So, I’m at a mini-conference for mobile app developers. I currently don’t do mobile apps, but since I am a freelance Web developer, and a lot of the stuff people used to do on the Web is moving to mobile devices, I figured I better get on board.
For example, I do a website for a construction-industry trade magazine. This website is reallycrying to have a companion mobile app. One reason for this is that many of the readers are mobile types. That is to say that they are on the road a lot and not sitting in front of a computer.
The question is how the mobile app would be different from the website. Will the mobile app users want to read magazine articles? Will they want more news? Is there anything that we can give them to help them do their jobs better?
Of course, after pondering this for a while, I started thinking about ham radio mobile apps. There are already EchoLink apps out there, and I would suppose that there are already study guide/practice test apps (although possibly not). One idea that occurred to me is to develop an app that would allow users to send Morse Code to one another. This could be used for code practice as well text (code?) messaging.
What do you think? Are there any good amater-radio mobile apps out there already? What kind of amateur-radio mobile apps would you like to see?
I use the following apps on my Android phone / Android tablet:
APRSDroid
HamSatDroid
SatelliteAR
I think not serve mobile app. I think serve web ham application. I create EnzoLog for this.
http://www.enzolog.org Try it for free. It run also in mobile browser and you don’t need install anything.
There are a few good apps for Android. Including apps to transmit and receive psk and rtty, view DX cluster spots and propagation. I would LOVE to see a Android app for packet and Winlink using the headphone jack of Android devices and an interface like the one made by Wolphi.
Two ideas I think might be neat: 1) repeater maps for when one is on the road using one’s smartphone as a driving aid; and 2) a PSK31/RTTY or other audio data interface.
Thanks for the blog!
Steve
N6WN (http://pignology.net/?page_id=127) has several apps, mostly for iPhone, but some for Android. Pocket SOTA (Summits on the Air) is an interesting example — it uses your location to find nearby summits.
He also makes a Wi-Fi to serial radio control box, the Pigtail.
His HamLog app is impressive, there is new support for the Elecraft KX3 through the Pigtail. The KX3, Pigtail, and an iPad make a pretty small, portable setup.
I used an iPhone license study app for Extra, very helpful.
There are already PSK31 and RTTY apps, Multimode is one.
There is even a full software defined radio app, iSDR.
The iPad opens up a lot of room for an app, as big as many radio front panels.
Oops, Pignology is N3WG.
@Steve W3SWG: there is a great repeater mapping app called RFinder (www.rfinder.net/blog) for the Android, web, and iPhone. There is a small yearly $9.95 subscription which includes the purchase of one of the smartphone apps, but it also supports the programming cables you can get from http://www.rtsystemsinc.com, and includes repeaters that normally don’t appear in the ARRL directory (for various reasons, including non-existent update support from certain nameless section repeater councils).
Check this out (a little dated but still useful):
http://www.k0nr.com/wordpress/2011/04/the-incomplete-list-of-ham-radio-iphone-apps/
winlink for android? yes please!
HamClock for Android is useful for outdoors activities.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cc.kostic.hamclock