I found this little app for my iPhone that does APRS. OK, it’s not really radio apart from the fact the telephone has to communicate with the tower so technically it is but well.. let’s not get into this right now. I was just looking in the app store on my phone the other day like I normally do while watching TV. I was just looking at various apps available for Ham Radio to see if anything might be of interest to me.

The app I found is called APRS.fi. Now I guess that a few people out there may be using this already, I was intrigued. It’s easy to find in the app store and the download took no time at all. You have control over privacy, location marker, traffic router etc etc. It even has TNC settings on it if you use it in conjunction with a TNC of course. I just turn it on and let it churn away.

I do have a Kenwood TH-D74 and often use this for APRS but sometimes the battery is low or I am not in range of any other station. I often do APRS mobile as it’s something one can do without being distracted whilst driving. I also use the TH-D74 while doing SOTA to show my location but again, if there is no radio cover, there may be mobile phone cover, may be he says, as this depends on how isolated you are. Here in Belgium it’s pretty difficult to get isolated I can tell you.

The app also has a map on it, search settings, address search, position longitude/latitude, altitude and speed. It also has a good selection of different symbols. You can filter the stations shown on the map and toggle from normal Google maps view to the satellite view. Clicking on the symbol will get you all the information about that particular station.

Of course you have to have the 4G activated on your phone and the localisation which some people might not want. Anyhow, it was easy to set up and a nice little app that I sometimes enjoy. I do realise that now there are just so many apps for different Ham modes that it’s crazy and sometimes difficult to choose.

Thanks for reading. 73s de ON5REV Stephen