rdio

Turn your iPhone into the control panel of your own VHF/UHF handheld: listen, talk, keep your channels and repeaters, and read APRS. Works with the open rdio radio.

rdio is the iPhone app for the open rdio radio: a small ESP32 board with a DRA818 or SA818 module that you build yourself. The radio streams its audio over Wi-Fi to your phone, so the phone becomes its speaker, microphone and display.

IMPORTANT: rdio needs the rdio radio hardware to do anything. The hardware design, the firmware installer and the build instructions are free at github.com/loopmasta/rdio. Transmitting requires an amateur radio licence and must follow the rules that apply to you.

LISTEN AND TALK • Receive with a large frequency display, a signal meter and an audio level meter. • Push to talk with a big shutter-style button. Your voice goes through a compressor and a level setting before it is transmitted. • Receive and transmit stay inside the band you choose (VHF 134-174 MHz or UHF 400-480 MHz). • Safety built in: the radio releases the transmitter when the connection drops, when no audio arrives, and after two minutes on the air.

CHANNELS AND REPEATERS • Keep the frequencies you use in a list and tune with one tap. • Simplex and duplex (repeater) channels with shift direction and offset, CTCSS tones for transmit and receive, and the 1750 Hz tone burst. • Wide or narrow FM per channel. Reorder by dragging, swipe to edit or delete, duplicate from the menu. • Type a frequency straight on the keypad.

APRS • Decodes 1200 baud APRS packets (positions, Mic-E, messages, status) and shows them as a chat, with the distance to each station and a link to Maps. • Send messages to a call sign or to CQ. Messages are repeated until the other station acknowledges them, and the app acknowledges the ones addressed to you. • Optional position beacon at an interval you choose. Everything is sent only while the channel is clear.

SEVERAL RADIOS • The app finds the radios on your Wi-Fi network by itself and lets you switch between them in Settings.

MADE FOR iPHONE • Native look with system controls, Light and Dark Mode, Dynamic Type, VoiceOver and haptics. • No account, no advertising, no analytics, no tracking. The app only talks to your own radio on your own network.

PRIVACY • The microphone is used only while you hold push to talk. Your approximate location is used only while the app is open: for the distance to stations and, if you switch it on, for the APRS beacon. A beacon is a radio broadcast, so anyone with a receiver can read the position and call sign in it. • Privacy policy: loopmasta.github.io/rdio/privacy/

The radio's firmware installs from your browser over USB and can be updated the same way.