APRS Mobile

Now with a software modem: an audio cable is all you need to work APRS over your own radio, with a live spectrum for levels. Plus offline maps and a Bluetooth TNC.

APRS Mobile connects your iPhone and iPad straight to APRS-IS, the internet side of the Automatic Packet Reporting System used by amateur radio operators around the world. Watch the stations around you live, look up any station, message other hams and beacon your position. No account needed. Work over your own radio too — with a Bluetooth TNC, or with nothing but an audio cable, using the built-in software modem.

LIVE MAP • Stations appear the moment they're heard, with their APRS symbols and callsigns • Tracks, PHG circles and a Layers panel: fixed, mobile and weather stations, digipeaters, IGates, objects and items • A status bar shows your connection, the server and the traffic • Map switches for SmartBeacon and Keep Screen On, so you can tell at a glance when they're on • Via: one control for every link — APRS-IS, TNC and software modem

STATION DETAILS • Tap a station for a quick card, then its full page, updated live as it's heard • Last heard, beacon prediction, digipath, comment and status • Position, Maidenhead grid square, speed, course, altitude and distance from you • Drag a station's card up for its digipath, how often it beacons and the raw packet • Current weather, plus weather and telemetry history charts

APRS MESSAGING • Chat with any station, with conversations and message bubbles • Messages go out over APRS-IS or straight over your radio, and IGates carry them between the two • Automatic retries until acknowledged, with delivery receipts • Notifications for messages to your callsign, even when the app is closed • Block or report a station, and offensive language is hidden behind a tap

RADIO — BLUETOOTH TNC (OPTIONAL) • Connect a Mobilinkd TNC4, or a TNC3 with Bluetooth LE firmware, over Bluetooth LE to send and receive APRS over your own radio • Stations heard over the air appear on the map alongside APRS-IS • Choose how messages and beacons go out: radio first, APRS-IS first, or both • Choose where the map's stations come from: radio, APRS-IS or both • Stays connected in the background, so beaconing and receiving carry on • A TNC and a radio are separate purchases; everything else in the app works without them

RADIO — SOFTWARE MODEM (OPTIONAL) • No TNC required: with an audio cable, your phone is the modem — 1200 baud APRS decoded straight from your radio's audio • Transmit through a radio set to VOX, with adjustable TX delay and level • A live spectrum with both tones marked, a plain-language level check and a clipping warning, so setting the audio takes seconds • Receiving needs no licence; transmitting is off until you confirm you hold one

OFFLINE MAPS • Download OpenStreetMap-based maps for the areas you care about, and the map keeps working with no network • Pick a region or the area around you, see the size before you commit, and pause or resume any download

SMARTBEACON • Beacon with SmartBeaconing: more often when moving fast or turning, less when slow or stopped • Keeps beaconing in the background when you allow it, with a low-power mode • Choose your APRS symbol, comment and position ambiguity

SEARCH • Find any callsign, city or zip code

AND MORE • Imperial, metric and nautical units, any APRS-IS server, iPhone and iPad

Anyone can watch APRS activity and weather stations. Sending messages or positions requires an amateur radio license; sending over APRS-IS also needs the APRS-IS passcode for your callsign, and transmitting over the air has to be switched on by hand.

The software modem uses the microphone to hear your radio. The audio is decoded on your device, never recorded and never sent anywhere.

Weather and telemetry history charts, and offline map downloads, come from openaprs.ai; everything else comes straight from APRS-IS or your radio. Offline map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Positions you send can also be seen on other APRS websites.

Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.

A live APRS-IS feed uses a lot of data.