Getting Started¶
What IONIS Predicts¶
IONIS (Ionospheric Neural Inference System) predicts HF radio signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for any transmitter-receiver path given geographic coordinates, frequency, time of day, and solar conditions.
The model learns from 13B+ real-world amateur radio observations — WSPR beacons, Reverse Beacon Network spots, and contest QSOs — combined with solar flux and geomagnetic indices. Unlike traditional tools such as VOACAP, IONIS captures empirical propagation patterns directly from observed data.
Key metrics (V20 Production):
| Metric | IONIS V20 | VOACAP |
|---|---|---|
| Pearson correlation | +0.4879 | +0.0218 |
| PSK Reporter recall | 84.14% | — |
| Training data | 31M signatures | Physics model |
Installation¶
IONIS packages are available from the COPR repository for Rocky Linux 9 / RHEL 9 / Fedora.
Enable the COPR Repository¶
Install Packages¶
# Core schemas and configuration
sudo dnf install ionis-core
# Pipeline apps (ingesters, downloaders, validators)
sudo dnf install ionis-apps
# CUDA embedding engine (requires NVIDIA GPU)
sudo dnf install ionis-cuda
Verify Installation¶
# Load environment variables
source ionis-env
# Check ClickHouse connectivity
clickhouse-client --query "SELECT 1"
# List installed DDL files
ls /usr/share/ionis-core/ddl/
Quick Start¶
After installing the RPMs and setting up ClickHouse:
# 1. Source the environment
source ionis-env
# 2. Apply database schemas
for f in /usr/share/ionis-core/ddl/*.sql; do
clickhouse-client --multiquery < "$f"
done
# 3. Verify tables exist
clickhouse-client --query "SHOW TABLES FROM wspr"
clickhouse-client --query "SHOW TABLES FROM solar"
# 4. Check table counts (after data is loaded)
db-validate --all
What's Next¶
- Full pipeline setup: See the Pipeline Runbook for step-by-step instructions from clean slate to training-ready
- Hardware planning: See Hardware Requirements for minimum specs and the reference build
- Running predictions: See Running Predictions for using the trained model
- Operations: See Operations & Maintenance for cron jobs and health checks