
VS Code and VSCodium, opt-in, each behind its publisher's apt repository | post-1.0 | 2 | about 400 MB per editor | None | a typed key fingerprint per repository, only where the target's archive lacks the unit: codium, code |
every other editor, extensions and settings sync |
mesh |
Off-grid mesh messaging: Reticulum with NomadNet and LXMF, and the Meshtastic clients | post-1.0 | 5 | about 70 MB of venvs, plus two apt packages | None for Reticulum on a local network | none | Sideband, MeshChat, meshtasticd, MeshCore, TAK, any Reticulum configuration |
navigation |
Offline maps and turn-by-turn navigation from your own GPS, with no network | post-1.0 | 27 | per region: the download plus roughly 3 to 4 times it; Navit alone is small | A USB GPS receiver for position (the station profile carries gpsd) |
none | phone maps, Kiwix, tile servers, raster tile stacks |
phone-maps |
Offline maps and points of interest for the team's phones, built on the laptop | post-1.0 | 3 | per region: the download plus about a fifth and three quarters of it, and about 15 times it as scratch while building | A phone that reads Mapsforge files (install the app while it still has internet) | none | OsmAnd, Organic Maps, CoMaps and PocketMaps files, Transportr |
reference |
An offline library -- Wikipedia, WikiMed, ham Q&A, dictionaries and the ICS forms -- on one local page | post-1.0 | 6 | readers and dictionaries about 50 MB; each book from 27 MB up | None | none | wikiHow, ARRL material, Gutenberg in full, video ZIMs |
rf-research |
Transmit-capable and interception-capable RF tooling — affirmative opt-in required | post-1.0 | 2 | small beyond GNU Radio, which gr-gsm pulls in | A supported SDR; hacktv drives a HackRF, gr-gsm needs a receiver |
profile gate, HAMMUNITION_ACCEPT_RF_RESEARCH |
transmit-capable cellular stacks (post-1.0, their own gated profile), everything in rf-security |
rfid |
RFID and NFC — card protocols, readers, and the tooling to study them | post-1.0 | 6 | under 50 MB from apt; the Proxmark3 build is larger | A card reader (a PN53x NFC reader, a PC/SC reader or a Proxmark3) and cards you own or are authorised to test | none | UHF and long-range RFID, credential cloning for use, key dictionaries |
workstation |
Terminal and bench tooling for the machine the station runs on | post-1.0 | 7 | about 200 MB | None | none | shells, dotfiles, window managers, editors |
Which profile do I want¶
Find what you want to do. The profiles are listed in the order to install them, station first where it applies.
| I want to | Install |
|---|---|
| Build my own signal-processing flow graphs (GNU Radio) | sdr |
| Carry offline maps on my team's phones | phone-maps |
| Control my radio from the computer (CAT) and share it between programs | station |
| Decode aircraft, ships, DAB or other signals with an SDR | listening, sdr |
| Install VS Code or VSCodium | editors |
| Keep the clock right with no network (GPS time) | station |
| Know when a band is open | propagation |
| Learn or practise Morse code, or study for the licence exam | morse |
| Listen with a cheap SDR dongle | listening, sdr |
| Log contacts and upload them to Logbook of the World | logging |
| Make FT8, JS8Call or PSK31 contacts | station, digital-modes |
| Message another laptop with no internet and no server | mesh |
| Model an antenna or predict its coverage | antenna |
| Navigate offline from my own GPS | navigation |
| Program a handheld radio | station |
| Read Wikipedia and the ICS forms with no network | reference |
| Receive weather satellite images | listening |
| Report my position on APRS | packet |
| Run a packet node or BBS | packet |
| Run Reticulum over LoRa | mesh |
| See repeaters, airfields and hospitals on an offline map | navigation |
| Send and receive pictures (SSTV) or weather faxes | digital-modes |
| Send email by radio (Winlink) or run packet | station, packet |
| Set up a serial console, git and the tools every device problem starts with | workstation |
| Study cellular or transmit-capable RF research tooling | rf-research |
| Study RFID and NFC cards | rfid |
| Study wireless and Bluetooth security | rf-security |
| Track and hear satellites | satellite |
| Use digital voice (FreeDV, M17, DMR, D-STAR) without a radio | digital-modes |
| Use Meshtastic from the desktop | mesh |
| Watch the grey line and DX spots on a live map | propagation |
| Work at a bench: flash devices, measure with a NanoVNA or tinySA | electronics |
What to read next¶
- Installation: the whole path from a fresh machine, with every command and what it prints.
- The guides: one task each, from rig control to a first FT8 contact to offline maps.
- Troubleshooting: by symptom.
- The package reference: every program, what it does and where to get help with it.
hammunition list profiles prints the same list on your own machine, with how many of each you have installed, and hammunition show <profile> prints a profile's documentation.