# greatscottgadgets/hackrf

low cost software radio platform

Repository: https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/hackrf
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/hackrf
Homepage: https://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/
Language: C
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: hardware, radio, sdr, rf, hackrf
Last push: 2026-08-21T12:15:08+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 88/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 68, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5289, "days_push": 12, "days_rel": 215, "gap_med": 12.0, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 8057, forks 1720 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:12.348798+00:00)

## What it is
HackRF is an open source, low-cost software-defined radio (SDR) hardware platform from Great Scott Gadgets, with this repository containing its hardware designs, firmware, and host software written in C. It can transmit and receive radio signals across a wide frequency range for research, education, and wireless experimentation.

## Use cases
- capture and replay RF signals with a software-defined radio
- reverse engineer wireless protocols
- learn software-defined radio and RF fundamentals
- transmit and receive radio signals across a wide frequency range
- build custom SDR tooling against the HackRF host libraries
- security research on wireless devices

## When to choose
- you need an affordable, fully open source SDR with open hardware designs
- you want transmit and receive capability in one device for RF experimentation
- you are doing wireless security research or protocol reverse engineering
- you want community-documented hardware and software you can modify

## When to avoid
- you only need receive-only SDR on a tighter budget (e.g., RTL-SDR)
- you need high-bandwidth, wideband or coherent multi-channel capture
- you need a turnkey commercial product with vendor support and warranties
- you need licensed, type-approved radio transmission for production deployments

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: stable
- function: sdk, developer-tools, cli
- domain: hardware, security, developer-tools, embedded-systems
- platform: windows, cross-platform, embedded
- tags: sdr, software-defined-radio, rf, open-source-hardware, hackrf, radio, signal-processing, wireless-security, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- greatscottgadgets/hackrf (main) score 88

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:12.348798+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:31:23.373121+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/hackrf (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:12.348798+00:00, sha dd72fde6951b)
  - homepage: https://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:29:03.449603+00:00, sha 6233926e931f)
  - site_page: https://greatscottgadgets.com/about (fetched 2026-08-29T08:29:03.452318+00:00, sha ecbb3daf826d)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.