AmateurRadio.com

I’ve long been a user of smartphone’s and always felt that in the past they were able to offer a lot in terms of being able to make and receive calls then the applications or apps that run on them we additional bonuses. Nowadays the primary selling point of a smartphone is not to do the basics like calls and text (SMS) messaging are the apps. My HTC desire S is like many other that run the Android OS in that it has access to the Android Market and its ever growing list of extras. A little run down on the ham radio one I have is as below. There’s no great explanation as to their functionality as its all on the Android Marketplace

APRSdroid – APRS on your phone. Well worth the money especially now that it supports messaging.

Echolink – Ro real need to introduce this application. Just does what you need to make use of the Echolink network

Electrodroid – A collection of electrical references

Hamsatdroid – Satellite prediction for your phone. Very effective with a simple interface.

Morse code reader – Like all readers its not as good as your ear and as such is limited but a simple application

Morse CT – The trainer that if it was a person would have given up on me learning the code a long time ago. A very patient trainer.

Repeater – Repeaters in you local area. Shows you the distance to your nearest repeater.

Satellite AR – A mixture of Google sky maps and hamsatdroid with a nice ‘point at the sky and see where the satellite is in real time’ interface. Does more than amateur radio satellites.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but these are the ones that have been installed and used. I’ve tinkered with the idea of a log book for when I’m portable but nothing so far has stood up to the old pencil and paper. If a developer makes one that can pick out call signs then that would be smart but I can imagine that’s not going to happen in the near future.

I know there are apps for digimodes like PSK-31 but nothing for things like WSPR or any of the exotic ones. As the next generation of phones come out and these become functional but obsolete the ability to repurpose them must be on someone else’s mind and not just mine.

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