HamBench

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Sniffer ​

The sniffer sits between the computer and the radio so you can capture clone-protocol bytes. Use a debug cable toward the computer and a programming cable toward the radio.

HamBench talks to a separate headless ham-radio-sniffer process over HTTP. The desktop app can install, start, and stop that process on this computer or over SSH.

Connection ​

  1. Open Preferences → Sniffer. Set Host (default 127.0.0.1) and Port (default 3010). Install directory defaults to ~/ham-radio-sniffer; Run command defaults to yarn start.
  2. Open Radio → Sniffer. Computer port is the debug cable; Radio port is the programming cable. Turn on Bridge ports.
  3. Traffic streams into the Traffic panel. Save capture writes JSON for offline review.

Preferences → Serial ports can hide macOS system devices from these lists (same filter as Import and Write).

If the bridge is running and byte counts stay at 0, the selected serial device is not receiving. On the sniffer host, SNIFFER_LOG_LEVEL=debug yarn start prints every chunk as hex.

You can start the sniffer yourself (yarn start after build) and only set Host and Port.

Install, start, and stop ​

These controls are in Preferences → Sniffer and run only in the desktop app. HamBench does not install Node for you.

  1. Install copies bundled sniffer sources, then runs yarn install and yarn build so serialport matches that machine. Use it again to update.
  2. Running starts a detached process and waits until /api/health responds. If start fails, the error includes sniffer.log tails.
  3. An older install shows Update available when its version is behind the copy bundled in HamBench.

With Control over SSH off, commands run on this computer. Loopback binds 127.0.0.1; any other host binds 0.0.0.0.

With Control over SSH on, the same commands run on Host (192.168.1.10 or pi@192.168.1.10). SSH uses key or agent authentication only (BatchMode=yes). There is no tunnel; allow the listen port through the host firewall if needed.

Disconnect CAT on a port before sniffing that same serial device.

Capture files ​

Saved captures use kind springfield-ham-radio-sniffer-capture and include port metadata, coalesced UI frames, and a log array in the same SEND / RECV shape as Radio import/write logs. Prefer log when comparing a sniffer capture to a driver serial log.